FAYETTEVILLE — Three wins in a season is usually not a cause for celebration.
For the Haas Hall Academy Lady Mastiffs, three victories represent a milestone for two senior members of the team who probably thought they would never see any wins.
BOYS
Haas Hall 52, Alpena 32
John Hubbard scored a game-high 19 points to lead the Mastiffs to a runaway win.
Hubbard, a 6-foot-7 senior, scored 10 points in the first quarter and Haas Hall never looked back. Justin Rainey added 10 for the Mastiffs.
Haas Hall will open district tournament play on Tuesday against Mulberry.
Haas Hall, a state charter school, has fielded a girls basketball team for the past three seasons. This season the Lady Mastiffs are 3-16 after concluding the regular season at home Friday night in a 54-19 loss to Alpena. It was a mercy-rule loss, to be sure, but it was a far cry from two seasons ago when Haas Hall lost games by 99 and 108 points.
Seniors Shelby Freitas and Betsy Burns are the only remaining members of the original team. Prior to Friday’s final home game of their careers, they stood midcourt at Fayetteville Christian School’s gym and sang the national anthem a cappella. Seconds later they were scrapping and hustling against the visiting Lady Leopards (26-7) for every rebound and loose ball.
Haas Hall coach Basil Seymore-Davies, who also teaches art and French, has coached the girls team for the past three years. He knows first-hand how significant three wins are for his program, and the hours of hard work his two seniors have toiled for them.
“They started off with not a lot of basketball skills and they have worked really, really hard to get to where they are,” Seymore-Davies said. “They are real warriors and were determined to make this happen and help build this team from the ground up.
“It’s been a difficult journey for them, but they really stuck it out and have become really good leaders.”
Freitas recalled trying out for the team as a sophomore “on a whim.”
“I really didn’t plan on making it through the tryouts, but it turned out not many girls tried out, so I made the team,” she said. “We only played like four games that season, and we didn’t win any. That first game we lost by 99 points and a couple of games later, we lost by 108 points.
“It was really discouraging.”
The next season Haas Hall was winless again, but Burns said she could see the team starting to turn the corner and improve.
This season Haas Hall was placed into an Arkansas Activities Association conference for the first time and played a 19-game schedule in the 1A-4 West Conference, which boasts some of Class 1A’s best programs in Kingston, Mulberry and Scranton.
In the season’s 11th game on Dec. 14, the Lady Mastiff’s made history when they defeated St. Paul 38-32.
Said Burns: “We were so used to losing by 40 points on average, when we won, I was like, ‘What was the score? We won?’
“We were behind in the third quarter and we were like, we’re never going to beat any teams, ever. You have those thoughts going through your head.”
Freitas said the hardest part was overcoming the mental barrier of losing.
“We knew that we had potential,” Freitas said. “But it was really hard to get the first win.”
Twice more this season the Lady Mastiffs walked off the court with a win and are hoping to win their first-ever district tournament game on Monday when they open play in the 1A-4 District Tournament in Kingston against St. Paul, who they’ve defeated twice.
Burns and Freitas plan to attend John Brown University next year. Freitas plans to become a teacher, and Burns hopes to be a physical trainer. Both would like to spend time overseas. Burns lived in Dubai before moving to Fayetteville.
Even if the season ends Monday, both agreed the program is miles from where it was three seasons ago.
“Three wins may sound really lousy to some schools, but to us, each win was like a special memory that we can keep,” Freitas said. “It becomes something special.”
Burns said she hopes the two seniors leave the program with a legacy of hard work.
“Just never giving up,” Burns said. “If you go out there and get beat by 108 points or if you win by four, just keep going, keep getting better.”
Alpena 11 16 17 10 — 54
Haas Hall 2 6 7 4 — 19
Alpena (26-7): Underdown 19, Savage 10, Vanetta 9, Ray 6, Holsted 4, Perez 2, Lynch 2, Grisham 2.
Haas Hall (3-16): Gibson 12, Freitas 4, Maddock 2, Burns 1.
Alpena 12 7 4 9 — 32
Haas Hall 13 12 16 11 — 52
Alpena: Savage 14, Youngblood 8, Luedecke 4, Garza 4, Brock 2.
Haas Hall: Hubbard 19, Rainey 10, Soliman 7, Homstead 4, Maddock 4, Wimberley 2, J. Harris 2, Reber 2, Harris 1, A. Bray 1.