Girls basketball preview: Experienced Seneca looking to keep things running this season

To say the beginning of this season is a little less stressful for Seneca second-year girls basketball coach Josh Myers would be an understatement.

“Last year was me as a new coach putting in a lot of different things and trying to do that in a short amount of preseason practice time,” Myers said. “This year, despite having a combined 10 cross country runners and volleyball players joining a little late because of great postseasons, the fact that almost all of them went through a season and a full summer with me have made things a lot smoother, because they know the basics of what we want to do.

“I feel like we had a very good first two weeks of practice.”

The Fighting Irish – who finished last season 17-15 overall and 7-7 in Tri-County Conference play – return everyone but graduate Lauren Cronkrite.

“I feel like we have a lot of girls at the guard spot, really four point guards, that can not only handle the ball and pass pretty well, but can also shoot it pretty well too,” Myers said. “Then I also think we have maybe non-typical post players that can really get out and run the floor, and that helps with us wanting to push the ball up the floor or do a good job when they get the ball on the block or off rebounds. We want to run, so taking care of the ball will be important to us.”

Senior guards Alyssa Zellers (11.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 2.3 apg, 2.1 spg, Times All-Area second team) and Lainie Olson (6.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.1 spg, Times All-Area honorable mention) have been playing at the varsity level since freshman year, with classmate Evelyn O’Connor (6.3 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 3.0 apg, 2.7 spg, Times All-Area honorable mention) the third member of the experienced guard group.

Fellow 12th-graders Lauryn Barla, Aubrie Jackson, Audry McNabb; juniors Tessa Krull (5.6 ppg, 8.7 rpg) and Camryn Stecken; sophomores Graysen Provance, Elsa Douglas, Emma Mino, Gracie Smith and Piper Stenzel; and freshman Brooklyn Sheedy are all expected to make contributions throughout the season.

“This group, which I feel I can go 10 or 11 deep and maybe even deeper, is one that is going to compete every minute of every game,” Myers said. “They’ve shown that in the other sports they’ve been in, especially this fall. I feel we have all the talents and intangibles to be a pretty good basketball team. It’s a very coachable bunch.”

One thing Myers feels his team will need to get better at from last season is something he has already seen improvement with during the summer competition.

“We lost a few games last year where if a couple shots go in late or we take care of the ball in a key spot, the result is reversed,” Myers said. “Those end-of-game situations are something we talked about and really worked on this summer. I thought they improved in that aspect, so hopefully we can make those things happen when the real games begin.”

As far as goals or expectations, Myers said that hasn’t been talked about fully yet, but as of now he just wants his team work on getting better each time it takes the floor

“We haven’t really sat down and set goals as far as the team goes yet,” Myers said. “I think as of now it’s just important that we keep working and learning in practice. Our first few games at our tournament will tell us all where we are at and where we need to concentrate our efforts. I feel like we’re doing a great job of heading in the right direction.”

Seneca opens the season at home at 7 p.m. Monday against Herscher in pool play of the Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament before taking on Streator on Tuesday, Serena on Thursday and its counterpart from the Flanagan-Cornell pool on place-game Saturday.