Basketball Preview: McClain Lady Tigers - SCOL
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
One year ago, the McClain Lady Tigers had six seniors who all played a big part in their overall success. This year, MHS has zero seniors, which is only the second occurrence in the 30-plus years in the tenure of head coach Dennis Overstake … who is 10 wins away from achieving the 500-win plateau (490-199 overall) as he prepares to begin his 32nd year as head coach.
This season for the Lady Tigers, they must replace a senior class of six solid players from a team last season that had no juniors, which led to the current situation of no senior class this year.
In fact, MHS (15-7 last season) has just two players who had significant time at the varsity level last season in sophomore Shania Massie and junior Tara Karnes. Last year, Massie started most of the season, while Karnes played three quarters per game at the JV level and two quarters at varsity.
Coach Overstake spoke about not having any seniors for the second time in his coaching career.
"Usually you have some kids that have been in the program and at the varsity level. We have two who last year went through the battles at the varsity level, and they know what they are doing," he said. "It's going to take time for those coming up from the reserve to understand what it takes to play at the varsity level."
In her freshman season, last year Massie scored 203 points (9.2 ppg), with 24 3-pointers, 47 2-point baskets and 37 free-throws (54 percent). Defensively, Massie last season totaled 94 rebounds (28 offensive), 62 steals and two blocked shots, along with 38 assists in 16 starts in 22 games played.
As for Karnes, in 21 games played, she scored 85 points (4 ppg) total in her two quarters per game played. Karnes shot 48.5 percent from the field and 63 percent from the free-throw line. On the defensive side, Karnes had 64 rebounds (32 offensively), with seven blocked shots, eight steals and seven assists.
Gone from last season is a senior class that totaled 659 points, including Sammy Rooks, who scored 233 points, and Jenna Perie, who totaled 178. Also gone from last year are Taylor Faulconer, Kaitlyn Faulconer, Brittany Mullikin and Kate Crabtree, all of whom played many minutes in last year's rotation.
"We are losing all type of athletes, and the biggest thing is the experience we lost due to graduation," Overstake said. "We had Sammy and Jenna play three years varsity for us, and kids who improved and were consistent throughout.
[[In-content Ad]]
"We lost two of our top three scorers, so we have to have someone step up and score consistently and have multiple people who can score for us. It is the same thing year to year … you've got to have players step up and replace those who aren't here anymore."
New this year for the Lady Tigers are Katy Unger and Caitlyn Lovett, along with Sarah Thompson, who Overstake describes as a strong player.
"Sarah will have to play some wing and post for us inside," Overstake said. "Hopefully, we can stay out of foul trouble."
Also at varsity this year will be sophomore Haylee Turner and sophomore Sydney Barton; along with junior Sarah Davis and sophomore Lauren Rayburn, who played JV last season. Also new to varsity is junior Alli Willett, who didn't play last season.
Coach Overstake said with the young team they have, there won't be a lot of time to learn slowly as their early schedule is very competitive. The scrimmage season should help MHS as they took on Chillicothe, Huntington, Southeastern and Westfall, teams that are similar to them as the season nears.
"Our schedule won't allow us to take time to improve early on," Overstake said. "We start off with Adena, Miami Trace, Jackson, Unioto, Eastern Brown and Hillsboro … so they are all very tough and return a lot of players.
"We have to improve every night in practice and take that to the game. Then we have to see what we have to improve on in each game. When you are playing top-level teams, we can't come up with one game plan to fix for five or six top-level teams."
Early in this upcoming season, MHS will play five games in 10 days.
"We don't have a lot of time for growing pains," Overstake said. "I'd rather play those type of teams a little further down the schedule so we can mature varsity-wise, rather than catching them at the start of the year.
"A team like Jackson is returning all their starters but one from last year, so you could really get into a situation where you could get our confidence beat down quick, or we can step up to their level and play."
With the start of the season being a question mark in terms of how the team will respond to a high level of basketball, Overstake said he'll have to have patience.
"Personally, I'll have to have enough patience with them to know a majority of them will be coming up from the reserve team, so they are still learning," he said. "There are offenses we still haven't practiced yet because we are still working on the fundamentals of our primary offenses and our two to three defenses we are going to play.
