St. Bede girls basketball preview: Lady Bruins return strong core from regional title team

Despite having just one senior, the St. Bede girls basketball team is very experienced.

The Lady Bruins return several key players from last year’s squad that claimed a regional championship last season and add senior Teghan Tillman, who transferred from Mendota last year but was unable to play at St. Bede.

“First and foremost, we are competitive,” coach Tom McGunnigal said. “This team is very balanced and deep with enough returning experience that the normal beginning of the year struggles can be minimized.

“We have a great inside-outside threat with capable scorers in both areas. They are a fun group that can emphasize all aspects of playing solid, all-around very good basketball.”

Juniors Renn Ludford (6.1 points, 3.6 rebounds and 3.2 steals per game last season), Lia Bosnich (5.9 points, 5.1 rebounds per game) and Ryann Stoudt (4.5 points, 4 rebounds per game) all played key roles last season.

McGunigal said Tillman is “aggressive, has good instincts and can knock down shots.” Juniors Grace Maschmann — who started at times last season — Miranda Mazzorana and Payton Giordano are expected to have expanded roles.

“In our first practices, we have had more of an approach to build on the floor cohesion versus an emphasis on individual skill building, and possibly, conditioning,” McGunnigal said. “We are working more 5-on-5 or ‘one-down defense’ so our players can get quickly familiar on what their teammates will do on offense. Running more of our sets and going more full court is how I am looking to build some conditioning.

“I’m just happy that the work we had been doing in then gym individually, and going back to October as a group, will pay off with playing actual games now.”

With an experienced and talented yet young roster, the Lady Bruins hope to rack up wins in this COVID-19 shortened season with no state series while building toward next season as well.

“Our goal is to win every game,” said McGunnigal, whose team was 10-25 overall and 5-7 in the Three Rivers Conference East Division last year. “And short of that, give the girls a chance to compete and play this great game. We are young in that we are 92 percent juniors, so they have another year of high school basketball. For Teghan, I want her to experience high school basketball at St. Bede and make some great memories of her senior year. I really want us to compete and show what we are and what we can become as a team by the end of this season and in preparation for a senior-heavy next season.

“This is all very exciting for us and we are going to enjoy every minute that we get to play.”