{"id":137296,"date":"2020-11-20T04:50:41","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T09:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=137296"},"modified":"2020-11-20T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2020-11-20T09:51:14","slug":"preview-2020-2021-girls-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/11\/20\/preview-2020-2021-girls-basketball\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: 2020-2021 girls basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2020-2021 girls\u2019 high school basketball season is upon us and if all goes as planned, Van Wert and Lincolnview will tip off their respective seasons this weekend, while Crestview\u2019s season will start on December 1. Below is a preview of each of the three teams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifth-year head coach Mark Gregory has a deep and talented roster at his disposal, with nine letter winners back from last year’s 15-10 (5-3 NWC) team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The group is led by seniors Bailey Gregory, Kylie Etzler, Olivia Cunningham, Raegan Hammons, Breena Grace and Mandy Macki, along with juniors Brynn Putman and Emily Greulach, and sophomore Laci McCoy. In addition, senior Addie Longstreth, sophomore Macy Kulwicki and freshmen Myia Etzler and Cali Gregory are in the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery girl on my roster is competing for playing time,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cThis may be the deepest team I have had so far as head coach. We have a good mix of veterans and rookies and the best thing about this team so far is their work ethic and how well they get along.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has already been a trying year with three quarantines, but our girls have taken each day and made the best of it,\u201d Gregory added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cunningham is the leading returner in terms of scoring (10.8 points per game), followed by Bailey Gregory (10.0), McCoy (5.7) and Etzler (5.5). McCoy, Cunningham and Hammons are among the team\u2019s top returning rebounders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Gregory, Crestview has preferred to push the tempo and things will be no different in 2020-2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking to play uptempo and mix up our defenses,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cWe have a good mix or guards and players that can post up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In terms of the Northwest Conference, Columbus Grove is the returning champion, but several teams are expected to be contenders this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur conference is very competitive from top to bottom,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cI think there are lots of teams that can compete for a conference title.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crestview\u2019s season will begin on Tuesday, December 1, against Parkway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his second year as head coach, Kyle Williams has three returning starters ready to lead this year\u2019s squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior forward Kendall Bollenbacher (5-10) averaged 9.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per game last season, senior guard Annie Mendenhall (5-6) averaged 6.5 points per game and junior forward\/center Zadria King (5-8) chipped in with 3.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Key returners from last year\u2019s 5-19 (2-6 NWC) team include sophomores Makayla Jackson (5-5 guard), Annie Renner (5-4 guard) and Carsyn Looser (5-11 center), junior center Heather Beair (5-11 center) and senior forward Sami Sellers (5-8 forward).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a very young group this year with losing a few girls from last year\u2019s squad, but I am very excited that we have a very ambitious group who are looking to compete,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe have a lot of key returners including some of our top scorers from last year. This group of girls are fun to be around and fun to coach. They are improving at a rapid rate each day, and I believe we can compete with any team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consistent scoring was an issue last season, but Williams believes improvement will be evident in 2020-2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs a team we need to continue to commit and buy into our system and our style of play,\u201d Williams explained. \u201cWe need to continue to work on handling the pressure and ultimately put ball in the hole as we have struggled offensively in the past. I believe we compete on the defensive end but we hit some dry spells on the offensive end. We need to be patient and let the game come to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur girls are buying into what we are doing at practice and very attentive and want to get better,\u201d the coach added. \u201cIf we play solid and do the little things, then we can compete with any team that we play. Also, we need to find ways to put the ball in the hole, I believe the style of play that we want to have this year will be very beneficial for our caliber team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Williams also believes the NWC race will be a competitive one this year, with a number of teams in the running for the conference title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said, outside of the MAC, the NWC is an extremely competitive conference in terms of basketball,\u201d Williams stated. \u201cThere are a lot of talented players, coaches and teams. I feel if we play to the level that we can, we could put ourselves in very good position to contend in the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview\u2019s season is scheduled to begin this Saturday at Continental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six letter winners are back for head coach Hannah Phlipot, who enters her second year as head coach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The list includes three seniors \u2013 guards Carly Smith and Jaylyn Rickard, and post player Alli Schaufelberger, along with junior Carlee Young and sophomores Kyra Welch and Sofia Houg. Rickard averaged 7.0 points per game last season, followed by Houg (6.7), and Welch (6.0). Welch and Houg also averaged 4.2 and 3.4 rebounds per game last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith our core group returning this season, we are excited about the possibilities this season,\u201d Phlipot said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the six returning letter winners from last year\u2019s 7-17 (4-5 WBL) team, Lexi Barnhart and Sayler Wise will compete for minutes on a team that will try to speed things up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe plan to push the tempo of the game and be the aggressor,\u201d Phlipot said. \u201cWe love to play fast and get out in transition as much as possible but with that said, we have really worked on executing in the half court and hope to be fairly balanced offensively. We are a selfless, \u2018win by committee\u2019 type of team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur strength right now is most definitely our defense,\u201d the coach added. \u201cWe are pretty quick and agile at nearly all positions and we plan to use this to our advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert is scheduled to open the season tonight at home against Coldwater, followed by a home game against Marion Local on December 1. The WBL opener is currently scheduled for December 3, at Celina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor The 2020-2021 girls\u2019 high school basketball season is upon us and if all goes as planned, Van Wert and Lincolnview will tip off their respective seasons this weekend, while Crestview\u2019s season will start on December 1. Below is a preview of each of the three teams. Crestview Fifth-year head coach Mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 12:01:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}