Woodland Girls Basketball Preview

Conference: Stoddard County

Coach: Robert Stein, 3rd year

District: Class 3 District 2

Schedule:

Date Day of Week Opponent Location Time

November 25, 2014 Tuesday Charleston Away 6 p.m.

December 8-13, 2014 Monday-Saturday Lady Red Devils Invitational Tournament Chaffee TBA

December 15, 2014 Monday Scott City Away 6 p.m.

December 18, 2014 Thursday Egyptian, Ill. Home 6 p.m.

January 5-8, 2015 Monday-Thursday Delta New Years Tournament Delta TBA

January 12, 2015 Monday Clearwater Away 6 p.m.

January 15, 2015 Thursday Saxony Lutheran Home 6 p.m.

January 16, 2015 Friday Shawnee (Wolf Lake, Ill.) Away 6 p.m.

January 19, 2015 Monday Puxico Home 6 p.m.

January 20, 2015 Tuesday Chester, Ill. Home 6 p.m.

January 22, 2015 Thursday Meadow Heights Home 6 p.m.

January 26, 2015 Monday Scott County Central Away 6 p.m.

January 29, 2015 Thursday Perryville Home 6 p.m.

January 31, 2015 Saturday Coaches vs. Cancer Shootout Charleston TBA

February 2, 2015 Monday Chaffee Away 6 p.m.

February 9, 2015 Monday Oran Home 6 p.m.

February 12, 2015 Thursday Delta Home 6 p.m.

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

Roster:

Name Grade Ht.

Hannah Scott 9

Heidi Green 9

Krista Rhodes 9

Rebekah Page 9

Cheyenne Wells 10

Hanna Berrong 10

Kristin Boyer 10

Ciara Rainbolt 11

Mara Grindstaff 11

Shelby Sawyer 11

Taylor Lincoln 11

Whitney Lincoln 11

Audrey Wilkinson 12

Bailey Jones 12

Returning starters: Shelby Sawyer, Whitney Lincoln

Starters lost: Josie Long, Kat Cooper, Lindsey Craft, Taylor Toombs

Last year's record: 17-6

Postseason result: Lost to St. Pius X (Festus) 67-50 in a district quarterfinal

Last year's leaders:

Points: Josie Long (26.2 ppg)

Rebounds: Long (11.2 rpg)

Assists: Long (4.0 apg)

Team outlook

Four starters from last year's Woodland girls basketball team graduated, and now the remaining Cardinals, some newcomers and coach Robert Stein will try to pick up where they left off last season with a 16-7 record.

"It's a pretty daunting task to try to reload," Stein said. " *... I think we'll be more balanced than we've been the last couple of years as far as offense and defense. We're just going to hopefully be able to make up for [the players graduated] with mental toughness and grittiness."

Seniors Josie Long, Kat Cooper, Lindsey Craft and Taylor Toombs were all starters for the Cardinals while Ashley Chapman contributed off the bench.

Long, who is continuing her career at Mineral Area College, nearly averaged a triple double with 26.2 points, 11.2 rebounds and 9.4 steals per game last season and was the Southeast Missourian Player of the Year for girls basketball.

"We're going to need it from everybody," Stein said when asked about how he'll fill the roles of his seniors.

The Cardinals do return two starters in juniors Taylor Lincoln and Shelby Sawyer, both of whom Stein said showed potential to be good defensively last season. Stein also mentioned junior Mara Grindstaff as a shooter, and said the Cardinals are "going to need big things out of" the four freshman on the roster.

"We're going to try to put pressure on the other team on both ends of the floor," Stein said. "We're really not going to try to change much from what we do, we'll just hopefully be able to do it with different players."

Stein said he feels his team is capable of being competitive this season by the way the players have been pushing each other in practice, but that until he sees them against outside competition he's unsure of what exactly they're capable of.

"We're going to go out and try to represent Woodland in the correct fashion every game," Stein said. "Both the last two years we've been in the championship of both tournaments, Chaffee tournament and Delta New Year's tournament. We're going to make an attempt to play on championship night in both those tournaments again and just try to get better as the year goes on. We're going to be extremely young -- we only have one senior -- and hopefully by the time the district tournament rolls around we'll be able to scare some other teams in that district."

District breakdown

St. Pius X of Festus, which ended the Cardinals season the last two years, moved to Class 3 District 3.

But the two-time defending district champion Saxony Lutheran Crusaders remain in the district and return the majority of its players from a team that finished fourth in state last season.

Arcadia Valley, which was last year's district runner-up, also stays in the tournament with the Cardinals.

"Arcadia Valley and Saxony Lutheran, I think, are by far the two favorites in our district," Stein said. "I think Kelly will be much-improved, Scott City I think brings everybody back. Clearwater will still be really good. They still have one of the best players in the region, who will be a senior for them this year. Charleston's going to be pretty decent I think this year. I think AV and Saxony going into the season are the clear favorites."

Looking back

In the past four seasons Woodland has reached a district championship game and set a school record for wins twice.

The Cardinals' 17 wins last season was one short of tying the 18-win mark they'd set the season before.

"The kids are working really hard, trying to continue to build on what we've been trying to do the last couple of years," Stein said.

"I'm hoping that we're just continuing to get mentally tougher and more consistent fundamental play as we go on," Stein added.