5 things to watch this girls basketball season

Area programs including a returning state champion, finalist and third-place finisher are looking to establish early momentum as the prep girls basketball season rounds into full swing.

Here are some things to watch this girls hoops season:

Bantams rule large-school roost

Among the area’s larger-division teams, Clarkston stands out as a beacon of recent success. Last year’s Bantams had an undefeated regular season, swept to a district title and took third place in the Washington Class 2A state tournament.

The loss of league MVP Kendall Wallace, who has graduated and moved on to play for Lewis-Clark State, is the most obvious setback to repeating last year’s results, but the Bantams return most of a core group that was distinguished by its balance, and early signs point to a continuation of that dynamic — Clarkston put 10 different players on the board in its season opener Tuesday against Freeman, and had nine players connect for a whopping total of 16 3-pointers.

“It’s got to be pretty close to a record,” Clarkston coach Debbie Sobotta said of the 3-point figure, emphasizing that the “theme was balance” as her team began its campaign.

Junior point guard Jaelyn McCormack-Marks (who transferred from Lapwai last year and made immediate all-around contributions), senior guard Ella Leavitt (the Bantams’ second-highest scorer in their state third-place victory over Prosser) and junior guard Preslee Dempsey (an outside threat who hit 5-of-6 from 3-point range against Freeman) are among the leadership for the current crew of Bantams.

The area’s other “Big 4” teams — the Lewiston Bengals, Moscow Bears and Pullman Greyhounds — all ran losing records last year, though the Bengals benefit from the new classification adjustment, which leaves them in Class 5A (formerly 4A) while their old league foes move up to 6A.

Tiger turnover

Kendrick is best-known in prep sports for its run of four consecutive state football titles, but the school’s athletic excellence the past several years has cut across several different programs. The Tigers are returning state champs in girls basketball as well, having clinched a 1A Division II title with a 55-53 overtime win over Dietrich in a championship game that was followed by an emotional retirement announcement from longtime coach Ron Ireland.

Taking Ireland’s place now is Blair Moore, a former Lewis-Clark State player who has coached the AAU Bordertown Basketball team out of Lewiston for the past several years with his wife and fellow LC alum, Cali. Moore had previous familiarity with Kendrick through coaching now-junior Hali Anderson in that AAU program. He describes Anderson (who has logged multiple 20-plus-point performances in the young season) and fellow junior Mercedes Heimgartner as the players who have most “stepped up” to take on leadership roles after the graduation of a distinguished class of six seniors who spearheaded last season’s state title run. Other current starters are sophomore forward Ashna Casto, senior forward Hayden Kimberling and junior guard Brehlynn Clemenhagen.

Moore said he is in the process of “letting them ‘learn me’ while I also learn their strengths and weaknesses” in these early days of establishing the coaching relationship.

Big cat rivalry looms

Like the football team just did, Kendrick girls basketball will be looking not to “defend” a state title, but to ascend to a new plateau as it joins Idaho’s Class 2A (formerly known as 1A Division I). Looming in the 2A Whitepine League field Kendrick now enters is perennial small-school basketball heavyweight Lapwai, which made a state runner-up showing in its own division this past March, losing 47-40 to southern Idaho’s Grace Grizzlies. The Tigers and Wildcats clashed twice in nonleague play last year, splitting those encounters.

This year’s Wildcats made a statement to start the season as they trounced larger-division foe Orofino 56-28.

“The league jump, I think it’s good,” Moore said. “It’s going to definitely be a challenge. I know we played Lapwai ... Prairie’s going to be really good this year; Kamiah’s good. If we just buy in to what we’re trying to do as a program and play ‘us,’ play within us, we’re going to compete.”

Mustangs charging out the gates

The departure of Kendrick leaves a vacancy at the top of the 1A (formerly 1A DII) Whitepine League, which the Deary Mustangs would be early logical favorites to fill, having dominated all league foes other than the Tigers last year and made their own run to the state semifinals, falling 29-26 to Dietrich. Deary got an early start to its nonleague season with convincing wins over larger-division opponents Potlatch and Troy on Nov. 19 and 21, benefiting from high-scoring efforts by junior Kaylee Wood with a combined 50 points.

Where other small-school conferences are concerned, Grangeville is coming off a dominant undefeated Central Idaho League season, while Salmon River of Riggins — part of the 1A Long Pin Conference — made a promising start to its season Nov. 21 with a 67-41 win over Kendrick.

Washington small-school shakeup?

In small-school competition on the Washington side of the border, the Colfax Bulldogs have been the area’s undisputed dominant force in recent years, as exemplified by their unbeaten Northeast 2B League run last season — but the team will be hurting after University of Washington commit Brynn McGaughy’s transfer to Central Valley of Spokane for her senior campaign. The likes of fellow seniors Brenna Gilchrist and Ava Swan will be eager to prove they can fill McGaughy’s shoes as Colfax begins its season at home facing Garfield-Palouse today at 6 p.m.

Looking ahead

The Tribune area has seldom failed to produce at least one state champion per season in recent memory. It is early to predict with confidence what the best contenders to continue that tradition might be, but a few storylines have been touched on here that might warrant readers’ special attention.

Wendt may be contacted at (208) 848-2268, or cwendt@lmtribune.com.