By Abel Flessner
The women’s basketball team, facing conference tournament elimination, has had some highs and lows this season.
Coming off a win at home against a tough conference opponent, Edgewood, had the Stars looking at a potential bid into the conference tournament. However, dropping three straight games to Lakeland, Benedictine and Wisconsin Lutheran has officially eliminated them from the conference tournament.
“[Our success can be attributed to] a combination of our returning players that we have, their vision and drive for this season, and then our incoming freshman and transfers who make us more of a complete team,” head coach Tethnie Carrillo said, “that’s what we needed in order to compete in this league.”
The Stars brought in eight freshman and three transfers headlined by Kennedy Yost, Allannah Jackson, and Teagan Dahl. All three have started a majority of games this season and heavily contributed to the team’s success. Yost and Dahl are averaging 10.2 and 7.6 points, respectively, and Jackson is averageing nearly three steals per game.
Nonetheless, the Stars are facing another losing season.
“I would say sometimes we are hit or miss on offense,” junior captain Aya Deiri said, “we come in playing really good defense, but we won’t be able to get a good shot up for a few minutes.”
Shooting has definitely been a low point for the Stars this season, especially from the three-point line, shooting just 27% from three. Additionally, the stars are scoring just 57.8 points per game, led by junior Lia Saunders with 11.6 points per game.
The stars have also struggled rebounding down the stretch, getting heavily outrebounded on the offensive glass, which has led to a plethora of second-chance points for opponents. Additionally, the stars have had a turnover problem, including a season high of 24 turnovers in a must-win game on the road against Lakeland last week.
“On defense, we are quick and really bring the aggression,” Deiri said, “teams don’t really know what to expect from us, so I think that was one of our highs this season.”
Despite the struggles, the Stars are looking at a nearly .500 finish, significantly better than previous years. They hope to continue to develop a young core paired with a large senior class next season.
“There are always a few games you wish you could have back,” Carrillo said, “I know we lost the Lakeland game by one, that could’ve gone either way, and there’s a few other ones that if you would have asked the player too, we wish it could’ve gone a little bit different.”
The Lakeland loss at home was a crushing one, with the Stars leading for most of the game and losing the lead late in the fourth quarter. They also had a loss at Benedictine that saw the Stars with a large halftime lead, followed by a seven-point loss.
Despite the struggles, the Stars have made some serious progress this season.
“In prior years, it was kind of just a one-on-one type of offense,” Deiri said, “this year, it was a lot of collaborating, working together and trying to set each other up for success. We were more of a we over me team.”
The team has made strides this year thanks to a more coersive dynamic as a team. They had strong leadership and morals as a team.
“I feel this year we really wanted to focus on our standards as a team and just sticking together through everything, good times and bad,” senior captain Kamila Gajkowska said.
As the Stars look to the future, they hope to build themselves up not only as players, but also as a team. With a young roster, it is important to focus on chemistry throughout the season. Coach Carrillo’s strong recruiting class and leadership should carry over into next season with a more experienced roster.
“Next season, it will be our freshman and sophomores having valuable minutes on the court this season and applying that next year into more maturity.”
With a more experienced roster, and a more fluid and mature team, the Stars are set up for a conference tournament run next season.
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