Young Culver to be more open

CULVER — Culver’s Cavaliers had just one senior loss from a year ago but it was a very big one.

Maddie Shedrow moved on to college and left Culver coach Shane Lowery with another very young team.

“We only have one senior again this year, Lizzie Pugh,” said Lowery.

The Cavs are bolstered by a move in junior in Rose Peterson and mainstays Katie Hamilton, Luci Overmyer and Maisy Mccuen, and Avery Garland.

Sophomore Grace Sieber is back on the floor and Lowery is looking for big things.

“Grace is young and we are expecting a lot of her,” said Lowery. “That’s a lot on her shoulders but last year she didn’t play like a freshman.”

Lowery is happy with early-season practice with his young team.

“Judging from last year there is more energy from this group,” said Lowery. “They have better attitudes, they want to learn they are quiet, they are all smart they are doing everything that we are asking them to do.”

“They are starting to get things,” he said. “We are going to run a more open style. We don’t have a big post presence we will have to do things with one post player and be a little more athletic. There is a lot of learning.”

“Defensively we are athletic and I think that we can defend,” said Lowery. “Offense will come as we are learning each other. We don’t have a lot of girls with a lot of experience and a lot of young girls that have to learn varsity basketball.”

Working up a new style of play takes time for the team to get to know each other.

“We have to gel more playing off each other trying to get up and down the floor and play a more athletic style of basketball,” said Lowery. “We have to rely on our defense and get into transition We are going to have to get out and defend because we can’t let teams get into halfcourt basketball so we are going to have to try to play a more up-tempo game.”

“I think that blends well for the younger girls because they like to get up and down the floor and they have some athleticism.”

In a conference that has some of the premier girl’s teams in the area, the Cavs will have to fight to gain respect.

“We are so young this year that experience is premium,” said Lowery. “The better teams that we play in our conference are going to be good again. We need to compete against better talent and take care of what we can do against like talent. We have to be the type of team that we can compete and get some wins against like talent teams.”