The trend for the night at South Gym was a loud atmosphere, and Yale alongside Seaquam student bodies did not disappoint. Cheering on their girls, both teams seem to absorb the energy and put it into their game. Head to head from the start, the Lions and Seahawks started the game matching play as the highly anticipated game came to life.
Seahawks, Nyssa Sunner starts off with a 3 to mark the score board. Followed by Yale’s 21 matching it with one of her own. Competition is high between the two as the girls were point to point, not breaking the tie.
Closing in to the second quarter. Yale’s 10 puts on some pressure for Seaquam allowing her teammates some time to score and snatch the lead, ending the quarter with a lead over Seaquam 20-15.
Starting the second quarter, Samara Mason (#15, Grade 12) takes advantage of timely turnovers for yet another 3-points. Half way through the quarter, Yale takes on a 10-point lead.
The crowd is only growing more feral as each minute goes by. Seaquam under pressure, desperately trying to find a crack in Yale’s defenses. With the score gap inching toward 20-points Seaquam takes in the energy of the crowd to charge them up and continue on. The Seahawks, Sydney Roufosse (#21, Grade 10) drives through Yale collecting points, hopelessly trying to keep the Seahawks in the game. However, the Lions did not lighten up on their attacks, while up their game, Yale secured their lead by 25-points, only to be met with a rush of 3-point hits by Sunner. Seaquam dropped Yale’s lead to 12-points.
The final twelve minutes were one for the ages. The crowd was standing and cheering and taunting. No one had time to look away as Seaquam took on the offense early on in the quarter. The Seahawks managed to force fouls in their favor, dwindling Yale’s lead down to only 6 points at 6 minutes.
Yale quickly starts losing momentum, fans anxious in the stands, desperately cheering them to keep the lead. Seaquam managed to get the lead down to only 3-points. With 4 minutes left. Seaquam picks up the pace, only to be countered with Yale’s defenses. Roufosss hits the dagger 3-pointer, securing Yales’ win.
With such an exciting game, Samara Mason had only love and pride for her team, “My team worked so hard to get to the semi-finals and I feel so happy for them.” With any high pace game and a lively crowd, Mason on the court had to find a way to zone out all the noise, “Well, when they were yelling air ball, it just made me determined to be like, ‘Okay, they are yelling air ball, ignore the crowd, ignore everything, I’m just gonna focus on the game, focus on winning and focus on getting to the next round’”. The Yale Lions are on their way to the semi-final and are ready and hungry to get to that Championship.
