No looking ahead now

Bergman clinched the 3A-1 Conference’s regular season title Tuesday night with a convincing 74-42 victory at Valley Springs and will close out the regular season tonight at Flippin before heading into postseason play.

With a bye to the conference tournament semifinals and a berth in the regional tournament clinch, the last thing Lady Panthers Coach James Halitzka said he wants to see now is his team looking too far ahead.

“Our No. 1 goal right now is not to get complacent,” Halitzka said. “When the AAA took the limits off how many tournaments a team could play, we loaded up with a lot of tournaments and classics, and it was a lot of travel on our part.

“The goal in the postseason is to take one tournament at a time. The district tournament will be only two games because of the bye. We have three games in the regional tournament, then when it comes to the state tournament we will take one game at a time and see if we can get to the finals.”

Halitzka points to a mixture of youth and experience as a big reason behind this season’s success for Bergman (33-2, 11-0). Ruby Trammell has assumed the role left when Maddi Holt graduated, while sophomore Taryn Holt plays with a lot more poise and junior Kiersten Lowry nears 100 three-pointers and a greater shooting percentage this season.

Savannah Ketchum provided the post presence and size Bergman was missing and averages a double-double this season. Then comes the freshmen as Jacey Halitzka is the team’s second-leading scorer and Brinley Collins is the Lady Panthers’ defensive specialist.

“Every one of these girls know what their role is,” Halitzka said. “And they know not to play outside their particular roles.”