Girls b-ball teams starts playoff on high note

Austin Hicks, Staff Writer|February 22, 2019

It’s all about pace.

The Cotter girls basketball team heads into the playoffs on a hot streak. With 20 wins and a shared conference title under their belt, some players believe that the reason for their success is the work that they put in when running their transition offense.

They believe that out-running the other teams is a big part in how

they cause their opponents to become disorganized and fall apart.

Their offense has proven to be balanced and reliable as well. In their game against Rushford they made fifteen of the sixteen free throws and they have had a number of players contribute scoring.

This goes to show that they are striving in many different areas of the game.

While the offense has been good, the majority of the team believes that the heart of why they are winning is their defense.

Many of the player credit their success to their great coaching and their ability to have a strong defense. Their outstanding defense causes every team that they face to work hard for and earn every point they get. After asking some fans, I’ve been told that Gloria Flanagan, a senior forward, is one of the best defensive players on the court. Their defense is based around being fast and flying around the court. They focus on keeping the other team as far away from the paint (the lane) as possible which forces their opponents to take the hard shot.

The seniors include:

#14 Gloria Flanagan who plays forward

#10 Abbey Allen who plays guard

#22 Ella Riley who plays guard

#24 Isabel Northrop who plays forward

#25 Ellie McRaith who plays forward

The seniors are very proud of how the season is turning out and hope to continue to play as competitive as they have been.The entire team feels like they have a great team chemistry and they also continue to be friends off the court.

“We are all friends both on and off the court, and that makes it really fun and easy to play with each other, no matter who’s on the court,” Ella Reilly, #22 said.

“We also have really good team chemistry which helps with the attitude and morale on and off the court,” Abbey Allen, #10, added.

This shows that all of the players back each other up and they are there for each other whenever one needs help. Cotter girls basketball is truly a definition of what a team should be like.

Their record is 21-5. One of those losses was the season opener against Benilde-St. Margret’s which is ranked 8 in the state for their class.

Another team was Wausau Newman who is ranked in their class in Wisconsin. Both of these games were extremely close. In the game against Newman Cotter lost by only two points in overtime.

The Ramblers are one of the top teams in their class.The team is proving to be a very strong and competitive team in the 2A girls basketball class.

“We play really good defense and we pride our entire program on it. Most of us are in the weight room year around and are in the gym most of the summer working on getting better. even though we are a young team we have a lot of variety experience and that knowledge helps us come out with the win in close games. We are outmatched in height for almost all of our games but that just motivates us more to go get rebounds and run the ball. We also have really good team chemistry which helps with the attitude and morale on and off the court,” Abbey Allen said.

“This year we have worked very well as a team. Our point guards are always looking to push the ball up the court and run our transition offence. Our offence has been pretty good this year, but our defense has been key to our successful season because we play team defense and deny the ball,” Jordan Rubie, #20, said.

“There are many things that our team has worked on this season that I believe have made us successful. The first would be our transition game. Coach Bowlin always tells us that the way to win games is by out-running the other team, and he isn’t wrong. We run up and down the court running our transition almost every single practice that we’ve had this year. Another reason we’ve been successful is because of our team chemistry. We are all friends both on and off the court, and that makes it really fun and easy to play with each other, no matter who’s on the court,” Ella Reilly said.

Next up for the Ramblers is a rematch with Zumbrota-Mazeppa on Tuesday at Rochester Mayo Civic Arena at 7:30.

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