Coming off a season where Sherman finished one win short of punching a ticket to Baker City, the girls’ basketball team brings back a few solid returners, a talented group of freshmen and new coach Steve Bird.
So far, the Huskies have lost six straight games to start the season, but have steadily improved on the offensive side of the ball, going from a six-point effort on Dec. 7, to an average of 31.3 points in games played on Dec. 15, 18 and 19.
The Huskies have athletic, speedy guards in Kiersten Casper, Lexi Grenvik, Emily Hill and Brittney Orendorff, and have players who can play the wings and inside with Brianna McKinney and Ellie Davis.
“I think we have a solid core. I have some very good athletes here,” Bird said. “Brittney can play defense and run up and down the floor. It is a very athletic group and I am looking to make us more of an up-tempo team and that will happen over time.”
Jeanna Hill and Emily Poirier add an inside dimension to the Huskies, so there are different ways to attack the opposition.
Poirier said the preseason goal was to work more on offensive drills, sharpening up on the fundamentals and establishing a cohesiveness to try and accomplish more.
“I think we are going to use speed, size and shooting to our advantage offensively through the season because we do have the outside shooters and players who can do pretty much everything on the court to help the team win games,” Poirier said.
Last season, the Huskies averaged 38.1 points a game and the defense allowed 42.0 points a contest.
Both of those areas have seen significant changes in six games, but the defense is where Sherman will get things going.
Bird wants to use a quicker pace, with some man sets, zones and traps.
“I think our defense is going to be a really big part of our success. If we can all work together and play hard, we can definitely keep the other team down to less than 30 points a game,” Jeanna Hill said. “We just have to make sure we have backside help, make sure everybody is covered and get those traps going and communicate well to know where we are going to make sure we get everyone on the same page.”
Last season, the Huskies started out 2-5.
After the 2-5 start with two of those losses by a combined 101 points, the Huskies went 11-9 the rest of the way, adding a 31-30 win over Arlington to lock down a No. 3 district seed.
At districts, Sherman beat South Wasco County 30-24 and then grabbed a 42-31 triumph over Dufur, in its first win over that program in six years to advance to the Big Sky Conference title game.
The Huskies then won their state sub-round game over North Clackamas Christian by a 39-15 tally to advance to within one win of state.
In an OSAA/U.S. Bank/Les Schwab Tires state first-round girls’ hoops game in Drain, the Huskies were outscored 27-7 in the opening half and climbed to within 13 points early in the third quarter, but could not complete the comeback in taking a 58-27 loss to No. 2-ranked North Douglas.
The league figures to be just as formidable as last year with Condon-Wheeler, South Wasco County, Ione and Arlington being some of the top teams.
Sherman can fight into that mix.
“I think all of the teams in the Big Sky are going to be tough,” Jeanna Hill said. “Some of them are really good offensively and defensively, and I know there are some teams that have good shooters and stuff, but our team is younger and pretty quick, so I think it will be neck-and-neck between these teams. It will be up to the young players on each team to step up because they have lost some good seniors. It is going to be really close.”
So while the results have not shown just yet, Bird is using last season as a springboard for future success. The Hill duo, Poirier, Orendorff and Casper were major components of what the Huskies were able to accomplish in 2014-15.
It is a matter of getting everyone else up to speed, so that they can vault into postseason contention.
“We have got several juniors that I think need to gather a little bit more of a role. Some of them need playing time,” Bird said. “I also got quite a class of freshmen. I am going to try and rotate them around to get different groups in to give them more of an idea of what we want to do. We have several girls who haven’t played many minutes, so I am going to let them play and make them show me where they are going to play.”
The Huskies played Monday against Triad.
After that, they host Nixyaawii at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 5 in Moro.
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