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Luther High School’s girls basketball team should be taller this winter than last year’s 22-2 squad, which despite its immense skill, needed the acumen of players like 5-9 Sam Peterson and 5-7 Jackie Tolvstad to be able to compete near the basket. But while the Knights return five players who are 5-8 or taller this year, Luther coach Joel Babinec is hoping to build the club around the same thing they’ve been for most of the last 10 season, pressure defense.
Luther (12-0 Coulee Conference in 07-08) returns one all-league selection from a year ago. Toni Walters. The senior center averaged 6.3 points, 6.3 rebounds and a steal in 18.8 minutes a game last winter. While the Knights looked to Erica Babinec or Peterson in big spots the last two years, who takes a big shot for Luther this winter was up in the air entering Thursday’s season opener with Bangor (after deadline).
“It will be a whole different look for us going inside when we need a basket,” Babinec said.
The Knights also return 6-1 senior Courtney Hoeg, 6-0 senior Krista Hoeg, 5-9 senior Bethany Albrecht, 5-8 senior Leisha Brueggeman and 5-6 senior Jessi Smith. But despite their height, that crew still possesses good speed.
“We’re going to have options to do different things defensively,” Babinec said. “We’re going to start staying with the same strategy defensively, but we may do a touch less in the full court and a touch more in the half court.
“We also may use some different full-court looks. We’re taller, but we’ve still got decent speed.”
While the Hoegs and Smith have had the most success in other sports, the player who had the most surprising success last winter among the returning seniors is Brueggeman. While not as skilled, her game shows similarities to Peterson in her abilities to play near or away from the basket on both ends of the floor. She also displays some similarities to the game of Tolvstad, with a little more height and skill.
“We weren’t sure how we were going to get her playing time at this time a year ago,” Babinec said of Brueggeman. “She’s got good muscle inside, and by the middle of last season, we couldn’t keep her off the floor.
“She’s capable of taking the next step. It’s amazing sometimes how much seniors mature.”
While replacing Peterson seems somewhat plausible between several returning players, replacing a four-year point guard in Babinec seems much more daunting. Candidates include sophomore Leslie Klinski, Smith, sophomores Jessie Kish — the younger sister of 2008 senior Kaitlin — junior Katie Woolley and sophomore Chelsea Emmons. Babinec said the sophomores could get the first shots.
“Chelsea has the mentality of a point guard,” Babinec said. “She communicates well, and has a good sense of the game and our offensive scheme. Leslie is the little more skilled player.”
Completing the roster are seniors Jessica Albrecht, Amanda Beckendorf and Kacia Von Ruden.
“We don’t quite have the same depth we had a year ago, but we do have a lot of kids with equal abilities,” Babinec said. “We’re still trying to figure out exactly what types of roles everybody on our roster will have.”
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