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.
