MCHS Girls Basketball Early Season Review and Turkey Shootout Preview

MCHS+Sophomore+Forward+Hannah+Imel+with+Lady+Cubs+Fans+Landon+Conner%2C+Brayden+Perry%2C+and+Blair+Holt

MCHS Sophomore Forward Hannah Imel with Lady Cubs Fans Landon Conner, Brayden Perry, and Blair Holt

Collin Birge, Sports Writer

Winter sports are finally here, and it all starts with the Madison Lady Cubs basketball team. Last season was rough for the Lady Cubs going 4-20 under first year head coach Sam Terrell. However, the Lady Cubs lost just one senior from last year’s squad, Sage Sproles. Last season their season came to an end in the first round of sectionals to Greensburg in Rushville back on January 31.

The Lady Cubs will have three seniors this year: forwards Hannah Imel and Keegan Ehlers and guard Amilia Hall.

All 3 are doing a great job leading this team,” Coach Terrell said.

They will also return six players overall who played varsity basketball last year. Junior Bailey Dyer and sophomores Paige Young, Harper Watson, and Jesse Dyer are a few key contributors. A good freshman class comes into contribute as well.

“We do have an impact player this year in 6’1″ freshman Jade Nutley who immediately started playing huge minutes for us this summer and is improving like all our girls every day.” said Coach Terrell.

MCHS Freshman Forward Jade Nutley

This team is still young, even after losing just one player from last year’s team. If their chemistry keeps improving, the team hopes to challenge for a sectional championship, and it would be the Lady Cubs’ first since the 2013-2014 season.

“We have a great group of players top to bottom and I expect great things from this team as long as we embrace the process, stay healthy, stay focused, and do what we need to as a team.” Terrell said.

To start the season on November 4 at Conner K Salm Gymnasium, the Lady Cubs took on the Charlestown Pirates losing a tough, close battle 39-37. Freshman Jade Nutley led the way for the Lady Cubs scoring 13 while senior Hannah Imel chipped in 10.

On November 7, the Madison Lady Cubs went on the road to East Central where they lost big 61-33. Later that week, on Friday November 10, the Lady Cubs were back home to take on the Switzerland County Pacers. The Lady Cubs dismantled the Pacers 72-47 to get their first victory of the season and their first since December 29, 2016. Imel scored 22 points, and sophomore Paige Young was unstoppable in the first half scoring 18 of her 20 points in the first to build the big lead. Nutley also added 17 for the Lady Cubs.

The following week, Madison went on the road to Aurora to take on South Dearborn The Lady Cubs won their second straight game 58-30. Imel scored 24, Nutley had 16, and Paige Young and junior Bailey Dyer both scored 7.

Last Saturday the Lady Cubs again returned home to take on the Salem Lions but took an unfortunate loss 51-44.

The Lady Cubs will hope to win their sixth straight Victory Bell over rival Southwestern tomorrow in the annual Turkey Shootout at Southwestern. “ I think we have good focus because we have been practicing against tougher competition to get us ready,” Imel said in preparation for the Turkey Shootout.

Overall, the Lady Cubs are looking forward to a bright future.

Coach Terrell said, “We do have 16 underclassmen players that come in everyday and work extremely hard for our program. We are coming off a great summer where we put in a tremendous amount of work to help prepare us for our 2017-2018 season. Right now our expectations from June 1st of summer and now in season was to embrace the process of effort, enthusiasm, and mental toughness. Everyday we want our girls to engage in constant action towards being better everyday and not worrying about anything else. If we can improve on those types of things we will be a better overall team from last year.”