By Chris Parker
McDonald County girls basketball will be looking to bounce back from a five win season behind the leadership of Megan Elwood, Analisa Ramirez and Lexi Abbott.
“Lexi and Analisa are very competitive and do a great job leading by example. Both have a great work ethic on and off the court,” McDonald County head coach Sean Crane said. “Megan will be a three-year varsity player with tons of experience. Megan is an excellent leader and incredibly hard worker that we will rely on a lot this season.”
Elwood averaged 3.6 points and 3.4 rebounds per game last year.
Juniors Anna Clarkson and Carlee Cooper also return for McDonald County. Clarkson is an offensively gifted guard who averaged 4.7 points, 2.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game last year. Cooper is entering her third year starting and is a strong defender. She averaged 3.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game last year.
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Katelynn Townsend rounds out the returning players. The junior guard is a strong shooter.
Corina Holland (junior), Jacee Frencken (junior), Natalie Gillming (junior), Roslynn Huston (sophomore), Rylee Anderson (sophomore), Carlie Martin (freshman), Jamie Washam (freshman) and Layla Wallian (freshman) will all look for time on varsity this year.
However the rotation shakes out, defense will be a strength for a team that will be looking to gain experience.
“Defense will need to be our strength as we will have a lot of players that can strive defensively for us,” Crane said. “Experience will need to improve for us to be successful this year. We will have a nice mixture of varsity experienced players and players with lots talent but no varsity experience yet.”
McDonald County opens the regular season on Nov. 18 at home against Hillcrest.
“Our identity has been and will continue to be when we are at our best is a defensive team that works hard night in night out,” Crane said. “We expecting to be much improved this year as this group we be young but very hardworking.”
