More Experience, Better Balance For Trojans
BOURBON — When guard Whytnie Miller went down with her second ACL tear early last season, it took Triton players a little while to adjust to their new roles. But the Lady Trojans persevered and began to coalesce as a team, although unfortunately, it didn’t always translate into wins as the team scuffled to a 6-17 finish.
This year, with Miller back in the lineup and a host of experienced players back around her, Triton is hoping to come out on the other side of some of those outcomes.
“I feel like this year we are more balanced. Last year when Whytnie got hurt and we got some other injuries throughout the year, we kind of had to play some kids out of position. They adjusted well, they got some great experience, but I feel like with the kids that we have back this year, we have a much better balance of guards and posts and a little bit more experience in all areas,” said Trojans coach Adam Heckaman. “Hopefully we get kids back into positions where they’re a little bit more comfortable and allow them to be a little bit more comfortable out there on the floor.”
Miller was a leader on the 2017-18 team before closing the year with an ACL tear in the waning minutes of an Oregon-Davis Sectional contest with the host Lady Cats, and she was leading the team in scoring at the outset of last season with 6.33 points an outing before suffering a tear to her other ACL just six games into the campaign. The Trojans will be happy to have her skills back on the floor, and they’ll use her to fill a variety of roles. But they’ll also be glad to have her leadership back.
“We’re thrilled to have Whytnie’s leadership back. That was something we missed a little bit last year,” Heckaman recalled. “She was a great vocal leader for us when she was out there on the floor for the five games that she was able to play. She was still around after she got hurt, but she really pushed herself to be able to come back and play again this year. And I think she’ll be a great asset to have out there on the floor after all the hard work she’s put in to rehab her second ACL tear.”
While Miller will play a variety of positions for Triton, senior Alyxa Viers returns to the post as the team’s second-leading rebounder from last year, and junior Lexia Hostrawser brings her talents back to the forward position after leading the team in scoring with 6.04 points per game over all 23 games last year. Taren Yates returns for her sophomore season at the guard position, while a number of other players are back after splitting time between the JV and varsity lineups in 2018-19.
Senior Jessica Soriano is back at guard, juniors Abby Viers, Jaelyn Bules and Emma Hepler all make their return, as do sophomores Madeline Doll and Jolie Groves. Freshman Kinsey Atkins should see plenty of playing time in the backcourt, giving Heckaman plenty of depth to work with this season.
“I feel like we have a lot of depth this year. We have a lot more depth this year as far as kids that are at the same level that we can rotate in and out at different positions, have different lineups. We’ll be looking for a lot of different kids to step up on different nights,” he said.
The Trojans averaged a tick under just 30 points per game last season, and they’ll need to step it up in that department if they hope to be competitive this year. Heckaman is hoping for a variety of players to put the ball in the basket, but he says the team will need a consistent scoring threat to emerge as well.
“We didn’t score a lot of points last year. We have Lexia back as one of our top two scorers from last season, but I think scoring and shooting is going to be a little bit of a question mark for us,” he said. “We have kids that are capable, but we’re definitely going to be looking for a couple kids that can step up and consistently put the ball in the basket to help us out. I think it could be several different kids, and we’re hoping that they’re all going to step up and score and we can have different leading scorers every other night. But we’re definitely going to need a consistent scorer in our lineup, so we’ll have to see who emerges as that person for us.”
The Trojans were able to stay in games via effort on the defensive end of the floor last year. Much of that was accomplished in the half court, but Heckaman would like to see some of his quicker players turn some teams over this season for a few easy transition buckets. Which would go some way towards sorting out any scoring woes and could translate to some confidence in the offensive half court, too.
“We have some pretty good speed with our guards. Taren Yates and Kinsey Atkins are real quick. Whytnie will get a lot of that speed back, I think, as she continues to work at it,” said Heckaman. “That’s something that we’re hoping to be able to do a little bit more this year. Last year our length helped us to really hang in some games by playing our zone, but we’re hoping to get some of our smaller guards out in the passing lanes this year and get them out and running to score some easy buckets to build that confidence.”
Sharing much of its lineup with the school volleyball team, the Lady Trojans always seem to get off to a slow start to the season, and that’s not likely to change this year, as several players will have the minimum five practices in as of Triton’s opener at John Glenn tonight. But if his players can continue to show steady growth throughout the year, Heckaman likes his team’s chances in the latter half of the season.
“Our goal is to make sure that each day we’re getting better, to push each other to make sure by the end of the season we’re playing our best basketball. And if we can do that — challenge ourselves individually and as a team every night — and if we progress, I feel like by the end of the season we can be competing to do some pretty good things for our team,” he said.