Lady Rockets Routed On Senior Night

The Richard Montgomery girls basketball team honored their seniors Tuesday night before the last regular season game the class of 2011 would play on their home court. However, Gaithersburg would ensure a rough goodbye for the Lady Rockets.

The Lady Trojans ran a suffocating press and forced 18 turnovers in the first half alone on their way to a 71-39 rout of RM.

“We knew Gaithersburg always has an awesome press,” RM coach Jennifer Hoffman said. “We had back-to-back games and didn't get to prepare everything that we wanted to get in. But I didn't think we did bad, we just had to get some nerves out.”

The nerves were certainly evident at the beginning of the game. Gaithersburg reeled off 21 points in the first seven minutes of the game before RM was able to score a single point. While RM played well after that, led by seniors Kiana Davis and Sophie Koubek, the slow start was too much to overcome. Foul trouble also kept many of their starters on the bench for much of the game.

Before the game, Davis, Koubek, Hayley Willer and Ty Migdal were honored by the fans and their teammates in an on-court ceremony. While there are still a few more games to play, with very little chance of hosting a playoff game this was likely the last time they will play in front of a home crowd in their high school careers.

“It's a goodbye, but a good luck kind of thing,” Hoffman said. “It's a bittersweet ending, you know the seniors are going to be leaving, but you hope they can take what they learned here to the future.”

Hoffman also had fond memories of this senior class.

“They play with their heart on the floor, they never give up,” Hoffman said. “They've made a lot of comebacks, and teams won't pull their starters off the floor against them because they know those girls are able to overcome large leads.”

The team has three games left before the end of the regular season. The final stretch will be for playoff positioning and trying to potentially get a higher seed.

“We know we're getting near the end of the season,” Hoffman said. “We've got to finish our games and get ready for the playoffs. They have to just keep their heads up and play hard like they always have.