Huron girls look to build on solid run

HURON — Huron girls basketball coach Darius Schaeffer likes what he sees from his young team, but only playing time will fix an experience gap for these Tigers. "We're very young and inexperienced," Schaeffer said. The Tigers' only returning started is 5-foot-9 power forward Addie LaCivita. LaCivita averaged 8.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and shot 74 percent from the free throw line. "She'll do almost everything for us," Schaeffer said. "She's gonna rebound and score. Hopefully she'll have the right approach and let the game come to her. She doesn't have to do too much." The only other returning player who scored more than 10 points in the season is 5-8 senior forward Annabelle Herzog. Herzog averaged 4.8 points and 2.3 rebounds per game. Jessica Brown, a 5-5 junior, will handle point guard duties. "She'll handle the ball. She does a nice job getting us into sets and getting things calmed down," Schaeffer said. Jessica's twin sister, Julia Brown, likely would have started but tore an ACL during the summer and is out for the season. Two other senior guards — Jayci Schmidt and Emmah Shaw — will get plenty of playing time. They were among a group of now-seniors who played junior varsity ball last season. "I felt bad for them last year. We had six seniors and there just wasn't time to get them varsity minutes, but they're doing a great job right now," Schaeffer said. Freshman Jenna Cox, a 5-8 forward, junior Alyssa Wild and sophomore Alayna Sullivan round out the eight-girl varsity roster. The Tigers will rely on LaCivita and Herzog, but Schaeffer knows he'll need other contributions. "Everybody else was a JV player last year. Inexperienced but they play hard. That's all I can ask," he said. "It's been great energy in the gym. "It showed this summer. We played pretty well with having players at the varsity level for the first time." The Tigers' strong senior class last season included Mia Hurst, the Bay's third-leading scorer at 13 points per game, and Caylin McCormick, the Bay's top rebounder. Schaeffer is in his third season leading the Tigers. "Those first two years, those girls had a lot of experience, but not a lot of positive experience (in previous years). Getting that mindset to change this year is totally different," Schaeffer said. "There's no experience to lean on. It's a matter of can we continue to build on what I've tried to build the first two years. "Nobody expects us to do anything, but now we're going to be kind of like the hunted so it'll be a different challenge." No.&emsp;Name&emsp;Pos.&emsp;Ht.&emsp;Yr. 1&emsp;Jayci Schmidt&emsp;G&emsp;5-4&emsp;12 4&emsp;Jessica Brown&emsp;G&emsp;5-5&emsp;11 5&emsp;Annabelle Herzog&emsp;F&emsp;5-8&emsp;12 10&emsp;Emmah Shaw&emsp;G&emsp;5-7&emsp;12 11&emsp;Jenna Cox&emsp;F&emsp;5-8&emsp;9 12&emsp;Alyssa Wild&emsp;F&emsp;5-9&emsp;11 15&emsp;Julia Brown&emsp;F&emsp;5-8&emsp;11 21&emsp;Alayna Sullivan&emsp;G&emsp;5-5&emsp;10 23&emsp;Addie LaCivita&emsp;F&emsp;5-9&emsp;10