The La Salle girls basketball team has started competition with a winning streak in all league games and are expecting another breathtaking season.

Last year the team had an amazing year, winning the 5A state championship. The win was extremely rewarding, as well as the entire season, seeing as it was La Salle’s first year competing in the 5A division.

The season last year ended with a record of 23-1, with the only loss being to Hermiston, who the team later defeated to win the state championship. This reflected the players’ hard work and intense practices six days a week. During these practices, the players say that they are focused and practicing just as if they are in a game, which definitely paid off last year – winning them the gold – and will hopefully lead to another victory this March.

This year, the players report that the practices are as strong as last year and the girls are hoping for another big win. “Our practices have lots of ball handling and shooting,” said junior Aleah Goodman, one of the team’s standout players. “The practices are pretty long but they go fast because we all have fun, which helps since we are all friends, but we stay focused when we need to be.” 

Despite losing three senior players from last year’s team – Tori Goodman, Makenzie Cook and Dannise Matarlo – the team is still expecting a great season with the help of some of their strongest athletes – junior Aleah Goodman, senior Ally Jansen, and sophomore Taycee Wedin.

This Christmas break, the Lady Falcons were given the amazing opportunity to travel to Phoenix, Arizona to play four games in a tournament against some of the best teams in the country, none of which were from Oregon. The girls won two games and lost two as well, which is impressive while playing against these high ranked and skilled teams from all over the country. Junior Aleah Goodman said about the team’s experience, “We played against some of the top teams from other states which gave us many things we realized we need to improve on.”

So far, there has been five league games in the season, which were all big wins. The girls played their first game against Milwaukie and captured an easy win of 74-31. The second game was played against Willsonville where they won with a dominant score of 76-22. The girls scored yet another great win in their third game against Hilsboro with a score of 58-34. The next competition was played against Liberty where the Lady Falcons won, scoring 58-37. The latest game against Parkrose ended with the players getting an even more impressive winning score of 89-20. These wins have led to a #3 OSAA ranking.

In addition to these wins, the team also beat two notable 6A teams in a different tournament over Christmas break, easily defeating Central Catholic 60-39 and Jesuit 56-43.

Hopefully these wins and this ranking are a preview of how the rest of the season will play out: winning many games easily and getting La Salle another state title.

To see what days you can come out to support your lady Falcons check out the team’s page on OSAA’s website: http://www.osaa.org/teams/11471 . Good luck on another successful season, ladies!