Lady Tigers are young, but gaining experience

The Class 2A Central girls basketball team’s 202122 season ended with a 7-16 record under head coach Shane Brown. Last season, the Lady Tigers’ postseason began with a 67-37 loss to NO. 2-ranked Pocola, followed by a 48-42 win over Wyandotte. But Central finished on the short end of a 49-28 score against 18th-ranked Pawhuska to close out the season.

Brown is looking to better the Lady Tigers’ record from last season, while acknowledging it would be nice to have a little more experience on the team. There are no returning seniors, making this a more classic example of a rebuilding year for Central’s girls.

The young and relatively inexperienced team has Brown working hard to get his charges ready for a tough season, having an early test with two tough games to start the season.

The first games of the 2022-23 season are both on the road, with the first coming at Warner on Dec. 2, followed by a game at Red Oak on Dec. 6. Both are set to tip off at 6 p.m.

“We are just young and inexperienced, and getting ready for two tough games to start the year,” Brown explains. “We’re going to try to approach that the best we can and build on what we started. So it should be a tough test to start the year.”

Offense

Central’s offense will typically be a motion offense, and will require all the speed the girls have to execute properly.

“We are still running a motion offense,” Brown says. “I’m not making a lot of changes. We’ve got a few new, inexperienced players, and we’ve just got to learn and grow. Our main goals are to work on our execution offensively, and being sound defensively, things like that. We expect to be better in January and February than we are right now.

“We like to attack the basket, and get high-percentage shots, that’s what we work for. I want us to execute and get the shots that we provide for ourselves, using patience to get the best look possible,” Brown says.

Defense

The Lady Tigers’ defense will vary between a manto- man defense strategy and a variety of zone defenses, which will all depend on the other team’s offense and how they are playing. Ultimately, there aren’t plans to change it much from previous seasons.

“We’ll run man defense mostly, with a combination of man and zone. We don’t do a lot of full-court pressing. We try to put some pressure on people, but not necessarily full court,” Brown says.

“We will mix our defense up with some combinations, all different kinds, different kinds of zones, but I would say 60/40 man. We like people to have to prepare for more than one thing.”

The three returning starters for the Lady Tigers are Hadley Woods, Avery Warner and Ayrland Jiles, with Autumn Cernicek named as another starter. Jiles averaged 6.5 points per game a year ago, while Woods posted a 6.4 clip, Warner averaged 5.4 and Cernicek contributed two points per game last season.

“I believe we have three returning starters: Hadley Woods, Ayrland Jiles and Avery Warner. Pretty much we are just inexperienced, and we are going to continue what we have been working on and building over the last few years.”

Freshmen

Central has three freshmen coming into the program, with Cambree Bair expected to be in the rotation, as well as Cheyenne Busch, who’s expected to come off the bench as well.

Sophomores

Four sophomores return, including two-year starting guard Jiles, along with starting backcourt teammate Woods. Center Haley Cheek is expected to play a significant role on the court. Guard Elizabeth Ortiz rounds out the sophomore roster.

Juniors

The Tigers have two returning juniors: two-year starter Warner, as well as forward Cernicek, who is expected to be in the starting lineup.

Seniors

There are no seniors on this team this year. Much like the boys team, the underclassmen will have to step up and take over the roles that typically are held by seniors.

Conference

The Class 2A Lady Tigers are in the Big 8 Conference again this year, which will be tough as usual. But Central is going to condition and practice to surprise a few teams that might not see it coming.

“Obviously, we want to be successful so we can have a good playoff run, but it’s kind of hard to say what’s going to happen,” Brown says. “We’ve got a tough schedule, but I expect to have a good year. I always make it our goal to beat someone that nobody expects us to beat. We will have plenty of chances for that.”