The Vandegrift girls basketball team advanced to round two of playoffs after winning their bi-district playoff game against Cypress Ranch last night. They play the area playoff game Friday at 6 p.m. at A&M Consolidated High School against Klein Collins. 

“Winning is hard in general, and winning a playoff game is really special,” head girls basketball coach Jonathan Jones said. “Just to be in the second round is awesome. Looking at who we are playing, I think we match up pretty well. I think we have a chance to win.”

The top scorer of last night’s game was sophomore Brooke Srncik with 15 points, followed by junior Kaya Pehrson with 14 and Skye O’rourke with 13. The Lady Vipers were behind at the end of the first quarter, but were able to keep their lead throughout the last three and win with a final score of 58-47 against the number 15 team in the state.

“I think the second quarter was a huge highlight for us,” Jones said. “We had 11 possessions in the second quarter and we scored on eight of them. Our effective field goal percentage was like 108% that quarter, which plays into 3-point percentage and all this other stuff. It was pretty cool to have it over 100%.”

The Lady Vipers last qualified for the playoffs in the 2017-2018 school year. As well as winning their first playoff game in eight years, the girls broke their previous team record of 23 wins in a season and won their 24th game.

“I think this is huge,” Jones said. “It is obviously fun for being able to win and getting recognition for the program, but it is also good for seniors as they’re going out to end on a high note like this. It’s good for underclassmen to be able to see that‘s the goal and that’s why we work so hard. We want to have that opportunity to win in the playoffs.”

The players are ecstatic to advance to the second round. Senior Cassi O’rourke is happy that she was able to get this far with her teammates, especially her sister, and it means a lot to her since she is graduating this year.

“When there was 12 seconds left and Lauren [Stevens] was shooting free throws, we all thought ‘Ok, I think we just won’ against the 15th team in the state,” Srncik said. “We all started screaming and jumping up and down. We were also all hugging each other and cheering.”

Jones expects the game on Friday to be very competitive. The team has been watching film and analyzing how Klein Collins plays.

“Winning is fun, but winning in the playoffs is the best,” Jones said. “I am very proud of the girls and very proud of the team. We are grateful and looking forward to the opportunity to playing another game.”