LADY HAWKS RETURN FULL NEST THIS SEASON

The Kelly girls basketball team forged a 17-10 record last season despite having a roster void of seniors.

It's no surprise, then, then second-year coach Curtis Finley is looking for more good things from the Lady Hawks this season -- especially once they regain the services of two key players who have been out with injuries suffered playing for Kelly's highly successful softball squad that made the state's final four."We had a very young team last year and I think we overachieved. We did all right," said Finley. "I look for us to be real competitive again, but we've had two key players out with injuries, which has made practice difficult."I haven't seen the whole group together. You'd like to see everybody together and see how they function."Added Finley, "Everybody worked pretty hard over the summer. The competition will be tough, with a lot of strong teams, but we hope to do well again. We were basically one point away from winning the (Scott-Mississippi) conference last year and we would like to compete for the conference again. We also finished second in both the Chaffee and conference tournaments and we'd like to get back to the finals of those again."Kelly basically returns six starters from last season as two players shared starting duties.

Top scorers back from a year ago for the Lady Hawks are 5-foot-8 junior Marissa Essner, 5-9 senior Audrey Burford and 5-9 sophomore Bridgett Riley.

Essner averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds per game last season to earn all-region honors while Burford averaged 12 points and eight rebounds to also make the all-region squad. Riley averaged 11 points.

However, Burford and Riley are the top players who have elbow injuries from softball and are out until December, according to Finley.

The Lady Hawks' fourth full-time returning starter is 5-5 senior Jenny Riley. Sharing starting duties last year were Jaime Bollinger and Amber Scherer, a pair of 5-7 seniors.

Finley also has high hopes for 5-5 sophomore Ashley Payne, a transfer from Dexter who started for the Lady Bearcats' last season; and a pair of freshmen, 5-7 Dana Essner and 5-8 Cara Scherer."We've got a strong freshmen group," Finley said.

Finley also said that his first-year assistant coach, Rod McQuerter, will give the program a big boost.

Kelly opened the season Nov. 22 against Delta.