Department of Defense of Organized Chaos.
Regardless of your choice for the moniker, both terms applied to the 2021 Wyoming East girls basketball team.
Anchored by the play of all-state point guard Skylar Davidson, the Lady Warriors won a championship last season in large part because of their effort on the defensive side of the ball.
During their three state tournament games in Charleston they forced 82 turnovers, good enough for an astounding 27.3 per game. This season, without a clear defined star on offense, East head coach Angie Boninsegna expects more of the same this season.
“We always stress defense and last year was a perfect example of what we worked on every day,” Angie Boninsegna said. “Defense and rebounding will be key and we’re awfully young this year with Hannah (Blankenship) being our only senior. We’re fortunate we have three back from last year that have a lot of playing time but Abby (Russell) being hurt hurts us because we only have four back with her with any playing time at all. We’re working on defense hard and we’ll continue to improve.”
The task for Boninsegna will be getting the group to buy in to defense the same way it did last year. Considering it paid off that shouldn’t be too hard, but there’s a new crop of players to instill that philosophy in. With Davidson, Sarah Saunders and Daisha Summers gone, the Lady Warriors will be trotting out a few new faces to help fill those shoes.
It also forces the veteran head coach to play it by ear and adapt to this squad’s strengths.
“This team is a team that hasn’t played a lot together,” Boninsegna said. “We’re going to try to adapt and learn as we go along to see what goes well for us. We’ve got some athletic bigs this year and they’re young so we’ll see how they go. Some of our younger players worked hard in the offseason so it’ll be interesting to see.”
For the returners, Boninsegna doesn’t expect much of a change. With first-team all-state guard Abby Russell, the team’s best on-ball defender, sidelined until January with an ACL tear, much will be expected of juniors Colleen Lookabill and Kayley Bane as well as sophomore Maddie Clark.
The trio regularly came off the bench last season as Boninsegna comfortably played eight players. While they’ll have expanded roles on offense, their effort on the defensive side of the ball is crucial to another state tournament run. The Lady Warriors don’t expect a drop-off in that department.
“Yeah because we stress it so much,” Boninsegna said when asked if she anticipates her veterans maintaining their intensity. “The kids that were there last year, the juniors this year, continue to get better. The key is having role players. When you have somebody that can play defense like Abby Russell did last year on them and Maddie Clark, who helped Skylar and Abby out, that’s the key. You get a key rebound, a key steal and that’s very important. We were fortunate last year that everybody bought into their roles. Hopefully this year they all get along well and work hard and we’ll have role players again this year.”
As those players, and some of the other underclassmen, have gotten older, they’ve grown physically. It changes the way Boninsegna plans to attack offenses. Instead of smothering them and swarming with guards, the veteran head coach anticipates using size to flutter teams.
With sophomore Charleigh Price sprouting from 5-foot-9 to 6-foot and freshman Alivia Monroe adding to the front court size, expect a defensive approach that takes advantage of that size, even if it takes time to piece together.
“A lot of our subs are going to be bigger early,” Boninsegna said. “Last year we had a lot of guards and we’ve kind of flip flopped. But we’re just going to play hard and adjust to our strengths and try to eliminate our weaknesses, so it’s going to be a fun year.”
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