The Girls Basketball team bounced back on Friday against the Mount Vernon Majors picking up a key victory by a score of 63-44. The win came following a loss against the West Potomac Wolverines 59-32.

“As a team we played really good defense and had a lot of positive energy within the team throughout the game which allowed us play at our best,” junior Grace Hatch said.

Against the Majors, the Lady Atoms came out of the starting gates strong with 18 first quarter points giving them a nine point lead. The team would not let up in the second quarter with 21 more points to expand their lead to 39-23 going into the half.

The top two scorers for the Atoms going into the half were sophomore Sarah Shamdeen with 22 first half points and senior Katie Garrish with 10 points.

Sophomore Bordley led the Majors with 11 first half points as they trailed by 16 at the end of the second quarter.

Coming out of the half into the third quarter, the Majors were able to make adjustments defensively holding the Atoms to 11 third quarter points.

Despite improvements on defense, the Majors would struggle to cut into the Atoms’ lead and put more points on the board as the Atoms maintained a 16 point 50-34 lead heading into the final quarter.

In  the fourth quarter, the Atoms would continue to play lock-down defense and force turnovers to prevent the Majors from shrinking the Annandale lead.

The Atoms outscored the Majors 12-10 in the fourth quarter to win the game 63-44.

Shamdeen and Garrish would finish the game with 33 and 21 points respectively, a combined total of 54 points for the two players.

As for the Majors, Bordley would finish with 19 points along with senior Hannah Smith having nine points.

Closing out their regular season with a victory heading into the conference tournament was a major confidence booster for the Atoms.

The team will continue on to face the top seeded Lake Braddock Bruins in the conference tournament on Feb. 14 on the road.

The team looks to make improvements in order to prepare to take on the Bruins.

“We can improve on having better communication as a team and ball movement in preparation for Lake Braddock,” Hatch said. “We are also preparing by watching game films and getting better during practice.”

The game proves to be a challenging one for the Atoms as they have been defeated twice this season by the Bruins, once on Jan. 10 by a score 53-44 and on Feb. 2 by a score of 50-38.