By Chris Parker
Buffalo girls basketball has some big shoes to fill from last season’s 17-win team in the graduated Courtney Austin and Emily Rice. Austin was the team’s leading scorers with 23.6 points per game to go with 4.1 assists and 3.9 rebounds per game. Rice was the second-leading scorer at 11.3 points per game.
“I believe the competitive drive these two girls had will be the legacy they leave behind,” head coach Tom Stokes said. “Their work ethic will be sorely missed. As far as replacing the offensive production that Courtney and Emily produced, we will just have to spread the offense around and have some girls step up as offensive threats.”
In all, Stokes watched about 3,500 career points walked across the stage last May.
Senior Bethany Lancaster is the top returning player for the Lady Bison. She led the team in rebounding at 9.6 per game last year. Lancaster was the third leading-scorer at 8 points per game while contributing 1.9 steals per game.
“Bethany will have to look to score more this year and become a threat from the 15-foot range as well as in the paint,” Stoke said. “I look for her to step up and be a team leader and I expect her to be a much improved player on both ends of the floor.”
Jaylen Cody (senior guard), Madison Andrews (senior forward), Bella Lang (junior guard), Bella Young (sophomore guard), Journey Edgington (sophomore guard), Audrey Vest (sophomore forward) and Cheyann Kenady (sophomore guard) all return this year. Young and Andrews averaged 3.7 and 3.4 points per game to lead that group. Young played in just seven games.
The freshman quartet of Brooklyn Warfel (guard), Raegan Carter (center), Audrey Peterson (forward) and Sadie Abercrombie (guard) will look to carve out varsity playing time.
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Buffalo should bring good size and a strong work ethic to the court.
“I hope our biggest strength will be our work ethic and our desire to compete for 32 minutes on both ends of the floor. We will have more size than in previous years which should help us be better offensively and defensively in the paint,” Stokes said.
The Lady Bison will have to improve on the perimeter to be successful.
“We must get more consistent with our outside shooting and we must guard better against dribble penetration,” Stokes said.
Buffalo opens the season Dec. 2-6 at the Fair Grove Invitational.
