MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Almost one year ago, the University girls’ basketball team had just beat Cabell Midland, 56-43, and were excitedly awaiting a rematch against No. 1 Parkersburg in the state tournament semifinals. But, just a few minutes after the victory over the Knights, the Hawks were some of the first to be dealt a blow by the COVID-19 pandemic, told to pack up and head back to Morgantown.
The five seniors – Ashten Boggs, Mallory Napolillo, Abbie Coen, Kassidy Wolfe and Isabella Bowers – never got another chance to step on the court for UHS, graduating without knowing what could have been.
“It’s been rough,” UHS coach David Price said. “I know those girls were disappointed to be told to go home after they won a big game. That was a hard thing to go through with them. This year’s been hit and miss whether we’d get to play again. We’re a lot different that we don’t have those seniors.”
But now, Price and his very different-looking group of girls are three practices in as they prepare for what will be a strange, compressed season. The first noticeable change is UHS doesn’t have a senior on the roster, at least for now. The team does have two junior leaders, however, in guards Lauren Dean and Madison McClurg, pivotal players last year when Price needed to give Boggs, Wolfe or Bowers a break. Of the underclassmen, Dean was the most active, getting plenty of time as a second-year varsity starter and averaging nearly 7 points a game (6.9). Sophomores Eden Gibson and Emily Sharkey also got solid time last season and averaged 3.2 and 4 points a game, respectively. Price expects these four to step into the roles left open, especially Dean.
“They’ve got some valuable playing time, and I think because we had such a good group of seniors that allowed those players to come in and have a freshman season and not have all the weight on them,” Price said. “Those girls [the seniors] did a good job of helping them do what they have to do this season and take over.
“Dean is a big piece to our team. She’s somebody that’s very seasoned to the game – I don’t think anything is going to catch her off guard. We look to her to be a big part of our team, and I think that’s something we always planned. I think she’s a great player, she’s long, she creates a lot of problems defensively for people. She’s got a really good nose for the ball, she knows what she’s doing and we’re going to count on her, there’s no question.”
The other noticeable change is the height difference. All but one senior last year leveled out around 5-foot-11, while Bowers was the outlier stand-in at 5-foot-4. According to last year’s roster, Dean and forward Aza Boateng, now a sophomore, are the tallest returners at 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-9, respectively. Without the familiar height, the Hawks will need to spread the floor more and rely on fast break plays.
“We’re working on changing the ways we did things to accommodate that,” Price said. “Where we look to methodically put you in a half-court situation and pick on the mismatches with Ashten and the bigs we had in the past, I think now that we don’t have that we look to become more of an open-court team; transition and do some things, pressing and stuff, that maybe not have us in those situations in half-court sets methodically picking you apart. Using their speed to get them out in the open court and hopefully make some plays at the basket without the defense being back.”
The energy at the last three practices has been good, too, despite the path to get here according to Price.
“The girls are trying extremely hard to do what the coaches are asking them. To me, that’s a big deal,” Price said. “I feel like we could be in better shape, but that’s why we do what we do. With the time constraint that could be a little tougher, it may cause us to be at the end of the season before we’re playing, what I consider, good basketball. But I think that could be expected, I don’t have a hang-up about that. That’s just a process we’re going to have to go through.”
Price also has a solid group of freshmen entering the program who will help “a great deal.”
This will help provide him with the depth he needs, too. With a tightened season, athletes can get worn down. Yet, Price thinks things will be OK.
“I teased other coaches when I talked to them, telling them how they played into my hand: Young team, hardly any practices, go play three games a week. But in all honesty, it’s going to be alright. You’ll be deeper because you have to play more kids to accomplish that. Like I said, for obvious reasons of being in shape, the tempo of the game we plan on doing. Just by our makeup, it’s going to force more players onto the floor. I don’t look at it as a bad thing, it’s just one of those things that, here are the circumstances now how are you going to get through it?”
University opens its season against John Marshall on March 4. The original season opener against Parkersburg South had to be rescheduled due to COVID-19 issues at South, according to UHS.
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