By Mariah Taylor ‘26
On Saturday, January 10, 2026, Conestoga Valley’s girls varsity basketball team played a close game against J.P McCaskey High School. The nail-biting game resulted in a 5-point swing to McCaskey at the end.
This left CV’s team with a record of 5-8. McCaskey’s girls basketball earned a record of 3-8 after winning against our girl’s team 44 to 49.
Despite this loss, the girls basketball team had a strong season, winning against Donegal, Garden Spot, Spring Grove and Elizabethtown.
Regardless of the score, the game brought energy and fire between the girls on the court, and excitement from the crowd.
Even though this game was postponed due to a power outage during the original date of the game which was on a Friday night at 7:30 right before Christmas break, there was still a huge turn out for the game.
“The best part was seeing the community show up to support the girls,” said freshman cheerleader Rahaf Al Sultani. “Having that many people come out and seeing the stands full showed how much the team is supported and just the energy in there made it special even after losing.”
Even though the game was at 2pm on a Saturday, the stand were full of fans from both CV and McCaskey.
Sultani added, “Hearing the crowd as well as seeing their reactions during the game made us feel their support for the girls gave us plenty of motivation and encouragement.”
In another twist, McCaskey brought their cheerleaders. Typically, cheer teams don’t travel in the winter, so the cheer team usually doesn’t have to worry about any kind of competition.
Cheerleader Shrima Panta (9) said that, “I think [having the other cheer team] was more fun because it added a bit of competition which I really like, and the crowd was so much more hype.”
The players had confidence on the court and it showed in their statistics. According to Max Preps, Tia Logan (12) had a total of 15 points, Bianca Henry (12) followed closely behind with 10 points, and Azailya Washington (12) had a total of 7 points.
On McCaskey’s side, the statistics were very close. Sariiah Sweeney had 23 points, Anastasia Cruz had 16 points, and Sarai Lewis had a total of 10 points.
These points were very similar between the teams. However, towards the end of the game McCaskey’s offense started to blaze through the final quarter, resulting in a 5-point loss for CV.
Panta said, “The best part of the game for me was towards the end when the score was really close and we were just shouting/cheering trying to help our team win.”