SPARTA – The Highland girls basketball team brings back five returning letter winners, but only one starter from last season’s team.
Seniors Peyton Carpenter, Kennedy Altizer, Savannah Fitzpatrick and Maddy Gordon give the Scots a good nucleus, but only Carpenter was a varsity starter last season.
“I expect her to fill the role of my team leader out on the court as a point guard by stepping up to make plays and vocally as well,” Highland Coach Whitney Levering-Smith told the Mount Vernon News. “With her, it's going to be a matter of getting her confident and comfortable, filling a new role that she wasn't required to do for the past three years.”
Gordon is a 6-foot tall post player, who is a defensive threat with long arms. She is developing into a good shot-blocker.
“I would like to use her height to our advantage and see her become a person that, defensively, people don't want to go up against,” Levering-Smith said. “She has to work on not getting into foul trouble and she's aware of that. I think she'll be one of our leading rebounders."
Emma West will back up Gordon at center. Expect her to get her share of rebounds on the offensive end. West; who was on the junior varsity squad last season; can read the shot, follow the ball and fight for the rebound.
Fitzpatrick is a guard and a four-year letter winner. Expect her and Altizer to be the Scots’ biggest threats from 3-point territory and from the foul line. Fitzpatrick helps the Scots make up for a general lack of depth with her versatility out on the court.
“She is like a chameleon,” Levering-Smith said. “I can put her anywhere out on the court and she knows that position and can run it just fine. She knows all of the spots and she can mold into any type of player we want her to be. She is an amazing screener. She's no taller than 5-foot-4, but she screens so well. She'll do anything I ask her to do.”
Madison Cecil left the program as the all-time leading scorer. She finished with 1,053 points, passing Kristen Anderson's 1,047 points in the final game of the season – a 55-32 loss to Whitehall-Yearling in a Division II district semifinal. The Scots, who hadn't been out of the sectional round since 2005, finished the season 15-10 overall and 9-5 in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference.
Cecil wasn't the only one to graduate off of last year's team. With the losses of Brooklyn Baird, Gena West, Brooklyn Geiger and Mattie Ruehrmund, Carpenter cannot carry the entire mantle. Fitzpatrick will also share the role of leader. She spends more time going over plays with the younger players.
“I have definitely gotten more serious,” Fitzpatrick said. “I feel like I have a bigger role on the team this year, because a lot of our playmakers graduated. So I am putting more work in than I did last year— during practice and even outside of practice.”
Junior Brylinn Tuggle is an excellent defender and very quick. She'll pressure Highland’s opponents, force some turnovers and grab a few steals.
