Five 1A Teams Who Will Be Improved
Up next in our daily season preview articles are the five 1A teams who I think will show the most improvement in terms of gained wins. I only looked at the teams who had a winning percentage of under .500,…
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Continue ReadingUp next in our daily season preview articles are the five 1A teams who I think will show the most improvement in terms of gained wins. I only looked at the teams who had a winning percentage of under .500, and excluded the .500 teams from a year ago. The ninth article in a series of 73 highlights the five squads who I think will increase their win totals the most. Tomorrow I’ll have the five 2A teams who finished under .500 last season to keep an eye on.
Lenox (9-13 last season)
While Lenox does lose two of their top three scorers from a year ago, they bring in a ton of returning players. Last season, TJ Stoaks led the team in scoring at a 13.5 points per game clip. She shot the ball at a 54.2 percent rate from the floor and her contributions will be even higher this season. Juniors Jordan England, Cassidy Nelson, Lauren Christenson, and McKinna Hogan all return and will see a much bigger role this winter. Sophomore Jynessa Cox also was a player who saw action in each game last season. This season Lenox will lean on those players who have been in the system for a few years now as well as the leadership of the lone seniors, Kayla Yzaguirre and Camryn Douglass. Lenox returns 28.8 points a game and I think they have a good chance to even improve their scoring output from a year ago. With five of their losses being by four points or less, I expect Lenox to turn those games into wins and have a 14-8 or 15-7 season this year.
Melcher-Dallas (3-16 last season)
Things were not good in Melcher-Dallas land last season, but I think this year it is really looking up. They did not have a good showing shooting the ball last year by any stretch of the imagination (24% FG, 14.5% 3FG, and 38.6 FT%). Despite that, I think they’ll be one of the most improved 1A teams this season. The key for them is that they only lose one senior off the team from last year and return a ton of players heading into their sophomore and junior season. Nine of their losses were by five points or less including five one possession games. You hit three more buckets in a game and that record turns into 12-7 and we aren’t even looking at this group. Junior Kynser Reed was their leading scorer last season at 11.5 points a game. They will also have to count on contributions from a flurry of other juniors such as Kacey Enfield, Haley Godfrey, Riley Enfield, and Grace Overgaard all return. These four players will have to combine for right around 20 points a game if they want to contend this year for 15 wins. I have full faith that they can and will do so. The big question with the team this year is their shooting percentage. If we see a rise to 30 percent they will win a lot of games.
Prince of Peace (8-11 last season)
Our of these five teams Prince of Peace might be in the best position to see the biggest improvement. They lose just one senior, who was not in the top five in scoring for them, and have just one senior on the roster for this season. Sophomore Lilly Isenhour leads the charge coming back and junior Anabel Blount will be right there with her. Those two led the team in scoring at 13.2 and 12.4 points a game, respectively. Other than those two returners you’ll have juniors Isabel Hansen and Paige Kuehl followed by sophomore Kaelyn Goodsman to round out a very solid and young core. This is a group that will have to improve their 3-point shooting from a year ago but improving on 23 made 3-pointers should not be a problem. They also had 423 turnovers last season against 160 assists which will have to improve if they want to take a step forward. In all, they were only outscored by 8.9 points a game last season so in order to improve they’ll just need to make more 3-pointers and cut down their turnovers. This is true for a lot of teams but hitting one more perimeter shot a game will really open things up for them. For a young team with experience under their belt that should be no problem. This is a group that it could really click this season and beyond.
Storm Lake St. Mary’s (7-14 last season)
Storm Lake St. Mary’s has a lot of work to do to get to .500 this year. They lose their leading scorer who averaged 16.9 points a game last season and bring back just 21.7 points of their scoring last season. Storm Lake St. Mary’s might not get to .500 this season but I think they’ll have a real shot. Of their eight players that saw varsity time last year, seven are sophomores not. That’s right, seven of the eight varsity players last season were freshmen. They have a lot to build on for this upcoming season and sophomore Danika Demers should lead the charge. After scoring 9.6 points a game last season she will look to shoulder more of the load this year. Sophomores Emily Nothwehr and Ellie Bacon will also look to contribute solidly. This is a group that is going to likely have two players score in the double digits each night, but their success will be predicated on having a third and fourth scorer step up each night. Look for them to show a four or five game improvement this season.
West Bend-Mallard (5-16 last season)
West Bend-Mallard had a ton of contributors last year as 11 different players scored a varsity point and 13 different players saw action. Only one of those players graduated so this should be a much improved year for this squad. The junior duo of Rachel Fehr and Monika Fehr return and should be among the top three scorers on this team once again. Last season they led the team with 7.4 and 6.6 points a game, respectively. Both players shot 31 percent or better from the floor as well. The success of this team will hinge on the play of senior Morgan Schmidt. Schmidt shot the ball 234 times last season which was 45 times more than the next highest player. She scored 6.4 points a game but Schmidt only shot it at a 21.4 percent rate. If she improves that number then this is going to be a really tough team as she rarely turns the ball over. If the fourth and fifth scorers on the team can average around 10 points combined then this is going to be a really formidable squad. They had a couple close losses last season but this year I think they’ll be able to win those games with a better shooting percentage from key players.