Bison girls hoping to snap losing skid

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette McCook junior Laura Brooks (22) tries to push the ball to the hoop against Sidney's Kaela Cole (23) last Saturday night. [Click to enlarge]

Forget the flu vaccine -- McCook High School head girls basketball coach Jeff Ellis would be lining up his players for an inoculation of confidence, if it were available, entering the Friday, Jan. 15 home game against Hastings.

The perfect remedy for the McCook girls' season-long ills would be a victory over the Tigers, to give Coach Ellis and his squad a big boost of confidence for the rest of the season.

McCook has not won a game in 15 starts so far this season. Turnovers and cool shooting have been the main problems for Ellis and his young, inexperienced team.

The Bison girls and Hastings will begin Friday with junior varsity action at the Senior High gym at 4:30 p.m., followed by the girls varsity contest at approximately 6 p.m.

The two varsity teams met in the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference Tournament Dec. 31 in North Platte. Hastings beat the Bison 43-32, but McCook stayed with the Tigers most of the game despite missing two starters (senior Kelsey Pohl and junior Gretchen Sehnert sat out two GNAC Tournament games for a school suspension, but both have been back in action since early January).

The Bison girls circled Friday's rematch on the schedule, knowing that they match up well with the Tigers.

Hastings had a 2-9 record entering Thursday night's game against Lincoln Pius X. The Tigers, like the Bison, have just three seniors on the roster, and their tallest player is 5-10 senior Liz Krueger.

"You never want to say anything about a must-win," Coach Ellis said, "but that is almost the situation we're in, especially heading into that Colby Tournament next weekend. We're going to see some tough basketball teams there.

"This is almost a perfect set-up for us -- at home, playing a team that we competed very well with already, and we were missing a couple of players. The girls have to see that and believe that -- this is a game that, if we play well and do the things that we were kind of doing a couple weeks ago and last week, we have a legitimate chance of getting that first win on our home court."

Still fighting

Despite the winless season, Coach Ellis said his players have not given up.

"That's a testament to our coaching staff, and a testament to our kids, too," he said. "There's been a game or two where we felt things were kind of down, and the girls were hanging their heads, so we brought them together and had little talks about staying positive, staying focused, staying together, knowing that we're struggling. But we're going to go through all this together.

"One thing lately that we've been trying to stress to the kids, there's not one girl that is more important than another. We've got to look at things as a program. I think for the most part all the girls have done a really decent job of hanging in there, sticking together. For the most part, they are staying positive."

The first-year McCook coach said perhaps the hardest part of the tough season has been keeping himself positive and focused, and his players helped redirect some of his energies recently.

Before the Hershey game last Friday, Ellis and his varsity players were having a chat as they waited for the JV game to conclude. Ellis said he solicited opinions from his players on how to help improve their chances.

"A couple of them were saying, 'Coach we're starting to notice you're getting a little more frustrated on the radio (interviews), you sound a little more frustrated in the newspaper, and we need you to stay positive, we need you to not show your frustrations as much,'" he said. "And I'm like, 'You know what, you're right. You deserve more from me'.

"I kind of had to look at myself in the mirror a couple weeks ago, and say, 'I've got to stay positive and I've got to stay focused more than anybody else.' If I'm asking these girls to do that I sure as well better be doing that. I think that's helped. I think we came together a little bit closer."

Ellis said he feels that the Bison girls don't have a true leader on the floor, that one player that takes charge, both in words and by example with their performance, during games and practices. The McCook coach said he has discussed that with his team on several occasions, and he is anxious to see if one or more of his players will accept that role.

"It doesn't matter what grade you're in or who you are or what position you play, somebody on this team has to step up and lead," he said.