UHS Girls’ Basketball Team Beats Danville

The Urbana girls basketball team had a home game last Thursday, January 21 against Danville with a winning score of 47-16. Among the top scorers of the varsity girls basketball team were Destani Burton with 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Whitley Pearson with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

“The game went great last night,” Sophomore Chelsea Key, a UHS basketball player, said. “We played very well and were able to execute our plays. We’re starting to work as a team better and it’s improving our performance.” Key also says that she thinks they did a great job and they worked together as a team to win.

“We played defense very well. We got some really good steal off at Danville’s press,” says Key. However, the team also had some weaknesses during their game against the opponent.

“We need to work on our plays. We don’t run them long enough. We just look for a shot and take it,” says Key.

Aimee Smith, head coach of the basketball team said that the team was having trouble with inconsistency. “We’ve been a little bit inconsistent. From the beginning to midway of the season, it’s been inconsistent, but now we’re getting better with it.”

If this season is any different than last year, Key says that they’re more devoted to improving. She also adds, “We really love our coach and it’s a lot of fun at practice. He makes it fun to learn and get better.

Key also adds that the team should work more on fighting through the whole game. “We usually have a strong first half and then get tired the second half. We need to push ourselves not to give up.”

“We’ve struggled a little bit this season but we’re coming together a little bit more as team,” says Smith.

This is Smith’s 11th year of coaching here in UHS. “I love this job, I love working with the kids here in UHS. It’s very rewarding.”

As for the UHS basketball team’s goal, Key says, “To have fun and do our best. We all love to win but we encourage each other when we aren’t winning.”

Smith’s goal for this season is to improve. “Playing best in basketball at the end of the season would be our number one goal. Hopefully we’ll make noise on the regionals tournament.”

Key says that what she likes about basketball and being on UHS’s basketball team is just having fun. “We have a lot of talent on the team. It’s so much fun to see us do well on a play or beat someone on defense. It’s a fun sport!”