North Bend Central Girls hope to be improved

Team: North Bend Central

Mascot: Tigers

Colors: Orange and Black

Class: C-1

Conference: East Husker

Head Coach: Aaron Sterup (14th season) (220-72 career record)

2014-2015 record: 12-12 (lost to Bishop Neumann in District Final)

Returning Starters: 2

Overview:

The North Bend Central Tigers hope to be successful this season after going 12-12 last year and reaching a District Final.

Two starters return for Head Coach Aaron Sterup's squad, and they are Brooke Fredrickson, 10, 5'11 Post, and Kristin Lux, 10, 6'1'' Wing.

North Bend Central will have to make up for the loss of Samantha Dirkschneider (leading scorer, rebounder)

and Taylor Faltin (main ball handler, point guard).

Looking to do that will be the top 9 in Sabrina Adams, 12, 5'7 Guard, Kinzie Lorence, 12, 5'8 Post, Sophie Kluthe, 11, 5'10 Post, Alexandria Humlicek, 11, 5'7 Wing, Jacki Minarick, 11, 5'8 Post, Fredrickson, Lux,

Kaitlynn Bjorklun, 10, 5'6 Guard, and Hailey Bang, 10, 5'6 Guard.

Sterup says look for his squad to pound the rock to the post. "We are going to try to get the ball inside as much as we can. Our height is our strength. We are hoping to pound it inside and use our height to our advantage as much as we can. On defense, we will hopefully be able to do multiple things well."

The Tigers' post game and height will definitely be their strong point this season. Sterup says shooting has to be better. "Our shooting has not been very good the past couple of years and we turn the ball over way too much to win close games very often."

Eight of North Bend Central's 12 losses last year were by 10 points or less.

So as you can see the Tigers easily could have been a 15-20 win team a season ago. Things just didn't turn out that way though. North Bend Central has to do a much better job of taking care of the ball and must shoot better this season if they want to win more games than they did a year ago.

Season Outlook:

The North Bend Central Tigers hope to have a good season in 2015-2016. Sterup says they hope to hold their own. " We hope to be competitive and maybe improve on last year's record. The conference is tough, though. Most of the best teams return their best players or have added good players, so it will be tough. We just want to improve and try to be among the better teams in the conference and in our district."

North Bend Central struggled in the East Husker Conference Tournament last year, but won their sub district. I'm sure the Tigers hope they can do well in both their conference and sub district tournaments this year.

Sterup says offensive execution has to be better and there needs to be more effort defensively. "We need to improve our defensive intensity and rebounding. We aren't as tough in that area as I would like us to be. We also need to find a way to get the ball in the basket more. We need to shoot better and just be able to get shots more consistently and not turn the ball over as much as we did last year."

It will be interesting to see if North Bend Central can get the job done this season. I certainly think they can.

Sterup says the Tigers hope to be playing their best basketball in February. "We have a tough road in the conference, so we are just looking to get better as the year goes on and see where we are at the end when it matters. We have a lot of growing to do to be competitive with the best teams in the area."

The slate is not easy for North Bend Central with the likes of Twin River, David City, West Point-Beemer, Stanton, Pender, Raymond Central, Tekamah-Herman, and Howells-Dodge on the schedule.

The Tigers definitely have their challenges, but I feel there are a lot of very winnable games on the schedule for North Bend Central.

I think if the Tigers play up to their potential they can win 15-20 games.

North Bend Central opens up the year at Twin River on Friday.

2015-2016 North Bend Central Girls Basketball Schedule:

12/04/15	@ Twin River	C2
12/05/15	David City	C1
12/08/15	Schuyler	B
12/10/15	@ West Point-Beemer	C1
12/15/15	Stanton	C2
12/18/15	Pender	D1
12/29-12/30	(To Be Determined)							David City Holiday Tournament	David City
01/02/16	Raymond Central	C1
01/05/16	@ Clarkson/Leigh	C2
01/08/16	Logan View-Scribner-Snyder	C1
01/12/16	@ Arlington	C1
01/16/16	Archbishop Bergan	D1
01/22/16	@ Oakland-Craig	C2
01/26/16	Madison	C1
01/28/16	@ Wisner-Pilger	C2
01/29-02/06	(To Be Determined)							East Husker Conference Tour	TBA
02/09/16	Tekamah-Herman	C1
02/11/16	@ Howells-Dodge	D1