By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After running a gauntlet to open their season, the Sacred Heart girl's basketball team has righted the ship, winning four of their last five to enter the final month of their season at 6-8.
That newfound success has brought a sense of calm and confidence to a team that didn’t always look this composed against some of the top teams in the state in December and early January.
“Our growth mentally has been good and we have a lot more fight than we did,” Lady Knight’s head coach Carl Hines said. “We can give up a ten-point run and be confident that we’re going to go on one of our own to stay in the game. Defensively we’re improving and offensively we have a lot more chemistry.”
Much of that success has come as the Lady Knights have taken better care of the basketball, drastically reducing their turnovers since the first eight games of their season.
“Our turnovers have been cut almost in half since the early part of the year where we were averaging almost 20 a game and the girls understand what we want to do on offense,” Hines said. “We’re taking better shots even if we’re not always making those but getting those good looks has been a big improvement.”
Offensively, the Lady Knights have once again been led by Katie Weiss, who averages 12 points per game, but have also gotten a big boost from a small but rapidly improving freshman class, including Skylar Douglas, who has found a spot in the starting five leading the team in assists.
As the team begins to put the pieces together down the home stretch of the season, Sacred Heart has had the freedom to think bigger in terms of what they hope to accomplish this year, but remains focused on tightening up the little things to ensure they hit their peak at the right time.
“I would say we’re playing our best basketball here as of late,” he said. “We’re definitely in a better place than we were when we started which is where you want to be and we’re starting to gain confidence and toughness from a difficult schedule. We’re starting to get to our peak but I’d rather get there in late February than now.”
For the time being, the Lady Knight’s attention remains on the toughest stretch of their league schedule, after falling to Southeast of Saline on Tuesday.
“Our focus is still on our league and we want to finish as high as we can but it’s a gauntlet this year,” Hines said. “Minneapolis has had our number but we get them on Friday and then we go to Ellsworth so those are two really important games. We want to be a really tough out at sub-state and the goal every year is to get to Bramlage so we’ll see if we can’t peak in February and make a run.”
That Minneapolis matchup will be held on the Lady Knight’s home floor on Friday, February 3rd, as Sacred Heart looks to get back in the hunt for an NCAA title and knock off one of the top teams in the league on the way.
For continuing coverage of Lady Knights basketball all season long stay tuned to the Salina Post.