L-P girls basketball has ‘some learning to do’ after losing all five starters

The La Salle-Peru girls basketball team lost a strong group of seniors from last year’s team that went 14-16 overall and 2-8 in the Interstate 8 Conference.

The Cavaliers graduated starters Addie Duttlinger, Jasmine Garman, Addison Urbanski, Bailey Pode and Kaylee Abens.

Duttlinger led the team in scoring last year at 11.4 points per game and also averaged 4.8 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 1.2 assists per game. She was an All-Interstate 8 Conference pick.

Abens averaged 7.2 points and Pode averaged 6 points and 5.2 rebounds. Garman is playing basketball at IVCC.

“All five starters from last year are gone so we’ll have some learning to do and we have to find scoring, but they’re practicing very hard,” said L-P coach Adam Spencer, who enters his third season with a 31-30 record.

While the Cavs lost a lot of experience, they do return seniors Elli Sines and Phoebe Shetterly along with junior Kelsey Frederick, who all saw significant playing time on the varsity last winter.

“We’re going to have to find ways to create offense,” Spencer said. “Ellie Sines, Phoebe Shetterly and Kelsey Frederick have the most experience, but we’ll need to have balanced scoring to win games.”

Juniors Emma Jereb, Ashley Kawiecki, Drew Depenbrock and Brie Ruppert are expected to make an impact as they join the varsity squad, while sophomore Alexus Hines will be brought up to the varsity as well.

“Our strengths will be athleticism and hustle,” Spencer said.

Defensively, the Cavs will use a variety of looks.

“We’re going to mix man-to-man with a little zone,” Spencer said. “We might press a little this year. We’re going to have to mix things up.”

Rounding out the roster are Nathali Aguirre and Margaret Boudreau along with Madilyn Knowles and Giavanna Grebner, who are still coming off knee injuries from last year.

“We should be in the mix in every game and play very hard,” Spencer said.