Avi Sholkoff

Staff Writer 

After a strong showing in the first game of the Milken Classic girls basketball tournament, the Wildcats began to stumble, finishing in 6th place. Looking out of sorts for the majority of the tournament, Milken identified many areas needed for improvement.

The Wildcats showed great promise in their first game, defeating the Archer School for Girls 46-40. Facing rival Beverly Hills High School, a contest that in the past years has included both triple overtime and overtime games, the Wildcats were defeated 55-43.  In the next game against Kennedy High School, Milken lost in a final second heartbreaker. Against Saugus, playing for 5th place, the Wildcats again lost in the final seconds after a late three pointer by Centurion Mijah Williams.

Shaynee Rosen ‘14 led Milken in scoring throughout the tournament, averaging 17 points per game. Rosen consistently led in points and shot attempts per game. Another highlight was Avia Cohen ‘15, affirming her part in the famous Milken Basketball Cohen dynasty by averaging 7.5 rebounds and 7 points per game.

Though they didn’t achieve their desired result, the Milken  players felt they gave maximum effort. Cohen ‘15 said, “[the team] played really hard, we put everything out there. But in the end it came down to the last few seconds.”

Although the Wildcats fell short of their goal, the games contained exciting finishes and great plays. With the emergence of skill from Kaitlin Banafsheha ‘17 and Celine Afari ‘17, Coach Barbara Iversen’s team has a promising future. Hopefully the Wildcats can improve on their disappointing performance, and have a strong rest of this season.