PRESSURE POINT: Princeton Day School girls’ basketball player Helen Healey, right, puts the pressure on a foe in a game earlier this season. Last Thursday, senior forward Healey scored four points in a losing cause as PDS fell 56-17 to WW/P-N. and dropped to 6-9. The Panthers play at Pennington on February 2. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

Helen Healey has come a long way since she joined the Princeton Day School girls’ basketball team as a freshman in the 2012-13 season.

“I came into high school never playing basketball before; I have learned a lot, like ball handling and shooting,” said senior forward Healey.

“Rebounding is a hard part, you get pushed around a lot. I have seen people push me and now I am pushing back a little bit. I am playing tough.”

Healey’s progress mirrors the PDS program’s collective push to get better since she joined the team.

“We have seen this team grow the last three years,” said Healey. “It is amazing. At practice, it brings tears to my eyes. We have gotten so much better over these last three years. Our coach (Kamau Bailey) has helped us so much.”

While PDS didn’t have one of its better days of the season as it fell 56-17 to WW/P-N last Thursday, Healey liked the way the Panthers kept fighting to the final whistle.

“We worked hard as a team and brought it together at the end of the game, I was really proud of our team for doing that,” said Healey, who scored all four of her points on the evening in the fourth quarter.

“I think we are learning how to play great teams like WW/P-N; we are getting better and stronger.”

With the Panthers at 6-9, having already exceeded last year’s win total when they went 5-13, Healey believes the players have developed some strong bonds.

“I think the big thing is team chemistry, honestly,” said Healey. “We have two new girls, so to have seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen this year makes a huge difference. We eat lunch together at school, we talk to each other in the hallways. We definitely have worked on that. We have had team psyches. We have had team breakfasts. We had a team early dinner a couple of hours before this game. I think it has been a really fun season.”

Healey believes the Panthers can utilize that chemistry to help each other during games.

“I would love for us to be able to communicate a lot more on the floor, I think sometimes in critical moments we get a little too silent on the court and on the bench because we are nervous and we don’t want to mess up,” said Healey.

“I think we have gotten much better on talking on offense and defense from the first game of the season. We are talking to each other more, slapping each other’s hands and knowing that we have each other’s backs if we make a mistake.”

In Healey’s view, doing well in the Hill School (Pa.) tournament in early December helped set a positive tone for the Panthers.

“I think what really started us off this season was the Hill tournament,” said Healey.

“We got second place out of four teams, winning a game in a tournament. We had never done that before since I have been here.”

With the Mercer County Tournament and the state Prep B tourney around the corner, Healey is hoping the Panthers can do some big things in postseason play.

“I couldn’t be more proud for how we have grown as a team and what we have done already,” said Healey.

“We still have a month left in the season, we have some more to do and some more damage to make. I am hoping we make it through parts of the tournaments, that would be an awesome way to finish my PDS career.”

Having grown so much during her PDS career, Healey plans to keep tabs on the Panthers after graduation.

“I am proud to be on the starting team at PDS,” said Healey. “It is going to be hard to leave. I am excited to come back and watch my team grow.”