By Bryan Bloodworth
NORMAL – University High School’s girls’ basketball team refused to allow injuries to its top two players last year make shambles of the season.
Instead, the Pioneers regrouped to register a 19-12 overall record and win the Corn Belt Conference title with a 13-1 record. They also relied on five juniors and three sophomores to get the job done.
PODCAST: Listen to Sellers’ interview here.
Those players are now a year older and gained a ton of experience, making the outlook for this season very bright.
“We have 100 percent experience (back),” said 11th-year coach Laura Sellers. “That’s the first time ever. This is the oldest team I’ve had coming back. We’ve had a couple of teams where we’ve had seven or eight coming back. But as far as experience-playing minutes, this is definitely probably the top of that. We hope to use that as kind of a jump start to what we’re doing this year.”
Leading the way will be seniors Amber Nanni and Raven Hughes, who averaged 12,6 points and six rebounds while shooting 53.2 from the field. Nanni added 11 points per game and led the team in assists, while 6-foot junior Addy Loeffler chipped in just under nine points per game.
Sellers said the expectation level is the same as every year.
“We want to win every game,” she said with a chuckle. “Actually, we want to be competitive in every game. Around here we want to win 20 every year. Last year we were at 19. We lost a couple of key players to some injuries, so hopefully some of those close games that we lost last year, we’ll use that experience and get those close games this year.”
And, as always, the Pioneers will test teams with their defense and an unselfish offense.
“We’re known for being a really good defensive team,” added Sellers. “I hope to be a lock-down defensive team. We’re also known for being a team. We share the ball well. For us to be successful, we’ll need a lot of people to score. We need to get contributions off the bench and those eight returners are definitely a good start.”
Sellers also said the Pioneers will push the ball on offense.
“We do like to push the ball,” she continued. “I wouldn’t say we’re overly the best, fastest or quickest, but I do think we’re athletic enough that we can get some easy transitional baskets throughout the course of the game.”
Rebounding will be an emphasis too.
“Rebounding better be a strength because last year it was not a strength,” added Sellers.
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
