The Lady Redhawks traveled to the beautiful Sacred Heart campus to try to get back to basketball after a week of mid-term exams and an interrupted schedule. Coach Ken Gleason stressed the challenges the team faced. “Anytime we are not practicing, it’s a bad situation. Sacred Heart has only two teams and is a much smaller school – and they’re probably not practicing much either. We had a lot on them roster-wise, but they were competitive; they didn’t like losing. I thought the game was as much a character reveal as anything.” Vivian Luo saw positives in the guard play. “Bree did pretty good starting off with a three; Carmen had some good drives. Our guards’ I.Q. is pretty high; we pass and we shoot pretty well.” Mallory Colussi added, “We could have made more shots, but our aggressiveness on defense was very good. Arianna (Saracevic) had a big impact on defense and was really good with rebounds.” The Lady Redhawks continued their streak of consistent scoring with 12 points in each of the first two quarters, 13 in the third, and then the game got a little choppy from there. “The refs probably had the best game of anyone,” Coach Gleason said. “They did a great job.” Athens finished with a 41 – 8 win. Arianna led with 15 points, Sophia Alexander followed with 7 (perfect from the line with 5 straight free throws), Bree Rota and Carmen Cavataio had 5 each, Emily Cousino 4, Sarah Kesto 3, and Charlotte Riffe 2. Athens welcomed back Noelle Apahidean who returned to action after a month-long injury break. “I was a little nervous. Arianna really helped me. When I was under the basket and couldn’t get it out, I just passed to her, and she put it in.” And she stressed the team’s good chemistry. “Half the girls I played with in middle school, so I’ve really been close with them, and from the beginning we just clicked.” Mallory agreed and said her teammates have been what has made the season special. “I made a lot of new friends on this team and having those moments, like on the bus rides where we all hang out, is a lot of fun.”