Day: November 17, 2022

The College Heights Christian girls basketball team has the good fortune this season to return every player from last season’s 15-11 overall and district runner-up squad.

Three of the returning starters earned all-Ozark 7 Conference honors last season — senior point guard Jayli Johnson, sophomore post Libby Fanning, and senior Addie Lawrence, with Johnson and Fanning first and Lawrence second team.

Johnson averaged 11 points, 4.6 assists, and 2.7 steals in her floor general role, while Fanning averaged a double-double her freshman season with 10.5 points and 10.3 rebounds and Lawrence averaged 10 points and 3.5 rebounds per game.

“We have eight returning lettermen,” College Heights coach John Blankenship said. “We’ve got two out injured right now, but we have everybody coming back from last year.”

The two injured players on the eve of the season are Lawrence and sophomore Kinley Marsh.

“She’s had ongoing knee issues,” Blankenship said of Lawrence. “She’s going to be out for a while. Kinley’s had a hip issue from cross country, but she’s getting close to being ready to return.”

Lawrence battled through a midseason injury during her senior volleyball season.

On the basketball court, the College Heights girls have played for a district title four straight seasons and they won one during a 26-3 overall season in 2020.

“We have high expectations,” Blankenship said at the preseason jamboree hosted by rival McAuley Catholic. “We’re a young team. We have three seniors that will be good leaders for us. With Addie back into the nucleus of things, that will give us more depth, more speed, and more athleticism on the floor. We’re playing a lot of freshmen right now trying to get them some game experience before the season actually starts. Our rotation looked different tonight than what it might normally during the season. We’re confident and we’re looking forward to the season.”

College Heights will start Johnson, Fanning, senior Lauren Ukena, junior Maddy Colin, and either sophomore Ava Lett or fellow sophomore Molly Long to begin the season with Lawrence not available.

“They both provide something different,” Blankenship said. “We need more height; we may go with Molly. We need more guards out on the floor, we’ll go with Ava.”

The Cougars have averaged 19 wins over their past five winning seasons.

“Our speed and our conditioning will probably be our strengths,” Blankenship said. “We’ve got to work on our ballhandling. We didn’t do really well against presses tonight, but again we had some people in there we were rotating through to see how they would do. I think we will be fine there, but we’ve got to be stronger with the basketball.”

At the jamboree, College Heights faced a larger school in Carthage (Class 6 in basketball previous two seasons) and a defending Class 3 district champion in Clever.

“We had the lead after the first quarter and had about a two-minute spurt in the second quarter where we just lost our poise and turned the ball over (against Carthage),” Blankenship said. “We gave them some easy baskets. Take those two minutes away, we’re right in there until the end.

“Clever played really well. They’re physical, they’re quick, and they’re strong. We could have played better against them, but I like where we are at this point in the season.”

Jamborees, scrimmages for two six-minute quarters in basketball, afford teams an opportunity for a dress rehearsal before the first game of the season.

“Jamborees give us a chance to get a feel for our athletes, where we can plug them in, and where their strengths are,” Blankenship said. “It gives us some ideas of things we need to work a little harder on in practice. You go against your second string in practice, and you come here in a varsity game and the defense is just a lot quicker and a lot stronger. Getting our young kids used to playing at that pace will be a big step for us, but when we get there, we’ll be pretty successful.”

College Heights opens the season Nov. 22 at home against Providence Academy, an Arkansas school in Rogers that will already be four games deep into the season before playing College Heights.

The Cougars play in the Gem City Classic (Nov. 28-Dec. 3), the Lancer Classic (Jan. 16-21), and the Mercy/Warrior Classic (Jan. 30-Feb. 4) in addition to their slate of regular season games from November through mid-February.

The College Heights Christian boys basketball program enjoyed historic success the past two seasons with a combined 41-15 overall record, the program’s first two district titles, and the program’s first trip to the Class 2 state quarterfinals, where the Cougars lost 53-48 to the eventual state champions Norwood, highlighted a 24-5 campaign last season.

College Heights graduated most of their talent from those historic seasons, but senior and lone returning starter Curtis Davenport and junior and last year’s sixth man Caleb Quade are back and seniors Ben Thomas, Noah Hipple, and Bo Sitton get their opportunity to be more in the spotlight this season.

“We return one starter (Davenport) and it’s his fourth year starting for us,” College Heights coach Eric Johnson said. “Caleb Quade started a couple games last year and he was our sixth man off the bench. He’s improved and he’s grown. Curtis is 6-foot-5 and Caleb’s 6-4, and that gives us some inside people.

“Our other seniors played some last year, but their best learning experience was playing against the group of seniors we had last year every day in practice. Those guys have improved and they’re ready to get their opportunity. They’ve made the best of it so far.”

Davenport, behind 62 percent shooting from the floor, averaged 13 points and eight rebounds during his junior season. He earned all-Ozark 7 Conference second team last season and all-conference honorable mention and all-district his sophomore year.

Hipple and junior Colsen Dickens both played on the inaugural College Heights varsity football team this year, and they both were injured during the season.

“We have two kids that are hurt from varsity football,” Johnson said. “It will be a few more weeks before they’re back.”

The Cougars’ four new starters will include a sophomore floor general.

“Jayce Walker will be our point guard,” Johnson said. “He played mostly JV last year. It will be a lot to learn going against varsity kids all the time. We’re giving him as much playing time as we can, just to see if he can do everything.”

The Cougars will attempt to add the newest chapter to their saga of success that numbers five consecutive seasons with at least 16 wins.

College Heights made the jump last season from 17 to 24 wins behind a great senior group.

“We had a good year last year,” Johnson said. “Obviously, these kids are wanting to do the same thing this year. Early, we may have some turnovers and things from trying to do too much. We’ll find out that we have a target on our back. We beat a lot of teams the last couple years and are learning to play together. Chemistry is the main thing.

“We’ve also expanded our defense a little bit. With the big kids last year, we could hang around inside the 3-point line and deflect a lot of shots. Now, we figure we’ll have to get after it from halfcourt and change it up on defense. So far, the kids have bought into it and hopefully, it will pay off.”

The Cougars open this season Nov. 22 at home against Providence Academy, an Arkansas school that will already be five games into the season before playing College Heights.

College Heights, defending Pierce City Invitational champions, open as the second seed in this year’s edition and will face tournament host Pierce City in the opening round Nov. 29.

The Cougars play nine games in December, do not open conference play until January, face a tough non-conference game Jan. 5 against Springfield Catholic, and play in the Lancer Classic and Mercy/Warrior Classic tournaments in January before getting into the heart of their season in February.

“We get in there against some good teams, our weaknesses will be exposed,” Johnson said. “That just gives you something to work on the next day in practice, trying to solve all that. It could be one of those years, hopefully, where by December we’ll be alright and by February, we’ll be a good team playing our best basketball.

“Last year, we felt like we were playing well from the start and didn’t have a whole lot of room to get better because we were already there by December. This might take a few more weeks, a little bit longer, but, hey, it’s how you finish and not how you start.”