Prep Basketball- The High School Girls’ Basketball season is set to tip-off tomorrow, November 21st, for the state of Iowa, though most teams will get the season underway on Tuesday, November 25th. Nevertheless, teams are tightening the screws before first action, so why don’t we look at how the Southeast Conference (SEC) stacks up against one another.
To simplify things, we’ll go over two potential positives and negatives for each team.
#11 Burlington
The Grayhounds enter the season as the favorite to continue their reign atop the SEC as the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union placed them at #11 in the Class 4A rankings. Understandable considering they return a good chuck of their squad that picked up 16 victories last year and made their regional semifinals.
One of the team’s positives is Mylee Stiefel. The returning SEC Player of the Year continues to evolve her game as she added a new dimension of passing last year and still averaged 18 points per game. She will be helped by Daphne Brown, who led the team in steals last year.
After a lackluster first half against Winfield-Mt. Union at a jamboree Mt. Pleasant hosted this past Monday night, the Grayhounds attacked the passing lanes, and this is where Burlington will look to push their advantage. An average of 12.6 steals per game can keep this team running up and down the court—caveat would be lack of depth with only 10 total players on the roster.
Now the potential weaknesses, the first resides in a potential strength, which is fouls. There’s a fine line between stomping grapes and making wine, and that same line resides in playing aggressively and recklessly. All that to say, practice your free throws that will be a deciding factor if they lean more reckless.
The other weakness is no Kylee Hill. The all-around athlete provided some more height to a roster that lacks it and a strong presence in the low block as she nearly averaged a double-double last season. This year, Kinsley Peterson will be forced to step up as the only player on the roster with experience and over 5’10.
Burlington will hit the road on Tuesday, November 25th, to face off against #4 Clear Creek Amana at 7:30 pm.
Keokuk
For the first time since 2020, the Chiefs did not finish the season as the #1 team in the SEC after losing to Burlington twice by a combined four points. Still, Keokuk went on to win 18 games last season as the defense generated 17 steals per game to come out with a +1-turnover differential.
The Chiefs will definitely be leaning on Kendra Boatman, as the junior tallied 20.5 points, five assists, and five steals per game. The former SEC Player of the Year will again feel the brunt of the pressure of controlling the offense, but the defensive pressure will also lean on her, as well.
There’s something to be said about tradition. Keokuk has only loss three conference contests over the last four seasons and that type of confidence does not get whisked away easily. Against all other SEC teams last year, the Chiefs won by double digits.
With that being said, Keokuk graduated four of their five starters from last season and return only two players that played in at least half of the games last year. This team lacks experience to the highest degree.
Additionally, after graduating 6’0 Camryn Atterberg from last season, the Chiefs have no height to their team with Boatman and Nevaeh Logan measuring in at 5’8, sharing the title of tallest on the team. The Chiefs will depend on a press defense, but to be truly successful in that you need trust amongst the players on the floor and that’s a big question mark.
The Chiefs will square off against Quincy Notre Dame on Tuesday at 6:15 pm on the road.
Fort Madison
Fort Madison has been terrific in the 2020s, posting five straight winning seasons to offset their five straight losing seasons from 2015 to 2019. Head coach Landon Bentley has instilled an identity of tough defense and relentless rebounding, and they could make a run at the conference title.
That identity is perhaps the greatest strength of this team. The Bloodhounds return all of their starters from last year and they all understand what keeps this team in the win column: offensive rebounds and steals. This is a team that held nearly half of their opponents under 30 points last season.
A direct antithesis to Keokuk’s situation, this team is used to playing fast and aggressive and trust in one another to be in the right spot to make sure their press defense is running on all cylinders. This team is unselfish and the epitome of team basketball.
That reason for that cohesiveness comes from the fact that the Bloodhounds suffer from not having a true superstar or, rather, someone who can take over the game. Dayonna Davis might be the closest to fitting that role; however, when they need someone to take over, I don’t know who has the ability to do that.
The offense struggled to shoot the ball as well with a 38.3% field goal percentage and a three-point percentage of just 25%. Both percentages ranked in the bottom half of Class 4A. That struggle was evident when their opponents scored over 40 points in a game as the Bloodhounds were a feeble 1-5 in such contests.
