The girls basketball team competed against the Hutchinson Salthawks on Feb. 1, attracting students from both schools to come out and support. Hutch being a big rival of Newton, the girls team knew they had to come out playing their hardest in order to pull out the win.

“When we play them [Hutchinson], we go back and forth and the games are usually pretty close.” Sophomore varsity player Marah Zenner said, “We beat them by ten last time, but they definitely came out ready to play us this time.” Zenner said.

Zenner says the game was a battle and didn’t end up as they had hoped for many reasons.

“We were obviously looking to win since we beat them last time.” Zenner said, “We didn’t come out with a lot of energy and they some shots to close the game.”

Tied at half time with a score of 20-20, coach Schneider had lots of strategies on his mind of ways they could pull ahead and win.

“Our coach said we need to get offensive rebounds and have energy and play good defense in order for us to win.” Zenner said, “We will probably work on our defense for a 32 defense because that is what shut us down.”

After two more close quarters, the team fell to the Salthawks with a score of 37-39.

“I think we should have won because they were not better than us,” Zenner said, “They just played harder and wanted it more than us.”