The girls basketball team defeated Atherton 57-29 last night. Manual’s defense was the highlight of the game thanks to their new strategy.

“Our defense was very good tonight,” head coach Jeffery Sparks said. “We tried a new defensive set to help us prepare for Male, and we saw some of the effects tonight. We did much better on getting steals and forcing turnovers which is what we are focusing on.”

Krys Mccune (11, #55) helped Manual immensely on the defensive end, blocking several shots and forcing several turnovers.

“I played really well, and I stayed out of foul trouble unlike [in] the Waggener game,” Mccune said. “Our new defensive strategies will help us a lot in the upcoming games and the postseason.”

Tonysha Curry (10, #23) returned from her injury, which she sustained during Manual’s first meeting with Male. She added a spark to the offense, and gave the team a lift in points during tonight’s game.

“I never want to see any of our players get hurt, no matter who it is, but having Tonysha come back gives us some more confidence on the offensive side of the ball.” Sparks said.

Manual blew a 17-point lead to lose by ten in overtime, knocking them out of the LIT in their last meeting with Male.

“We’ve been watching a lot of film and analyzing it to see how we played, and we are practicing specific sets to get ready for that game,” Sparks said. “We used this game to test some of our new strategies out and we’ll see how it turns out Friday night.”

“We take it one game at a time, and we don’t like to look back on old games, just focus on the new ones,” McCune said. “We go hard in practice to help us get ready for Male. I think we are ready for Friday.”

Manual will face off against the Bulldogs on Friday, Feb. 13 at Male. Tipoff is at 6:00 p.m.