The Pirate’s Women’s basketball team came onto the court, ready to face the University of St. Thomas (UST), but the men’s basketball game was not quite over. They watched the last couple of seconds of their match. As the men gathered their things and excitedly went to their locker room, the girls formed an alley and congratulated them on their win against the Celts. 

The women’s team  ran down the court, warming up for their upcoming match. The crowd from the men’s match quickly dispersed, but a handful of students stayed behind, and athletes’ families entered the gym. The game kicked off, and just like the men’s team, the UST women’s team came out aggressive and was up 5 points within the first two minutes of the first quarter. The Pirates held them, and #0 Ellie Ward scored a layup. The Celts upped their offensive game and scored more points. After St. Thomas’s timeout, the Pirates slowly started to put some points on the board and slowed down the Celt’s barrage of points. Their tightened defense momentarily slowed the Celts down, but ultimately, the Celts found a way to break their defense down and continued to put points up. Towards the end of the first quarter, one last layup was made by the Pirates’ #4 Elaina Seeley, bringing the score to a 12-19 Celts. 

After a short break and heading into the second quarter, both teams played tight on their defense and put points for their respective teams. Even though the Pirates couldn’t score as many points as they wanted, they slowed down UST. With a minute left of the second quarter, the two teams were at a stalemate, both stealing the ball and causing a turnover. At the end of the second quarter, the score was 35-20, Celts. 

At halftime, the basketball teams went to the locker rooms, and the pom squad performed. They strutted out onto the court and waited for the music to play. As the music played, the squad did their choreographed dance. Their performance finished just as both teams came back for a quick warm-up. 

With the third quarter underway, the Celts made the first move, putting up two 2-points on the board. The Celts held the Pirates where they were for most of the quarter, with occasional points from free throws and jump shots made by the Pirates. However, during the fourth quarter, the Pirates found their footing and strengthened their defense against the Celts. This move allowed them to start scoring and slowly come back. #22 Tea Rodriguez made a three-pointer, followed by #11 Taylor Boddie’s jump shot. The Celts found a way around the Pirate’s defense and started to score. Then, there was temporarily a stalemate at 35-58. Next, the Celts continued to gain a lead, and ultimately, UST came out on top, 49-72. 
The ladies returned to their locker room, where the coach discussed how to improve on the next game. “It’s only year one with them, and they are a young group of girls. The growth isn’t linear; it’s exponential, especially since we’re not starting a senior. But we try to focus on the small details that’ll build up to success and not on specific goals.” said Coach Kriesel-Bigler. The next day, the ladies played against Centenary and honored their seniors, R’Yani Vaughn, Emily Jasek, and Hallie Mayfield. “They’ll be missed, but I know that Southwestern is going to set them up for success after graduation.”