The girls basketball team went up against American Leadership Academy and won 60-31 on Feb. 7.

The game was played on Demi Night, in remembrance of Demi Candelaria, a former Judge girls basketball and soccer player who passed away of bacterial meningitis in 2003. Candelaria was an honor roll student throughout her time at Judge and an active participant in many sports during her school years. As a freshman and sophomore she was on the soccer team that won the state championship both of those years and played varsity basketball.

“In 15 years, Demi lived life to the fullest,” her basketball coach Mary Chris Yerkovich said.

A girls soccer and basketball game are played every year in her honor. And every year, one girls basketball player and one girls soccer player are awarded the Demi Candelaria Scholarship, awarded each year in late spring, with $2,000 each for one girls basketball player and one girls soccer player, each awarded for the upcoming school year.

After a moment of silence for Demi, the games commenced.

First, the JV teams played. Judge played hard and took the win at home, preventing ALA’s team from getting a point up. The final score was 69-0. Makena Gardner and Lorraine Hygstrom led the Bulldogs in scoring.

In the varsity game Klowie Pike, Nyandeng Deng, Achol Daw, Paris Tran, and Esther Analjok were the starters for Judge’s second-to-last region game. The Bulldogs got off to a fast start in the first quarter, going ahead 15-4 and were up by 18 at half. The final score was 60-31 for Judge.

The leading scorers for Judge were Esther Analjok with 26 points and Nyandeng Deng with 20. Klowie Pike added eight points, and Elyah Ocampo had six points on two three-pointers.

The top scorers for ALA were Tiffany Tervort with 16 points and Helen Wolfe with 7 points.