Wildcats look to build off of strong finish
After entering last season with little meaningful varsity experience, the Blair-Taylor girls basketball team returns its entire roster and is looking to contend for a conference title.
The Wildcats began last season with a fresh roster after graduating a large group of seniors that dominated the Dairyland Conference and had a runner-up finish in the state tournament. The team struggled early, winning just four of its first 16 games, but then caught on. B-T won six of its final eight games and gave highly ranked Royall a scare in the regional semifinal round, falling 48-44.
“We got extremely important experience on the floor last season,” coach Jesse Lien said. “Especially ending the season on such a high note.”
The Wildcats went 7-6 in Dairyland Conference play and 11-15 overall last season. This year, the team shifts to the DC-Small Division with its entire roster returning. That includes three players who earned all-conference honors as sophomores.
Samantha Aguilar led B-T in scoring, averaging 12.2 points per game as she was a first-team All-DC pick. Andrea Waldera averaged 11.3 points and 8.3 rebounds per game and Andi Beck averaged 11 points and 3.7 assists, both earned second-team All-DC honors.
As a freshman, Waldera played major minutes for the B-T squad that was runner-up in the state tournament. In addition to scoring and rebounding, she has proven to be a difference maker on defense as she averaged 2.8 blocked shots and 1.3 steals per game last year.
Aguilar also averaged 7.3 rebounds per game and Lien sees their ability to control the paint as a key this season.
“I believe one of the strengths of our team is our inside presence,” Lien said. “In my opinion we have a couple of the more talented bigs in the conference.”
The team also returns Elissa Smetana, who averaged 7.2 points per game and Madalynn Frederixon, who scored 3.2. Several other key reserves like Brenna Thorson, Addison Lejcher, Frankie Zentgraf, Isabelle Woodard, Lindsay Nerby and Lily Walters are also back for the Wildcats.
“I have some really high expectations for the ladies this year,” Lien said. “I feel that we have a great opportunity to win conference this year. I would love to see these ladies get a chance to make sectionals.”
Lien said he expects the conference to be competitive with a number of deep teams that relied on young players last year. While Cochrane-Fountain City graduated several key players from its sectional final team last year, Lien expects them to be competitive again along with Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran in the top half of the DC-Small. B-T is slated to begin its season at ECI on Tuesday of this week before playing Whitehall at home this coming Tuesday.