"I've had to be able to step back and let Coach (Jarrod) Haines and Coach (Audra) Branham do some things instead of me ... in other words, not being after them all the time on things I think they should know, but they don't."
This season for the Lady Tigers, they must replace a senior class of six solid players from a team last season that had no juniors, which led to the current situation of no senior class this year.
In fact, MHS (15-7 last season) has just two players who had significant time at the varsity level last season in sophomore Shania Massie and junior Tara Karnes. Last year, Massie started most of the season, while Karnes played three quarters per game at the JV level and two quarters at varsity.
Coach Overstake spoke about not having any seniors for the second time in his coaching career.
"Usually you have some kids that have been in the program and at the varsity level. We have two who last year went through the battles at the varsity level, and they know what they are doing," he said. "It's going to take time for those coming up from the reserve to understand what it takes to play at the varsity level."
In her freshman season, last year Massie scored 203 points (9.2 ppg), with 24 3-pointers, 47 2-point baskets and 37 free-throws (54 percent). Defensively, Massie last season totaled 94 rebounds (28 offensive), 62 steals and two blocked shots, along with 38 assists in 16 starts in 22 games played.
As for Karnes, in 21 games played, she scored 85 points (4 ppg) total in her two quarters per game played. Karnes shot 48.5 percent from the field and 63 percent from the free-throw line. On the defensive side, Karnes had 64 rebounds (32 offensively), with seven blocked shots, eight steals and seven assists.
Gone from last season is a senior class that totaled 659 points, including Sammy Rooks, who scored 233 points, and Jenna Perie, who totaled 178. Also gone from last year are Taylor Faulconer, Kaitlyn Faulconer, Brittany Mullikin and Kate Crabtree, all of whom played many minutes in last year's rotation.
"We are losing all type of athletes, and the biggest thing is the experience we lost due to graduation," Overstake said. "We had Sammy and Jenna play three years varsity for us, and kids who improved and were consistent throughout.
[[In-content Ad]]
"We lost two of our top three scorers, so we have to have someone step up and score consistently and have multiple people who can score for us. It is the same thing year to year … you've got to have players step up and replace those who aren't here anymore."
New this year for the Lady Tigers are Katy Unger and Caitlyn Lovett, along with Sarah Thompson, who Overstake describes as a strong player.
"Sarah will have to play some wing and post for us inside," Overstake said. "Hopefully, we can stay out of foul trouble."
Also at varsity this year will be sophomore Haylee Turner and sophomore Sydney Barton; along with junior Sarah Davis and sophomore Lauren Rayburn, who played JV last season. Also new to varsity is junior Alli Willett, who didn't play last season.
Coach Overstake said with the young team they have, there won't be a lot of time to learn slowly as their early schedule is very competitive. The scrimmage season should help MHS as they took on Chillicothe, Huntington, Southeastern and Westfall, teams that are similar to them as the season nears.
"Our schedule won't allow us to take time to improve early on," Overstake said. "We start off with Adena, Miami Trace, Jackson, Unioto, Eastern Brown and Hillsboro … so they are all very tough and return a lot of players.
"We have to improve every night in practice and take that to the game. Then we have to see what we have to improve on in each game. When you are playing top-level teams, we can't come up with one game plan to fix for five or six top-level teams."
Early in this upcoming season, MHS will play five games in 10 days.
"We don't have a lot of time for growing pains," Overstake said. "I'd rather play those type of teams a little further down the schedule so we can mature varsity-wise, rather than catching them at the start of the year.
"A team like Jackson is returning all their starters but one from last year, so you could really get into a situation where you could get our confidence beat down quick, or we can step up to their level and play."
With the start of the season being a question mark in terms of how the team will respond to a high level of basketball, Overstake said he'll have to have patience.
"Personally, I'll have to have enough patience with them to know a majority of them will be coming up from the reserve team, so they are still learning," he said. "There are offenses we still haven't practiced yet because we are still working on the fundamentals of our primary offenses and our two to three defenses we are going to play.
"I've had to be able to step back and let Coach (Jarrod) Haines and Coach (Audra) Branham do some things instead of me ... in other words, not being after them all the time on things I think they should know, but they don't."