Fort Madison will host Ottumwa on Monday, November 24th, at 7:30 pm.
Washington
The Demons will be the most intriguing team of the conference. Colin Mulford has full control of the reigns this season as he looks to curtail a streak of five consecutive losing seasons.
The Demons have plenty of reason to be excited as they return three of their five main starters from last season, including Adalyn Long, who averaged a team leading 12.9 points per game. They also bring back some names that have not played basketball for a couple of years.
Surprisingly, there is one team that is excited about their team’s height, especially when it comes to conference play. Of their returning starters and most of the players who saw a chunk of time on the floor last season, the Demons will have everyone standing between 5’9 and 5’11.
Against a conference that depends on playing pressure defense and speeding up opponents, Washington’s 17 turnovers per game does not inspire confidence. Add in just eight steals per game and you put have placed the burden on half-court offense, an aspect that can fluctuate throughout the year.
That fluctuation resulted in coin-flip games not landing in the Demons’ favor, dragging around a 1-5 record in games decided by six points or less. Want to take that next step, must learn how to win in the clutch.
Washington will start their season with a road showdown against Muscatine at 6:30 pm on Tuesday.
Mt. Pleasant
Injuries greatly hurt the Panthers last season with their starters missing a combined 21 games out of the 22 played last season, resulting in a 3-19 season. The lack of depth caused Mt. Pleasant to drift away from their identity but also gave players an opportunity to work outside their comfort zone. With five seniors on the roster, expect a lot of growth from the Panthers this season.
There’s some state level speed on Mt. Pleasant’s side with the likes of senior Kynlee White and freshman Avery Fedler. Expectedly, the Panthers would like to use that to their advantage and run up and down the court.
“I’m hoping we’re going to be a scrappy, which I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen” said head coach Curt Watson. “We want to try to do a little bit more pressuring this year. Last year, we just didn’t have the bodies to do it. This year, I think we have the bodies and the quickness to go out and put more pressure on other teams than we have in the past and I think that’s going to be probably our identity because thinking the Jamboree we scored 30 points and I was telling the girls after that I’m not sure we scored 30 most of the year last year in games, so that was a big plus for us.”
As coach said above, depth will be another positive for the Panthers this season. The only injury entering the season that the Panthers have to nurse is freshman Elodie Rawson, but she is outpacing the anticipated recovery time and has already been cleared to practice, though full game action will have to wait a bit longer.
Injuries have curtailed the success of the past couple Panther teams, so to start off the year healthy is a big plus.
Much like the rest of the SEC, the Panthers have no height. Of players who saw action in over half of last year’s games, only one is listed above 5’8—Linzy Striegel at 5’9. At a scrimmage in Cedar Rapids last Saturday, coach Watson said they were exposed when teams had a bit of size.
Hopefully, this weakness will not be prevalent this year, but the half court offense struggled last year as the Panthers shot just 31% from the field and 21% from downtown. A lack of height won’t help, but if they can get their press to work and turn games into track meets, then it should not be as glaring of an issue.
Mt. Pleasant will travel to #14 Pella on Tuesday at 7 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 6:45 pm.
Fairfield
Lastly, Fairfield will hope to bounce back from a one-win season last year, as they defeated Mt. Pleasant 40-35 on the road late in the year. With only one senior in the starting lineup last year, this team could see a sweeping improvement.
First off, the experience will be huge for the Trojans with Maddy Martin, Faith Jones, and Elyse Setterstrom set to start for their senior season. That experience should improve an offense that struggled mightily shooting the basketball with a 27.6% field goal percentage.
Faith Jones, the leading scorer and defender, returns for Fairfield and will be in charge of the offense. The senior had a huge season on the volleyball court and will look to bring that momentum onto the basketball court.
Even with the influx of experience, the number of turnovers last season was concerning to say the least. The Trojans coughed up the basketball 22 times per game last season and generated only 7.5 steals per game to counteract it.
Their one-win season last year has now made it that Fairfield has collected only five wins in the past three seasons. Winning is contagious, unfortunately, so is losing. If Fairfield falls into a hole early in the season, the rest of the year could cascade with them.
Fairfield tips-off their season at home tomorrow, November 21st, at 7:30 pm against Chariton.
