On Thursday, Jan. 5, girls’ varsity basketball toppled over Archie Williams High School (Archie) with a final score of 56-41. With this being an important Marin County Athletic League (MCAL) matchup, both teams fought hard throughout the whole game. Redwood and Archie went hand in hand during the first half, until freshman star Kitty White took over in the fourth quarter. Junior Ru Todd added to the success as her and White combined for 32 points. Senior Bella Hann and Todd kept the offense running fluidly with good ball movement.

The game started off slow and balanced, as points were exchanged between the Giants and the Peregrine Falcons. About five minutes in, Archie went on a run, and gained a six point lead. However, this didn’t stop Redwood. After a Redwood layup, Todd made an impressive steal and got a two-for-one to cut the Falcons lead to only one possession. Sophomore point guard Ainsley Gallagher hit a three-pointer with one minute left in the first quarter to put the giants ahead.

Throughout the second quarter, Redwood was inactive , only scoring three points within the eight minutes.

“We had great opportunities in the second [quarter], however we were not capitalizing on easy shots,” Hann said.

 Luckily, their defense helped them stay in the game. With a couple steals and defensive rebounds, the Falcons only took a four point lead and the first half ended with the score of 21-17. 

Momentum was what shifted the game, and junior Lilly Grand thinks Archie had all of it in the second quarter. 

“Archie quickly stole our momentum. Their bench was getting loud and it was hard for us to go on a run,” Grand said.

  At the start of the second half, this run quickly ended, as the Giants started capitalizing on big plays.

“What we did better in the second half was finishing shots that we weren’t at the start of the game,” Hann said. 

With three big three-pointers coming from Todd and sophomore Maya Saibel, the Giants took the lead. Theiroffense wasn’t the only thing contributing to this streak; Redwood’s defense did a great job locking down Falcons star guard Carly Amborn.

“The reason we won that game was because of our defense, we were able to hold off Amborn with good help in the key,” Hann said.

With a couple good stops and made shots, Redwood took a six point lead by the end of the third quarter, with the score being 40-34.

In the fourth, KittyWhite had two back to back layups, including an and-1. Redwood had taken a controlling lead. Todd hit another three, which gave the Giants a 12 point lead with six minutes remaining. White got another hard and-1, as well as a steal and layup right after. This created a 17 point lead leading to the Giants victory.

With the final stretch of their season coming around, Redwood has big goals to finish strong. 

“Our goal is to win MCAL’s and go really far into NCS, ” Hann said.

The team feels confident about their goals, especially with the way they played tonight.

“We can beat anyone if we play how we played against Archie, with good ball movement, and even better defense,” Grand said.