Lady Loggers short on experience, long on tenacity

To say Libby will field a young girls basketball team would be an understatement. 

The most experienced player is a junior who started last year, and the Lady Loggers have one senior on their roster. 

After finishing fifth in conference last season, Libby will have to focus on what the team did well in the second half of the season in order to get some wins.

“We’ve got to get better on what we were trying to do last season,” said head coach Jim May. “We are a man-to-man defensive team. By the end of the year we were pretty salty on it.”

The Lady Loggers lost three seniors from last year’s squad, and with only two juniors, youth will have to carry the day. 

“We were young last year after the seniors,” May said. “We are still young but we have experience.”

Guards Alyssa Walker and Jenny Johnson and wing player Kim Tangen all graduated. 

May started two freshmen last year, and a thin roster may facilitate some more youthful play minutes.

The most experienced player, Taylor Quinn, a junior post player, will lead the team with her junior classmate, wing Brooke Rosling.

Possible starters include Quinn and Rosling, lone senior Kaitlyn Gilder, and a slew of sophomores. Hannah England, Hailey Craig, Devon Gallagher and Hailey Moe will all battle for some minutes. 

An unfortunate loss for Libby will be that of sophomore Shyla Stevenson, who blew out her knee at the end of the soccer season. May said he doesn’t anticipate her back at all this season.

With the youth on the team, to predict how the season would end wasn’t something May would cop to.

“We’re just looking at that first game,” he said. 

The Lady Loggers play Corvallis on the road Dec. 7. The first home game is against Flathead 1 p.m. Dec. 15.