Fifteen minutes before its time to warm up for each game, the girls’ varsity basketball team goes into the locker room, turns on the speakers, and dances around as a team to get pumped up for the game.
According to co-captain Chace Schornstein, this is only one of the routines that contributes to their team chemistry, which she said is possibly the best she’s seen during her time at Redwood. “We feed off each other’s energy, so everybody’s been staying positive and pumped up and we always encourage each other, and when somebody’s down we try to help each other,” Schornstein said. “So I think we just have a good team dynamic overall.”
Schornstein, along with her other co-captain Ariella Rosenthal, have both been on varsity since freshman year.
As of press time, Redwood is 6-2 in MCAL play (13-7 overall) and is currently sitting in second place, behind Justin-Siena, who gave the Giants their first loss of the season.
Ever since their loss to Justin-Siena, the Giants have been dominant, defeating San Rafael, Branson, San Marin, Tam, Novato, and Terra Linda. However, in a recent game against Marin Catholic they were handed their second loss of the season.
Schornstein credits the team’s success to their fast-paced offense and key players. Rosenthal and freshman Jaiana Harris. Rosenthal averages 15.9 points per game, fourth in MCAL, while Harris averages 10.8 points per game.
“Jaiana has been such a great spark and that’s definitely one of the reasons why we have been doing really well this season. She’s a point guard and she scores a lot of our points and has great passes,” Schornstein said. “Ariella’s obviously also been on fire, with all her shooting and great team leadership, awesome scoring, she always works had and sets a great example.”
Defensively the Giants are lead by Schornstein, who leads MCAL in rebounds, with an average of eight a game, and is second in MCAL for steals, averaging 3.3 per game.
Senior Izzy Ingledew, according to Schornstein, has provided a high energy level on defense, giving the Giants a spark on defense whenever they are down.
“Defensively we’ve definitely improved this year, our second rotation, our help side and what not, helping each other out on defense and talking to each other, which is something that we’ve struggled with in the past,” Schornstein said.
The Giants will try to avenge their loss against Justin-Siena tonight at home at 6 p.m. Playoffs begin on Tuesday, Feb 18.
