Lady Rams feel they can win more games this winter

McGUFFEY — Despite having just seven players and no seniors on his roster, Upper Scioto Valley girls basketball coach Travis Donnelly feels that his squad has the potential to be much improved over its 2-19 record of last winter. 

“If we can stay out of foul trouble and not be injury-prone we look to compete  and hope that conference-wise we’ll be right there at the end,” Donnelly said. “I do strongly like this group, even through it’s small. We’re young – very young with no seniors this year, but they are feisty and give everything they have every practice and every game.”

Despite there being no seniors, Donnelly returns four players that got significant playing time in the past – junior Kennedy Hall and sophomores Nevaeh Lowery, Amelia Hurley and Patiance Cole

Cole averaged 5 points per game last winter, while Hall chipped in with 4.8 points per contest, Both averaged 3.5 rebounds per game. 

Hurley was good for 1.8 points per game, and Lowery averaged 1.6 points per contest. 

“Patiance worked really hard last year and became a contributor in the post,’ Donnelly said. “She was just a freshmen last year and about halfway through the season she came on. Really all of four of them kind of came on later in the year once they got a few games under their belts.”

The four returnees will be joined by freshmen Sydney Christensen, Shaylynn Lawrence and Jessenia Hernandez.

“In a couple of the scrimmages we’ve had, she has dominated in the post with the rebounds,’ Donnelly said of Christensen. “Shaylynn has really come on strong here lately. She was kind of shy and timid over the summer, but she’s really getting a lot more aggressive now.” 

“We played in a summer league and did a couple shootouts. It was good for them to get a lot of experience that way.”

Donnelly said the Lady Rams are quicker than they have been in the recent past. 

“We’ll be able to do some things that we haven’t been able to do press-wide on defense,” he said. “Neveah handled the ball a little bit last year and she’s going to handle it more this year. Kennedy will also handle the ball.”

With a majority of his players also playing volleyball for Donnelly in the fall, the USV coach hopes the Rams can carry some confidence from the fall into the winter

That was one of my goals when I took over in volleyball,” he said. “We won the most games the volleyball team has won since 2015 and I’m trying to bring that same vibe to basketball. I think this group is very athletic and once everything starts clicking, we’re going to be OK against schools I think we should be OK against.”

He said to have success though, the Rams will have to improve on the boards. 

“We’re not real big. Sydney at 5-9 is our tallest and Paige is our second tallest at 5-8,” the USV mentor said. “So we’re not really big and sometimes we’ve got to remind them to box out and rebound. If we do that we’re OK. But sometimes that is one of our weak points.”

He added that despite low numbers, the Rams hope to run up and down the floor more than they have in the recent past. 

I’ve got two new coaches this year and we all agree we still want to try and play a pressure defense. Offensively, I’ve always wanted to push the ball and with this team I can do that a little bit more than I’ve been able to do the last couple years, Donnelly said. “But at the same time we’ve got to be aware of being too worn out at the end of the game. So we’re going to have to pick and choose when we do things. If it’s working stay with it a little longer and if it’s not get out of it sooner.

“We have done a ton of conditioning to get them ready with only seven girls,” he added. “I’ve told them we’ve got to be in better shape than every team we play. So we’ve done a ton of conditioning already and I can see it paying off. They are getting their endurance. We still try to be as uptempo as we can be even with the numbers.”

The USV coach said Ridgedale coming into the league this year, could be the team to beat. 

“We played them in volleyball and they were good. We played OK though,” he said. “As far as the other schools, I think we can play with them. Perry is always tough competition. They are all going to be tough, but I feel like we can play with all of them. We just need a couple things to go our way and come out on the winning end.”