The girls’ varsity basketball team celebrated senior night on Tuesday, Feb. 12 as they took on McKinney North for the final district game of the season. 

Along with celebrating senior night, the basketball program as a whole honored Clay Chapman, a 10-year-old who passed away last weekend. Clay played basketball and has a sister on JV Black– sophomore Sydney Chapman. The stands were filled with fans wearing blue, Clay’s favorite color, and there was a 22 second moment of silence before the game to honor his basketball number.

The team finished fourth in district with an overall record of 19-16 and a district record of 5-5. They will play in the bidistrict round next Tuesday night at Allen against Frisco Liberty at 7 p.m.

After going through 35 games so far this season, senior Carly Ludlow believes their communication has become much better over the course of the season. 

“I think we improved a lot on our communication on the court and off the court,” Ludlow said. “We have definitely grown in being able to lift each other up and help each other on the court when needed.”

Even with the celebration of senior night last night, the girls still took the game seriously and went out there with their best effort, said senior Addison Hand. 

“[On] senior night a lot of teams tend to check out because it marks the end of a season, the end of a legacy for some players that will not be returning,” Hand said. “But our focus is on bi-district, a lot of teams would be discouraged going into the spot that we are however, we are ready to battle. [We] are going to be even more prepared to face the competition by watching their film and practicing their plays beforehand.”

Now that playoffs are next up, they have to focus on Coach Boxell’s plan to go on a run in playoffs, said senior Carsen McFadden. 

“We have worked hard to get to the playoffs,” McFadden said. “Now that we are here, it is a clean slate, but single elimination so hopefully that will be the driving force behind the team’s preparation. Coach Boxell will have a game plan and we will need to play hard and execute the plan. They are a tough opponent, but bearable.”