New year, new teams.
That’s what some of the Allen County area coaches are hoping can motivate their teams to pick up the pace in the new year.
Of the six local high school basketball teams, the Humboldt boys and girls have gotten off to the best start. The boys sit comfortably at 6-0 and the Lady Cubs are 4-2.
Iola girls
The Mustangs have struggled to find consistent scoring from their girls and will look to score more baskets in 2023. The highest scoring game for Iola was a 43-31 victory against Central Heights on Dec. 5.
Keira Fawson was the leading scorer for the Mustangs in that game when she bucketed eight points. Getting more opportunities at the basket also goes hand in hand with turning the ball over less.
“I think they’re starting to understand we don’t want just one person who’s scoring and one person who’s being vocal,” said Iola interim head coach Ali Peters. “We’re trying to make it so that everyone is getting to the basket, everyone’s getting a chance to lead the team and I think they’re doing a really good job of getting everyone involved.”
Iola boys
Iola High coach Luke Bycroft has stressed one thing most to his team this season: Defense.
The Mustangs currently sit at 3-3 (1-2 Pioneer) and have surrendered an average of 50.6 points through those games. In Iola’s three victories, the team has only allowed 40 points per game, 10 points less than their average points allowed. When the Mustangs knocked off Santa Fe Trail at the Central Heights tournament, Bycroft was pleased with the defense.
“We really worked our tails off defensively. That was the best we’ve played,” said Bycroft. “We rotated, talked, moved and helped early on dribble drives. These guys will get better as the year goes on.”
Yates Center boys
The Wildcat boys began the season by defeating Hartford and dropping three matchups to Madison, Sedan and Cherryvale. Yates Center’s biggest thorn in their side has been their inability to do the “little things” right like rebounding and on-ball defense.
In the team’s loss to Sedan on Dec. 8, Yates Center started out by keeping it a close game but fell by allowing Sedan a number of open shots and offensive rebounds.
“Slow rotation on the defensive side and failing to get rebounds on both ends is what kept us from getting back in the game,” said Yates Center head coach Lane Huffman following the Cherryvale loss. “We gave up too many second chances.”
Crest girls
Crest carries over almost an identical roster from its volleyball season in which they won a school-record 27 wins. The Lady Lancer standouts on this year’s hoops team include seniors McKenna Hammond and Kamryn Luedke and junior Kayla Hermreck.
The Lady Lancers have also welcomed a new head coach, Steve Zimmerman, which has been a learning experience for everyone. Crest’s lone win of the season so far was against Erie on Dec. 6, 49-45.
Southern Coffey boys
The Southern Coffey County High boys have mainly relied on their lone senior, AJ DeAnda, for much of their offensive production this season. Thomas Nickel is the only other upperclassman.
The Titans, 1-5 through this point in the season, are still working on finding scoring opportunities and moving better on the floor as well as getting some of their other players like Trey Winn and Kaiden Boling involved more.
“Our lack of experience does hamper us in a lot of ways because we are so plain right now on defense and offense. We will keep working at adding things and improving throughout the year,” said SCC head coach Brian Rand.
