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Bison girls hoping to be more offensive at GNAC
McCook High School head girls basketball coach Jeff Ellis is hoping his team can get very offensive at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament in North Platte this week.
The Bison girls have struggled putting points on the board early this season, and McCook will face a tough test in the annual GNAC holiday tourney with three games in three days.
McCook opens the GNAC Tournament Tuesday, Dec. 29, against top seed North Platte. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. at the North Platte High School main gym.
The two teams played less than two weeks ago (Dec. 18) on the same North Platte floor, with the host Bulldogs running past McCook 72-27.
Ellis, in his first year as head of the McCook girls program, inherited an inexperienced squad, with no returning starters and just a handful of varsity letter winners returning. The Bison girls have struggled on the offensive end, averaging just 31.5 points per game while starting the season with eight straight losses. McCook opponents are scoring an average of just over 57 points per game.
Crucial turnovers hurting Bison girls
A big problem for Ellis and his team has been turnovers. The Bison girls have had several games with 30 or more miscues, and that has helped stop the McCook offensive attack before it even gets started. Ellis said his team has to clean up the turnovers in order to have any success.
"We have to come into these ball games with the mind-set that we have to lower our turnovers," he said. "By doing that, it's going to give us more of a chance to be successful on the offensive end, where we can do more things with the basketball and get the basketball into different girls' hands, and then put them in better situations to put more points on the board.
"A couple girls are doing the majority of our scoring. A lot of girls aren't even getting to touch the basketball. That's due to our high turnovers when we're just getting into our secondary break.
"We have to take care of the basketball, and when we do that we will have more success on the offensive end. We're not even giving ourselves very many opportunities to score, to put points on the board, because we're not even getting into our half-court game. We're turning the ball over before we even get there."
Junior Gretchen Sehnert has been a leader for the Bison girls. Sehnert has been the leading scorer in over half the McCook games, including three straight double-digit performances and a 20-point effort in a loss at Cozad Dec. 15.
Senior Kelsey Pohl and junior Laura Brooks have also hit double digits scoring in several games. Freshman Megan Ruppert had two good games against North Platte and Holdrege before the Christmas break, and Ruppert may have earned more playing time.
Victory would provide big boost
A victory or two (or three) in the GNAC would be a huge boost for the Bison girls. But Ellis knows that even improved effort, especially on the offensive end, could provide a big lift for his team.
"That's exactly how we're looking at this going into it, because we're the eight seed, but that's kind of where we anticipated we would be coming into it," he said. "It's going to be a tough road for us match up-wise, but if we can come in and put together a couple of our better basketball games this season against quality opponents, we'll take a lot from that going into the middle part of the season here after the (holiday) break.
"We need a win. The girls' morale is kind of down, their energy isn't as high as it was. A win would help boost a lot of those things."
Win or lose Tuesday, the Bison girls will play again Wednesday, Dec. 30, at 11 a.m. against Scottsbluff or Lexington in the championship or consolation semifinals.