Baldwin girls’ basketball won the Betsy Invitational at Elizabeth Forward over break, defeating Elizabeth Forward and McKeesport.
The team is on a nine-game winning streak and has not lost since a season-opening defeat to Shady Side Academy.
Freshman Alia Bernotas said that winning the tournament was a great team bonding experience.
“It felt really nice. I feel like it brought the team together even more, especially since we haven’t won a tournament together yet,” Bernotas said.
Nevertheless, senior Bella Niles said it wasn’t easy playing a tournament around the holidays.
“It was hard coming off the break and playing a tournament. We didn’t play how we wanted to against McKeesport, but we still got the win,” Niles said.
Baldwin was able to prove themselves with the two victories.
“These two wins show how superior we can be as a team and how far we can go this season,” Niles said.
Bernotas said that with the tournament win, the team gained a lot of spirit for their upcoming games. She also gave shout-outs to her sister, senior Laci Bernotas, and senior Jules Ott for their performances.
“Laci was really good at shooting, and Jules was very aggressive,” Bernotas said.
Laci Bernotas came off the bench, played strong defense and scored 17 points against Elizabeth Forward. She ended up winning MVP for the tournament.
Despite the wins, the team still found things that they believe they can improve on.
“Our passes were really soft and turned the ball over too much,” Niles said.
Bernotas thinks the team needs to work on playing as a team the entire game, and on their mindset going into the game.
“We have to make sure we stay focused because during our first game (against McKeesport), we went in there thinking we were going to beat them by a lot, but we really didn’t. But we still got through it,” Bernotas said.
Going forward, the girls prepare themselves for the coming months and their four remaining home games.
“We had a good Christmas break, and now we can jump back right where we were,” Niles said.
Their next game is away against Uniontown at 6:30 p.m. tonight.
