By RICHIE HALL
ARCADIA – Things are different this year for the Hamilton Heights girls basketball team.
With a new coach and many new players on the team, including a few that are brand new to varsity basketball, the Huskies are in rebuilding mode. Heights also had to contend with a very good team for its season opener Tuesday, taking on Danville, which brought back some players from the Warriors’ semi-state qualifying squad last season.
Danville took it to the Huskies early, rolling to a 74-19 victory at the Huskies gym. It was a tough start, but first-year coach Erin Trimpe called it “a learning process.”
“We’re young and we are low in numbers and everybody’s having to step into new roles and find ways to adjust,” said Trimpe.
The Warriors scored the first seven points of the game. Heights came back with five points, starting with two free throws from Presley Cherry and a 3-pointer from Katie Brown, the lone varsity returner from last season.
Reece Blanton had two rebounds for the Huskies. (Richie Hall)
But Danville finished the quarter on a 12-0 run to lead 19-5. The Warriors extended their lead to 35-12 at halftime; Brown added five more points for Heights, including another 3.
Danville blasted through the third quarter, outscoring the Huskies 27-7, then shut them out in the fourth quarter by a 12-0 margin.
“They did a great job of putting pressure on us and we struggled a little bit, obviously” said Trimpe. “A lot of turnovers, which just sets them up for easy baskets.”
Brown scored eight points, while Cherry had seven points. A bright spot was freshman Sarah Sherrill, who scored four points, making one basket in both the second and third quarters. Brown and Sherrill both collected four rebounds.
“We’ve got three girls out right now who would probably be starters for us, who have a little bit more experience,” said Trimpe. The coach said that practices are focusing on “a lot of fundamentals. It’s a lot of just the basics of basketball and trying to get them familiar with the speed of the game, the physicality of the game.
“But until you see it in a game, you can’t prepare for it. And so I think this was an eye-opening experience for them, but it is something that we’re going to see quite often. We have a great schedule and we play very good teams, and so for us, it’s about adjusting to that and continuing to prepare them in practice.”
The Huskies play their first road game on Thursday, traveling to Pendleton Heights.
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