Sumner-Eddyville-Miller Girls Basketball
Mustangs reach the District Finals
Despite their record staying the same from a season ago, the S-E-M girls basketball team got another step closer to making their first-ever Girls State Basketball Tournament. This year, the Mustangs reached the District Finals and were one game away from obtaining their ultimate goal.
S-E-M started the season off very well with a 9-1 record. They struggled down the stretch and went 2-8. Despite their rough patch, the Mustangs continued to fight and grow throughout the year.
Their good start was enough to carry them to a District Final game vs CWC. Despite being underdogs, S-E-M fought to the bitter end and gave the Renegade a tough fought game.
“We battled really well for most of the game,” S-E-M Coach John Rohde said. “CWC is just a good team with a bunch of athletic talented kids that are talented basketball players and we just weren’t deep enough to keep up. I think we kind of ran out of gas toward the end of the third and we were playing catch up the rest of the time.”
One of the most exciting things for the Mustangs was the development of young talent this season. The team’s five leading scorers will all be back next year.
Freshman Mikah O’Neill despite being so young led S-E-M as the only player to average double figures in terms of points with 13.2 per game. Just missing out on this feat, was junior Faith Hernandez who averaged 9.2 points per game.
The team will be graduating Ellie Guthard from this year’s squad. Despite losing her leadership on and off the court, the Mustangs look to be very competitive in the coming season with the pieces they have returning.
“This group of kids are just good kids all around,” Rohde said. “They come to practice every day ready to get to work and get better. We came up one game short of our goal to make it to Lincoln which stings, and I know they will work their tails off this summer to get there next year.”