The Pattonville Girl’s basketball team has not disappointed anyone this season with a record well above .500 and always being in the discussion of one of the Top 10 teams in the area.

So far this season, the Lady Pirates (9-5) have had some great games like the Hazelwood West blowout back on Nov. 29 when they beat the Wildcats 77-42.

But they have had a rough stretch of games over the past week. The toughest of their losses arguably being their last two games against Kirkwood and McCluer North.

When the Pirates played No. 2 Kirkwood, the Pioneers had lost only one game heading into the duel. The Pirates were definitely playing for an upset after sneaking into the Top 10 rankings (No. 8). Though Pattonville was playing to pull off the monster upset, Kirkwood ruined Pattonville’s hopes by beating them by 23 points. The final score of the game ended up being 71-48.

This game was definitely a momentum killer for the Lady Pirates but they needed to bounce back quickly.

The following game was last Monday against unranked McCluer North. Unlike the Kirkwood game, both teams maintained low scores and neither team could eclipse any more than 35 points. The final score ended up being 35-31 in favor of the Stars.

Though the match-up was a close-scoring game, the Pirates definitely had a chance to win this game. It has most likely been a tough couple of weeks for the girls at practice and they have probably done lots of conditioning drills and suicides.

The team knows they need to win if they want to maintain their status as one of the top teams in the St. Louis Area, now being listed as a team On the bubble in the latest released poll.

Junior Helen Nelson, a post player for the Pirates, gave some insight on what it will take for the girls to get back on track.

“Well, we did lose two games in a row, although we did get a W against Lafayette this past Friday,” Nelson said. “The first time we played them, they swept us, but when we played them again, we beat them. This was great for the team motivation to get back on track and was key for us in order to have a winning season.”

The girls are still definitely very confident in the season. The win against Lafayette was a huge morale booster for the entire squad as Nelson stated.

Having good leadership is definitely key to having a winning season in any sport and the Pirates have just that. The Pirates have two main leaders and they are Tyra Brown and Kendall Battle.

“They really push the team to be better and want to see us be successful,” Nelson said.

Nelson is confident that the girls will be contenders for the district title this year. She said the team is all very close-knit and get along very well which means the girls have great on-court chemistry and have great communication during on-court situations.

In my opinion, anything is possible with this girls team this year. All great teams have their tough losses. The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers went down 1-3 to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 NBA Finals and came back to beat one of the best teams in NBA history. The Buffalo Bills lost to the Los Angeles Chargers this year 54-24 after Bills QB Nate Peterman threw 5 first-half interceptions, but the Bills ended up making the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

The Lady Pirates have a shot at making it to state, it just depends if they have the heart and the grit to keep winning basketball games, and I believe they do.

And they get their chance tonight against Parkway North. The Vikings are ranked No. 4 in the area and bring in a 13-3 record. The varsity game is at 6 p.m. The freshman (4 p.m.) and JV (4:30) play the earlier games.