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Sports

Coach Anderson Has High Hopes for Lady Rangers

Lakewood girls Hoopsters enjoying some early season success.

The way that Nicole Anderson, girls' basketball coach, describes her team, every girl's parent should be proud.

"We're going to be a team that's hard-working and eager to get better," she said. "All along, we've focused on our defense and rebounding.  We've got a very talented and athletic roster."

It seems as if the Lady Rangers are ready to compete for the conference championship — and perhaps they may, given their 12-10 record last season and the fact that the team won eight of their last 11 games last season.

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But what would high school basketball be without a little adversity?

Three seniors from last year's roster graduated, and only two seniors are active in this first part of the season. Through Thursday night, the Rangers sit at 2-3, having lost a gut-wrenching game to host Stow on Wednesday night, after coming out in the fourth quarter and outscoring Stow by 10 — only to lose by five, 54-49. The key to this game was the first quarter, when the Rangers came out flat and trailed 23-9 at the beginning of the second. 

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The team's signature win so far came in a thrilling contest over a tough Brush team. The home Rangers got just enough stops to overcome a furious comeback by Brush and squeak out a 60-58 Northern Ohio Conference win. Anderson highlighted junior guard Jessica Garcia (5"9') as instrumental to the victory.  Garcia, through 4 games was leading the team with 21.5 points per game and 11 rebounds on the season. Sophomore forward Amanda Sacha (5"9') is another player that has stepped up in the early going, averaging 9.8 points per game and five rebounds a game through the first four.

Joining Garcia and Sacha in a rotating starting lineup is some combination of freshman point guard Maggie Rowell (5"1', five points per game), freshman guard Megan Barrett (5"8', five ppg.), senior guard Chrissy Bruno (5"6', 4.5 ppg.) and Anderson's "defensive stopper," sophomore forward Julie Herman (5"7', 6.0 rebounds per game). 

Rounding out the squad are sophomore guard Taylor Prebel (5"3'), freshman forward Victoria Milicevic (5"10'), senior guards Erin McCarthy (5"5') and Martha Nagbe (5"6'). Currently, Nagbe is on the shelf with several different injuries she sustained during the summer. She was one of the team's  leaders throughout last season, and one of the reasons for great optimism heading into this season.  Nagbe hopes to be back during the season. She is a co-captain, along with Garcia and Bruno.

One thing Anderson likes about the schedule is the level of parity and the built-in rivalries with neighboring schools like St. Joe's and Magnificat, along with Rocky River. Expect more of this in the coming seasons, as the basketball team, along with all of Lakewood's other teams, will be making the jump to the West Shore Conference, where the built-in rivalries will extend beyond the court and into other sports as well.

Anderson is pleased with the team's progress through practice and the first portion of games, but knows that they'll need to work hard for each victory this season.

"We need to improve some of our decision-making and continue to work on sound fundamentals," she said. "We're a young team, that, if we do these things, we will improve over the course of the season."

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