Perryville Girls Basketball Preview

Conference: Jefferson County Activities Association (Large Schools Division)

Coach: Vicki Lohmann, 17th year

District: Class 4 District 1

Schedule:

Date Day of Week Opponent Location Time

December 1, 2014 Monday Scott County Central Home 6 p.m.

December 8, 2014 Monday Jefferson (Festus) Away 6 p.m.

December 9, 2014 Tuesday Meadow Heights Away 6 p.m.

December 11, 2014 Thursday Notre Dame (Cape Girardeau) Away 6 p.m.

December 13, 2014 Saturday North County (JCAA Conference Shootout) Jefferson College 10 a.m.

December 17-22, 2014 Wednesday-Monday Kelso Supply Holiday Classic Show-Me Center TBA

December 26-30, 2014 Friday-Tuesday St. Paul Lutheran Invitational Tournament Farmington TBA

January 8, 2015 Thursday DeSoto Home 6 p.m.

January 19, 2015 Monday Valle Catholic Home 6 p.m.

January 20, 2015 Tuesday Sikeston Away 6 p.m.

January 22, 2015 Thursday Hillsboro Away 6 p.m.

January 29, 2015 Thursday Woodland Away 6 p.m.

January 31, 2015 Saturday St. Vincent Perry Park Center 2 p.m.

February 2, 2015 Monday Jackson Home 6 p.m.

February 5, 2015 Thursday Festus Away 6 p.m.

February 10, 2015 Tuesday Scott City Home 6 p.m.

February 12, 2015 Thursday Windsor (Imperial) Home 6 p.m.

February 16, 2015 Monday Fredericktown Home 6 p.m.

February 19, 2015 Thursday Cape Central Away 6 p.m.

February 23, 2015 Monday Ste. Genevieve Home 6 p.m.

February 26, 2015 Thursday North County Away 6 p.m.

Roster:

No. Player Year Height

3 Allison McGarvey 11 5'4

4 Kylie Bilek 11 5'5

5 Lydia Cook 10 5'6

10 Reese Nations 11 5'4

11 Abby Robinson 10 5'7

12 Ahnie Hoff 11 5'8

21 Jasmyn Mahathath 10 5'3

22 Alyssa Storts 10 5'3

23 Catrina More 12 5'4

24 Anna Huskey 11 5'6

32 Emma Nelson 11 5'7

45 Rachel Fritsche 10 5'6

Returning starters: Ahnie Hoff, Kylie Bilek

Starters lost: Allison Moldenhauer, Desiree Brown, Amiee More

Last year's record: 6-18

Postseason result: Lost to Sikeston 36-24 in a district quarterfinal

Last year's leaders:

Points: Allison Moldenhauer (11 ppg)

Rebounds: Ahnie Hoff (6 rpg)

Assists: Amiee More (3 apg)

Team outlook

Heading into her 17th season at the helm of the Perryville girls basketball team, coach Vicki Lohmann will be looking to her junior class to lead the Pirates.

Perryville lost three of its starters and regains two, including juniors Ahnie Hoff and Kylie Bilek. Lohmann said she has five other juniors who will fill in the other starting roles throughout the season.

"The experience may be kind of hit or miss at times, but I would say the majority of the time I'm going to have five players out there that are probably going to be from the junior class," Lohmann said. "Those girls played together last year at the junior varsity level and came off the bench some with varsity. They put in the most work together this summer, so they earned the spots in my book."

The experience will come, according to Lohmann, but the Pirates main focus over the summer was ball-handling.

The Pirates will have to replace Allison Moldenhauer, a four-year starting guard on varsity, who graduated at the end of the year.

"She was our one and only point guard for four years. Losing her was a big blow for us," Lohmann said. "I feel like we've done a pretty good job of having people work on their ball control skills and individual shooting. We're not going to be a very big team. We're not going to be very big, with our tallest player listed at 5-foot-8, so taking outside shots and having good ball control is focus No. 1."

Lohmann said Kylie Bilek will be doing the majority of the work at point guard, but isn't set on using just one point guard in each game. Lohmann said the Pirates biggest advantage is depth.

"What's fortunate about this is that I have a couple of girls who could do it," Lohmann said. "There may be some nights where I put a four guard lineup out there and then they could change between point guard, shooting guard and off guard. It's not a bad problem to have."

Right now, Lohmann said her team is just ready to play.

"I'm not sure that we're going to be any better as far as our record goes, but we will be more competitive," Lohman said. "I'm interested to see how we're going to compete against somebody else. I know what we can do against each other and I know that we want to improve on our record. I think we will and I have hope that we will, but that remains to be seen."

District outlook

Perryville returns to what Lohmann calls one of the toughest districts in the state. The Pirates have never made it past a quarterfinal round in Class 4 District 1.

"We're always in the strong district. I'm going to tell you, you've got the top three teams that are just dynamite," Lohmann said. "They are just so good that the people on the bottom can hardly fight to get a win. That's a strong district and it always has been."

Looking back

Perryville finished 6-18 last season and struggled to score in many of its games.

"I had girls who had some of the best shots I've ever seen, but they were very unselfish with the ball. There were plenty of shots we didn't take that we should have," Lohmann said. "This year, I have girls who really truly want to score, we just have to be better shooters. That kind of scares me because I don't know if we're to that point yet, but we can get there."

-- Ben Striker