[Stardust]

George Rogers Clark girls basketball coach Scott True hopes to have his entire team intact when the Lady¿Cardinals open the season Monday at Madison Central.

True and his staff have spent more time dealing with injuries than working on basic fundamentals during preseason workouts in preparation for the upcoming season.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries,” the Clark coach said. “We’ve had ankle, calf muscle, back and hip (injuries) and we’ve actually had our entire 14 girls together for one day. We’ve had our top six-seven together for three days, so we’re behind. It’s just part if it and hopefully we have those injuries now rather than later. That’s been frustrating.”

Topics
Basketball
The Lady Cardinals return three starters from last year’s squad that finished 24-8 and lost to Montgomery County 58-51 in the 10th Region finals. Clark defeated the Lady Indians three times during the season, including a 50-34 victory in the 40th District Tournament finals, but fell short in its bid for a second straight region title and berth in the Sweet¿Sixteen.

Clark’s top returnees included seniors Kelsie Parido and Brittani Gay. Freshman Sandra Skinner, who logged valuable minutes off the bench last season as an eighth-grader, also returns for the Lady Cardinals. True is expecting more production from Parido, Taylor Rose, Maddie Hamlin and Gay, the team’s top returning scorer.

“Our seniors are going to have to do bigger things than they did last year,” True said. “Kelsie and Tayloir Rose are going to have to really provide more points and defense this year than they did last year.”

True’s top task is replacing a departed graduating class that featured Prisha Rogers, Shamy Williams, Taylor Kindred and Caitlin Crump. Williams, now at Walters State College in Tennessee, was the team’s floor general.¿She was one of the most prolific players in school history and had been the point guard for four straight seasons. During the past two seasons, Clark has compiled an impressive 43-19 record, complete with a regional championship.

“We lost a lot of guard play,” True said. “That’s a lot of experience to replace, plus you’re replacing about 65 percent of your offense. We’ve got some young kids who will need to step into bigger roles. I am more concerned about the experience that we lost than the points that we lost and replacing that. It’s just going to be a matter of playing, playing a tough schedule and trying to be ready at tournament time.”

To make up for the lack of experience and the loss of leadership, True said his team needs to “be great defensively and great on the boards.”

“Size-wise, this is the biggest team that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” he said. “We have more height than we’ve ever had. We’ve got to use that and that’s got to be our advantage.”

Because of the team’s size, True said the Lady Cards will be more post-oriented as opposed to the up-and-down style his teams have employed during his 11-year tenure as the team’s coach.

“We’ll be a lot more inside-based this year than what we’ve been in the past,” True said. “We’re going to pound the ball inside, because that’s where our strength is (and) that’s got to translate into a lot of pressure in the half-court and winning the boards every night. That’s what we’ve got to do.”

True isn’t a fan of using “rebuilding” as the current status for his program, but added that the season “will be a change for us.”

“We’re going to play differently,” he said. “We were very perimeter-based, but we graduated three senior guards. Not that we didn’t go inside, but we were very athletic and very perimeter-based. This group doesn’t have to rebuild, they have to refocus. This big word we’re using around here is toughness.¿We have to be mentally and physically tougher than we’ve been in the past. We’ve really got be really physical on the defensive end, and we can’t let bad stretches of the games bother us.”

Players to watch:
Gay: “Brittani should get a double-double every night in points and rebounds, she has that ability, unless a team does a great job on her, because she runs the floor so well and she’s so athletic,” True said.
Parido, Rose and Lexxus Graham: “That’s got to be our most consistent group. Those three have to get eight to 10 points every night, two or three steals and four or five rebounds,” True said.
Skinner: “She’s the player — if you’re looking down the road — is the player who should emerge this year,” True said. “She’s really got all of the potential in the world. The sky is the limit for her.”

Top newcomer:
Paige Hammonds: “She actually played here in middle school, but (her family) moved away and she moved back,” True said. “She’ll be a good shooter for us. She went to the state tournament last year at Sheldon¿Clark and she was their sixth-man last year off the bench.¿She’s got some big-game experience, which will help.”