West Park girls fight through injuries

West Park's varsity girls basketball team has posted a 6-10 record with one non-league game to play against Laguna Creek on Saturday. The Panthers have battled through injuries, as the team lost all three games of their tournament last weekend. The team opened their tournament Friday with a 48-39 loss to Vacaville. On Saturday, they played Whitney tough before losing, 52-41. On Monday, Twelve Bridges got the best of the Panthers, 55-50. Against Whitney, the Panthers trailed by six points after the first quarter and worked their way back to a 21-21 tie with a minute to play in the first half, and then allowed the Wildcats nine points in the final minute and trailed 30-21 at halftime, which was a demoralizing result. West Park was able to cut the lead to three points on two occasions in the third quarter, but never got any closer. Annalyse Braden led the way with 16 points, while Riley Sourivong added 11. Post player Gabby Girenge went down in the game's final minute with a knee injury that looked serious. She joins starting point guard Lauren Weis who will be out a few weeks with a knee injury. Kara Labrador played against Whitney but is suffering from an ankle sprain as well. "We're fighting the injury bug right now, but we're playing hard and playing together," West Park coach Carly Wudel said. "It's just a matter of getting a full 32 minutes out of everybody and being consistent. We're working on improving that. I think you saw the heart of our team tonight. We're down a couple starters due to injury and we brought a freshman up tonight (Siena Hernandez) and she played well. It was a team effort tonight and I thought we played well. "That's been a testament to how our whole December is going. There's been some ups and downs but when we show up and play hard and play together we're a very special team." Earlier this season, the Panthers lost by 13 points to Twelve Bridges, so to lose by only five on Monday was an improvement. Braden led the way again for the Panthers with 16 points. "We played extremely well," Wudel said. "All the coaches were very proud of the way our team played together. We had balanced scoring and everyone contributed." Moving forward, Wudel hopes the team becomes more consistent in their play. "We just need to work on our consistency," Wudel said. "When we shoot well, good things happen. When we rebound well, good things happen. When we're playing hard and playing together, it's good stuff. "A difficult challenge this year is that we're a Division I school. That's a step up for us. We've had some growing pains, but we're continuing to work." After Saturday's game at Laguna Creek, West Park opens league play at home against Cordova on Jan. 7.