Fleetwood hopes to go far into the district playoffs
When you take a good look at the roster of the Fleetwood High School girls basketball team, you notice it right away. This is a very young team. The roster is littered with sophomores and freshmen, so when the season started, most people thought this might be a rebuilding year for the Lady Tigers.
But the girls on the team didn’t think that. They began the season winning five of their first six games, then went on to post an 8-2 Berks League record which earned them second place in Division 2 and a playoff berth. The Lady Tigers’ only two losses were to first place Berks Catholic. It was a learning season for many of the players on the Fleetwood squad, but they were able to win while they were learning.
“Our season has progressed fairly close to how I anticipated due to our overall inexperience,’ said Fleetwood head girls basketball coach. “A coach is never satisfied, but I would feel much more comfortable had we taken care of a couple early games that did not go our way.’
Despite the regular season success, the Berks League playoffs was a disappointment for Fleetwood. The Tigers opened the eight-team tournament with a game against Conrad Weiser, one of the wild card teams that finished third in Division 2, one game behind Fleetwood. In fact, the Tigers defeated the Scouts twice in the regular season, once by 24 points.
But it went a little differently in the playoffs. Conrad Weiser turned a six-point halftime lead into a 12 point lead after three quarters and defeated the Tigers, 41-33.
“Our biggest problem was staying patient and running our offense,’ said Kellett.
The offense is led by the duo of senior Cyre Virgo and sophomore Lauren Lister. Virgo, a three-sport athlete (basketball, volleyball and track) uses her athleticism go get to the basket and score points. She averaged 13.7 points a game.
After averaging 8.2 points a game as a freshman, Lister had a break out season, averaging 12.9 points a game this year. That includes going to the four line 126 times.
Despite the loss to Conrad Weiser, the season is not over for the Lady Tigers. They have a chance to redeem themselves in the district, and hopefully, the state tournaments. Fleetwood opened the District 3-AAA tournament with a game against York Suburban on Feb. 18. Due to our press deadline, we are unable to report the result of the contest. The bad news is that if the eighth-seeded Tigers got by York Suburban, they would then have to go up against the top seeded team in the district, West York – a team that is coming into the tournament with a perfect 24-0 record. That game will take place on Feb. 21 at East Pennsboro High School at 3 p.m.
“Coaching smarter/harder, playing smarter/harder and finding mismatches that are in our favor when our team possesses the ball will be the key to going far in the post-season,’ said Kellett.
Beating West York will be a difficult task for the Tigers if they get that far, but upsets happen every day is sports. The Tigers may just pull this one off.
