Bison girls still battling despite long losing skid

The challenges for the McCook High School girls basketball team don't seem to get any easier.

The Bison varsity girls are winless in 12 starts this season, with two more tough tests this weekend. McCook travels to Hershey Friday, Jan. 8, and entertains Sidney Saturday, Jan. 9.

Friday's action at Hershey begins with the junior varsity contest at 4:30 p.m. in the Hershey High School main gym, followed by the girls varsity game at approximately 6 p.m.

Saturday's games will open with the junior varsity girls at 4 p.m. at the McCook Senior High gym, followed by the McCook-Sidney varsity girls at approximately 5:45 p.m.

Hershey, a Class C-1 school, is 5-3 entering tonight's contest. The Panther girls will face their fourth straight Class B foe after beating host Ogallala 61-53 Dec. 19, followed by losses to Holdrege (50-37) and Gering (57-48) at the Holdrege Holiday Tournament Dec. 28-29.

Sidney takes a 6-2 record into tonight's home game against Gering before the trip to McCook Saturday. The Lady Raiders have lost to Alliance (62-51) and Beatrice (54-36) -- both of those teams are 7-1 so far this season.

Sidney is coming off a 53-49 win over Grand Island Northwest Dec. 30 at the Northwest Holiday Tournament.

Two tough tests

McCook first-year head coach Jeff Ellis said his Bison girls will face two solid teams this weekend. Ellis expects Hershey to employ full-court, girl-to-girl pressure the entire game, and he knows Sidney will be a tough battle for his squad.

"Our girls have to be ready for the pressure," he said. "But we're seeing that every night. We're trying to make some adjustments in practice, trying to put the girls in a little better position to be successful and get the ball past half court. They've got to be ready for that against Hershey.

"Our girls will come out and they'll fight. Both games will be tough for us. We've got to be ready to play."

The Bison girls are coming off a 51-13 loss at Phillipsburg, Kan., last Tuesday.

"Phillipsburg was frustrating," Ellis said. "We gave Phillipsburg so many extra opportunities, second, third and fourth chances on shots. We boxed out (rebounding) about as bad as I've seen all year. That's not our strong suit to begin with, boxing out and rebounding.

"When you play teams that you think you should match up well against, you've got to come out and do things differently and do things correctly, to put yourself in position to be close at the end of the game to win it, to get our first win. The girls didn't do that and that was frustrating. We turned the ball over, we missed every shot we threw up, and of course, Phillipsburg hit every shot they shot.

"It was frustrating. I think the girls were frustrated. It was just an ugly game for us."

Lack of experience

Ellis took over a McCook program with no returning starters from last season and just a handful of players with very little varsity experience. Then the Bison girls have faced a tough start to the season with 12 games in the first month of the schedule.

"We've played more games than almost every team in the state of Nebraska," Ellis said. "We need as much practice as we can get. These girls are young and very inexperienced, and not where we need to be fundamentally."

Ellis said his main goal right now, in addition to breaking the losing streak, is to keep his players positive and motivated.

"We're taking blows to the chin, blows to the ribs, everywhere, getting beat up by a lot of these good teams," he said. "Keeping the young girls in particular striving to see the future, striving to be successful as we progress here."

Ellis said he feels his players are still working hard and still have the motivation and desire to succeed and are not giving up in light of their season record. The McCook coach is trying to build toward the future. He notes that the Bison freshman girls are unbeaten so far this season, and the JV girls have a winning record.

"It's just unfortunate at the varsity level, right now a lot of teams are better than we are," he said.

Young roster

Ellis has just three seniors on the roster. Sophomore Emilyne Nichols plus freshmen Brooklyn Trew, Rachel Goltl and Megan Ruppert are seeing considerable playing time on the varsity. Those girls are regularly facing veteran varsity teams.

"We've played a lot of basketball games, more than anybody in the state, and the teams we're playing are pretty salty," Ellis said. "They are pretty good. They've got two or three returning starters that have great experience and have been playing basketball for awhile. It's just tough for our girls to go out and compete against that. We've got to just keep letting them know that.

"Hang in there, keep fighting and keep plugging along with us, and we'll take our shots to the chin, but we've got to get stronger because of it. I think for the most part the girls are seeing that and knowing that. It's going to be a challenge the rest of the way out to keep all of them motivated and keep them hungry and striving for success."

Ellis got a bit of good news, as senior Kelsey Pohl and junior Gretchen Sehnert returned to action at Phillipsburg after sitting out two games at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament due to a school suspension.