The varsity basketball teams finished their seasons with decent records, which prove to be improving each year. The boys ended with a respectable record of 11-13, and the Lady Atoms ended the season with a record of 8-13.

Both teams concluded their seasons in the semi-finals of the district tournament, where they defeated Mount Vernon in the first round. The boys won (75-65), and the girls won (58-46.)

The boys then lost to West Potomac (57-63), and the girls lost to T.C. Williams (50-68) to eliminate them from the district tournament.

Highlights of the boys game against Mount Vernon include a solid performance from the Atoms on offense.

The girls put their heads in the game and deafeated Mt. Vernon.

On Feb. 12, in their defeat to West Potomac, the boys played a great game on both sides of the court, but fell short by a mere 6 points, after not being able to catch the Majors in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“As a whole, I believe we played really well and did a pretty good job of limiting their offensive rebounding despite their size,” senior Abbey Yared said. “We missed too many free throws, which would’ve changed the course of the game.”

As expressed by Yared, the boys believed that they started to fall short of earning the win in the fourth quarter.

“In the 4th quarter, we should have done a better job of closing out the game and staying focused on key possessions,” Yared said.

On the other hand, the Lady Atoms felt as if they did not play hard enough to have a chance at beating the top seeded T.C. Williams.

“I feel like we got tired, and we made bad passes because of it,” senior Jayla Irvin said. “They simply started to run up the score based on our errors.”

The girls believed that they started losing control of the game between the end of the third quarter and the beginning of fourth.

“[Looking back at the game,] there was not any specific quarter, but probably the end of third and the beginning of fourth is where we could have played more efficiently,” Irvin said.

Although the teams were knocked out in the semi-finals of the District Tournament, they still made great memories and proved to be formidable opponents.

Additionally, senior night was a big night as both the boys and the girls varsity teams won their games.

Following those games, players stated what their favorite part about the entire season was.

Senior Alejandro Casquino said his season memory was made that night by beating Mt. Vernon on senior night.

Irvin said her favorite part about the whole season was the time she spent with her team out of basketball, and before games where they would hang out and have fun with each other.

Despite some ups and downs throughout the season, both times will miss the season, as will the seniors from each team.
Senior players also shared what they will miss about playing high school basketball.

“I’m going to miss going out and playing my heart and putting on a Annandale jersey to play.” Casquino said.