Sports
Extra Points: Bloom Seniors Get Ready for Playoffs and College Basketball Next Year
As the girls basketball team prepares for the postseason, the Blazing Trojan seniors reflect on their time at Bloom and what's ahead.
Senior Night for high school athletes features a rush of emotions: sadness that a high school athletic career is almost over, nostalgia for the great times playing, and happiness that the next step is almost there.
The Bloom girls basketball team celebrated their Senior Night in style on Thursday, in its last Southland Athletic Conference game of the season. The Blazing Trojan seniors were celebrated by the coaching staff, teammates, fans and family members with pictures, flowers, gift bags and applause.
“They’re a great bunch of girls,” said Bloom coach Marc Lopez, who is in his second coaching season. “We’ll miss them. They helped, I believe, get this program a step in the right direction.”
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Senior guard Angenay Williams, who scored nine points Thursday night, transferred to Bloom from Georgia before her junior year.
“Definitely a good group,” Williams said of the senior class.
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Williams said she was happy about the prospect of going to college. She’s going to play basketball in college, but she isn’t sure where that will be. She’s thinking about a number of schools, including Division II and Division III programs.
Bloom senior guard Tysheka Craft, who transferred from Harper High School this season, said she has enjoyed the light-heartedness of Bloom’s team this year.
“The girls, they’re so silly,” Craft said. “They’re a fun group.”
Craft also plans on playing basketball in college, but she’s not sure where she will play. Chicago State, Concordia (Ill.), South Suburban and Prairie State are all in the mix.
What’s Next for Bloom: The Blazing Trojans start the playoffs next Wednesday night against Sandburg at Shepard High School. “Just polishing up, working on our sets,” Lopez said of how his team will prepare. “Transition defense is always big in the playoffs, and rebounding.”
“One good thing going into this game is that they don’t know us that well, we don’t know them that well. So it’s going to be, who’s going to execute their offense and defense better,” Lopez added.
Sophomore Score: Bloom defeated Crete-Monee 47-39. Forward Geena Locicero led the Blazing Trojans with 16 points.
