NTL GIRLS' BASKETBALL: YOUTHFUL TROY HAS HIGH HOPES FOR THIS SEASON (2022-11-30)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
There’s a lot of enthusiasm for Troy girls’ basketball team as they see this as another building block in what they hope to be a long run of quality seasons.

They return four of five starters from a district qualifying team, one that was in the running for an NTL Showcase spot up until the final week of the season.

“I’m very excited,” said junior forward Katie Lackey. “We’ve been practicing a lot. We’ve had a good attitude so far, and I’m just super excited.”

Returning starts are Lackey, senior Rachel Kingsley, and sophomores Kailyn Sterling and Alyssa Parks. Senior MaKenna Matthews provided shooting off the bench last year.

“It helps me feel confident about the season,” Matthews said about bringing back so many from last year’s rotation.

“We’ve all played together for a while,” added Kingsley. “It’s been the same group of girls, we know how each other play and work together.”

Two areas they will have to fill a void are defense and leadership, two areas that departing senior Sydney Taylor excelled at.

“(She) gave me a perfect example of how to be a good leader,” remarked Matthews.

On a team that struggled to shoot it at times last year Matthews knows how important it will be for her to stretch defenses when she’s out there.

“I just make sure to get shots up every day,” she said. “I keep working on that.”

In fact, they’re working on that as a team.

“This year we’ve been practicing shooting a lot, actually,” said Lackey. “Over the summer, we’d just have open gyms where it was just shooting.”

One player who will benefit from the improved shooting with be Kingsley, who is a double-double threat every night. After battling some of the best forwards in the league every night, if her team can hit a few threes it can help open things up for her down low.

She led the team with 7.0 PPG and 7.3 RPG.

“It’s a little challenging, but it’s a good chance to work harder, get stronger,” Kingsley said. “I’m been working on getting more rebounds, and putting them back up.”

They hope to get some more easy points, too.

“Transition offense is one thing that we improved upon,” said Lackey. “Just running the ball all the time.”

They also have a new coach at the helm in Curtis Miller, though he’s been their JV coach the last two years, so there is some familiarity there. He sees there mix of youth and veterans as key to how well they do this season.

“The cool thing is that our young kids with experience are only sophomores,” Miller said. “But then you throw ing MaKenna Matthews and Rachel Kingsley, who have basically started for four years now, and then we have Katie Lackey, a junior, so I think that having a younger team with some experience, but also having those seniors, is going to play a huge role with our success this year.”

Parks had averages of 6.5 PPG, 2.8 RPG, and 2.0 SPG, while Lackey averaged 5.6 PPG, and 4.1 RPG. Sterling finished with 3.4 PPG, and 2.5 RPG, while Matthews had 3.4 PPG.

He’s looking to get a big contribution from their sophomore class beyond Sterling and Parks. He sees the group of Ella VanNoy, Kendall Allen, Madelyn Seeley, Gloria Andrews, and Josie Kerrick all playing a role on varsity this year.

“I’m really looking for them to step up, and play some significant varsity time,” said Miller. “And then we also have some exciting freshmen that we’re adding to the mix this year.”

They have high hopes for this season as they look to compete for a division title with defending champions Towanda, regular stalwarts Athens, and fellow up comers Wellsboro. And, of course, they’re have to contend with NEB and Canton in cross-over games.

“We look forward to those opportunities to play against some of the bigger teams,” remarked Miller. “We’re really looking forward to seeing how we stack up against those good opponents.

ROSTER (Grade)

Rachel Kingsley (12)

MaKenna Matthews (12)

Katie Lackey (11)

Lindsey Alexander (11)

Kailyn Sterling (10)

Alyssa Parks (10)

Ella VanNoy (10)

Kendall Allen (10)

Madelyn Seeley (10)

Gloria Andrews (10)

Josie Kerrick (10)

Amber White (9)

Nevaeh Bastion (9)

Katie Graham (9)

Madison Vail (9)

Mariah Wales (9)

SCHEDULE

Dec. 6 - at NEB, 7 p.m.

Dec. 8 - at Canton, 7 p.m.

Dec. 10 - at Elk Lake, 2 p.m.

Dec. 13 - vs Sayre, 7 p.m.

Dec. 15 - at Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Dec. 17 - at Shamokin, 7 p.m.

Dec. 20 - at Williamson, 7 p.m.

Jan. 4 - at Athens, 7 p.m.

Jan. 7 - at Jersey Shore, 3 p.m.

Jan. 9 - vs Montgomery, 7 p.m.

Jan. 10 - vs Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Jan. 12 - at Towanda, 7 p.m.

Jan. 16 - vs Shamokin, 7 p.m.

Jan. 18 - at CV, 7 p.m.

Jan. 20 - vs NPL, 7 p.m.

Jan. 25 - at NPM, 7 p.m.

Jan. 27 - vs Wyalusing, 7 p.m.

Feb. 1 - vs Williamson, 7 p.m.

Feb. 6 - vs Athens, 7 p.m.

Feb. 8 - at Wellsboro, 7 p.m.

Feb. 10 - vs Towanda, 7 p.m.

Feb. 11 - vs Milton, 3:15 p.m.

Feb. 16 - NTL Showcase

Feb. 18 - NTL Showcase