Deerfield Girls JV Basketball traveled to Cushing on Wednesday afternoon and defeated the Penguins on their home court. After getting off to a slow start, co-captain Jada Howard (’19) dropped in our first basket, Sami Dulam (’21) followed with a basket a few minutes later, and several minutes after that, Ruby Chase (’21) scored the team’s only 3-pointer. Our team focused on executing offensive plays and the baskets fell a little more accurately during the second 8 minutes of the first half. Scoring contributions were made by Vera Menafee (’20), Kiki Brainard (’22) (two baskets and two free throws), and Michelle Zimmerman (’21) (one basket, one free throw). Our defense held Cushing to just 3 points for the duration of the first half. We doubled our score in the last six minutes and ended the first half 18-3. Another strong team effort kept the team comfortably ahead of Cushing. We scored more baskets from assists and off of rebounds. Co-captain Alexia Baker (’19) showed resilience and intensity and broke her scoring drought in the last few minutes by grabbing her own rebounds and finishing strong with two baskets. Teamwork also paid off with a successful inbounding play from Molly Fischer (’20) in to Samara Cummings (’20). The final score was 34-12.