Eagle Mia Nicholas steals the ball from Potomac's Sage Fife and makes the break for a layup where she scored two of her four points in the Feb. 4 game.
Aubrey Matthew puts up a layup in the March 4 home game against Potomac. Matthew led the Eagles scoring 14 of the Eagles' 38 points.
Eighth grader Matiah Stidham shoots making two points for the Eagles early in the first half.
Bailey Bartlett shoots for two of her four points against Potomac.
Eighth grade Eagle Nova Wilkey puts up two points.
Alison Kilpatrick takes an outside shot for two.
Rilyn Richardson goes for the steal from Morgan O'Hara of Potomac.
SEELEY LAKE – The Seeley Lake Elementary Eagles are wrapping up their season this week with tournaments in Clinton. Head Coach Brett Haines said the season had its ups and downs but was pleased with the improvement made by the young team.
They had around 20 girls come out for the A and B teams this year. There were only three eighth graders that played this year.
"We are a younger team this year. Some of our eighth graders had limited time on the varsity level [A team]," said Haines. "Hopefully it is a learning process this year."
Eighth grader Nova Wilkey had the most experience of the three. Haines said she gives the team some height, is good at rebounding and can shoot well when she squares up.
"We are really hoping for big things from Nova to lead us into the tournament," said Haines. "We need her shooting to be successful."
Haines said that eighth grader Angel Bruton plays with a lot of heart and works hard for the team. She gives it a good effort and makes some shots.
This was eighth grader Matiah Stidham's first year playing. Haines said she gives a good effort, is athletic and tries hard.
"She is just playing against girls that have played for four years," said Haines who added she had been working to catch up on the fundamentals of the game.
Haines said the team has been working hard on defense, switching on screens and staying in between the opponent and the basket.
"We are working on fixing things that we are doing incorrectly. Hopefully we will make a run in the tournaments and give some teams some tough games," said Haines.
Haines said there are some tough teams this year in the Copper League. While the team's record is less than 50 percent, they have showed improvement. He highlighted the games against St. Joes. The first game they lost by nearly 60 points. But when they met them again later in the season, they were within 10 points of them in the third quarter.
"We were playing pretty good, doing things right and we were in the game," said Haines. "That was a huge success. We are playing better and playing teams better."
The team's goal at tournaments is to be in the games and give the teams they meet a run for a possible win. Tournaments started March 9. SLE lost their first game to MIS and will play Clinton at 4 p.m. Wednesday at Target Range.
"We are out there to play to win but we are not going to win them all," said Haines. "We are hopeful for tournaments and see what we can do there."
B team wrap-up
The B team including fourth, fifth and sixth graders had up to 12 players at their peak. They finished the season with nine girls and Coach Brad Miller was proud of how much the girls improved over the season.
Miller said, like the A team, the B team had a slow start to the season. They worked on fundamentals focusing on layups, ball handling, reading the court and dribbling away from double and triple teams and making smart passes.
Defense was been the biggest thing that Miller keyed in on early in the season. He realized that the girls needed to learn to drop back on defense. They were playing too close to the three-point line and having girls go around the backdoor for layups.
"Now we are starting to figure out that if we stay between our girl and the basket, we have a better chance of getting a rebound, better chance of getting the ball back," said Miller.
Once the girls learned the flow of the offense, they started winning by 20 or more points.
"The games we make all of our open layups is when we really stomp teams," said Miller. "The girls have come a long way."
Miller said the first time the girls played St. Joes they lost by more than 30 points. The second time on their home court they lost by less than 10.
"They were sweating and their coach was getting mad," said Miller smiling. "We lost but you could tell the girls were excited because that was a team that showed how good they were and that really was a testament to their improvement. It was a fun game to play."
Miller is proud of the girls. Even though they had a rough start to the season, he said the last games they were rolling.
"They are holding their own against seventh graders," said Miller. "I'm really proud of how much they improved."
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