On Tuesday, January 23, the Central Regional Girls’ basketball team ended their losing streak with a big win against Brick Township.

Brick started the game off with a lead, winning 3-0 in the first four minutes of the game. At the five minute mark, Makenna Leszczynski put the Eagles on the scoreboard, with one made free throw followed by a 2-point floater in the center of the paint – tying the score at 3-3. Brick scored another four points before Central tied the score up again to 7-7 in the second quarter, with two free throws and a jump shot made by Jae Witte. Bri Nelson assisted Witte’s jumpshot, with an offensive rebound leading to a bounce pass through two defenders. Brick scored, and Central responded with a left-handed layup by Bri Nelson, tying the score for the final time of the game at 9-9. The Golden Eagles began to gain momentum, with consecutive points from Addie Nolan (2), Makenna Leszczynski (3), and Ava Schmidhauser (3). With the score at 17-19 – Central in the lead – Ava Schmidhauser sank a three at the top of the key to bring the score to 17-22. Late in the game, with only a few minutes left, Emma Christenson and Ava Schmidhauser made two free throws each to secure the win, leading the team to its 25-21 win over Brick Township.

When asked about the game, coach Brianne Allender said, “I’m proud of how hard everyone played. When things weren’t going our way we stuck together as a team and never lost sight of our goal. Attitude and effort is all we can control and we did a great job with both which helped lead us to a big win.”

The win over Brick Township was the first of many. The team went on to win a close 41-40 game against Brick Memorial on January 29, followed by a 50-29 win against Pinelands on January 30.