Jake Davidson

Managing Editor

After winning its third straight Heritage league title last year, the Milken girls’ varsity basketball team (7-1) started off its year in an impressive fashion, winning the Patriot winter tip-off for a second consecutive year.

This year’s Milken team has three starters returning from last year’s squad as well as a talented sophomore duo, Sorelle Cohen ’13 and Carly Ghodsian ’13.

The Wildcats entered the tip-off at 2-0 after thrashing Yeshiva and holding on against Holy Martyrs for two early season wins. To advance to the championship round, the girls’ team routed its three opponents by an average of close to 24 points a game. Milken outlasted Providence 44-35 in a hard-fought championship game to remain undefeated at the Patriot Winter Tip-Off for the past two years.

The Wildcats were lead by co-captain Talia Myers ’11, who was the tournament MVP after scoring in double digits during both the semifinal and final of the tournament.

“”It was a really exciting tournament this year because everyone really stepped it up and started to play more as a team. I knew that it was the last time I would be playing in that tournament so I decided to give it my all.”

With their strong play, both Elyssa Schlossberg ’11 and Cohen garnered First Team all tournament.

This early season success is good news for this Milken team, who lost two sensational players last year, Whitney Ghodsian ’10 and Kimberly Hakim ’10. Up to this point, the team has showed no signs of any drop-off from last year’s squad.

“I was pleasantly surprised with our success in the tournament.  I knew we have 4 seniors back and two sophomores who played last year but we lost 50 % of our scoring due to graduation.  This years’ tournament was a total team effort. Everyone contributed in one way or another to benefit the team.”

The team looks to keep up this recent streak of great playing, as it participates in the Milken Basketball Classic as well as the KSA basketball tournament in the upcoming weeks.