By Chris Parker
A loaded sophomore group will lead the Buffalo Lady Bison coming off a six-win season.
“We are a very young group this year,” Buffalo head coach Cory Hanger said. “We should be more competitive this year than we were last season. Even though we are young, all of our sophomores played a lot of varsity and are much improved from a year ago. If we can jell together and play as a team for four quarters, we will give ourselves opportunities to win a lot more games this year.”
At the head of that sophomore group is forward Leah White. White was named all-conference and all-district last season. She led the team with 13.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last season.
“Leah immediately had to step into an important role for this team as a freshman,” Buffalo head coach Cory Hanger said. “She had to take on a lot of responsibilities for the team and she flourished in her role. She was our leading scorer and rebounder. Leah is very competitive and wants to be successful.”
The other returning sophomores include Shelby Samek (guard), Addy Armstrong (guard), Natalie Burkle (guard) and Kaylee Barker (center).
Hanger on Samek: “Shelby came into our team later in the season. She immediately made an impact on our team. She was one of our best defenders on the team and she is one of the most naturally athletic girls I have coached.”
Hanger on Armstrong: “Addy is one of the hardest working players on our team. She has been to everything this summer and offseason as well. Because of this she has taken strides in her game. We will look to Addy being one of our best defenders and handling the ball as well.”
Hanger on Burkle: “Natalie won most improved player last year. She plays with a lot of energy and that gave her a lot of chances at Varsity last year.”
CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO ALL OF THE WINTER PREVIEWS
Hanger on Barker: “Kaylee is probably the toughest kid on our team. She battled through a lot of injuries last year and was one of our best JV players and gave solid varsity minutes. She plays well inside and is a great rebounder.”
Samek is the second-leading returning scorer at 5.8 points and 5 rebounds per game over just 12 games. Armstrong chipped in 1.6 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
Freshman Kenzie Wilson will look to make be a force on varsity from Day 1.
“Kenzie is a player we have been looking forward to and are very excited to finally have in high school,” Hanger said. “She will make an immediate impact on our varsity team. She can score from every part of the floor and showed that this summer against varsity teams. Kenzie will also be one of our primarily ball handlers.”
This group is young, but they do not lack experience playing together.
“We return a lot of scoring and offensive output from a year ago,” Hanger said. “We may be young, but we have a group of girls that have been playing with each other from a young age and have built team chemistry up throughout the last couple years.”
Defense and leadership will need to be developed this season for the Lady Bison to find success.
“We have to get better at defense as our two best defensive players graduated from last year,” Hanger said. “We are going to be young, so there will be a lot of growing pains throughout this year and our girls will have to work through that and overcome some adversity. We do not have the luxury of having upperclassmen leadership, so some of our younger girls are going to have to step up and be leaders this upcoming season.”
Hanger will look for his team to push pace and use their athleticism to their advantage.
“We are going to be a pretty athletic team this year with some size,” Hanger said. “We are going to play a much faster style of basketball this year utilizing our athleticism in different defensive presses to cause havoc on the course. Offensively, we will be looking to push the floor in transition and beat teams with our speed. We have more players that can win one-on-one than we did a year ago, which will be a headache for teams to guard.”
Buffalo opens the season Nov. 27-30 at the Seneca Tournament.
“Even though we may be young this year we have some athletes with a lot of potential,” Hanger said. “I am excited to see our girls continue to grow on and off the court. They will be a scary group to contend with as they grow throughout this season and into the future.”
