{"id":91417,"date":"2019-12-06T00:42:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-06T00:42:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-girls-basketball-team-ready-for-new-season\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T00:42:09","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T00:42:09","slug":"mancos-girls-basketball-team-ready-for-new-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-girls-basketball-team-ready-for-new-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos girls basketball team ready for new season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos High girls basketball coach Kerri Morgan talks to her team during a recent practice at Mancos High School.<\/span>Ian MacLaren\/For The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Less than a year removed from last season\u2019s difficult campaign that ended with a 4-16 record, members of Mancos High School\u2019s girls basketball team have returned to their practice floor with renewed energy and high hopes.<\/p>\n

Leading the way for this year\u2019s Jays\u2019 squad will be senior forward Isis Jaime, who averaged a team-high 7.1 points per game last season while mixing tough play in the paint with solid outside shooting.<\/p>\n

Also figuring to play a big role for Mancos will be junior forward Madi Hale, who averaged 6.9 points per game last season and has assumed a leadership role throughout her team\u2019s practices this year.<\/p>\n

Other significant contributors for the Jays figure to be junior point guard Tia Imel, who made a name for herself as one of the San Juan Basin League\u2019s top on-the-ball defenders last season.<\/p>\n

Senior Kacey Wallace, who did not play basketball last season, and senior Emmalee Asnicar, whose heart and hustle have made her a fan favorite, also figure to play significant minutes for the BlueJays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team is looking pretty good,\u201d Jaime said. \u201cWe came a long way since last year, and I think that we can get better and better. We just need more practice, but we\u2019re coming along.\u201d<\/p>\n

Figuring to factor significantly into Mancos\u2019 degree of success this season will be the team\u2019s ability to put the ball in the basket and improve on last season\u2019s offensive production that resulted in an average output of 27.3 points per game.<\/p>\n

While which BlueJays\u2019 player assumes her team\u2019s lead offensive role remains to be seen, second-year head coach Kerri Morgan has emphasized to her players the importance of shooting the ball when the opportunity presents itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just need to put it up as much as possible,\u201d Asnicar said. \u201cWe all just need to try and score. We kind of struggled with just putting it up last year, so I think it\u2019s something that we all need to have confidence in.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the defensive side of the ball, the Jays will utilize a man-to-man scheme that will emphasize on-the-ball pressure and attempt to take advantage of the roster\u2019s above-average speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to run a man-to-man scheme and push (our opponents) hard,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cI think we have a lot of speed on our team this year, and I think that\u2019s going to help us out in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n

After opening their season at the Moffat County Tournament, which will take place in Craig Dec. 5 to 7, the Jays will return home and play in their school\u2019s newly renovated gym for the first time when they face off against Dove Creek on Dec. 10.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to make it out of the district tournament and get into the postseason,\u201d Morgan said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BlueJays coach hopes to improve on last season\u2019s 4-16 record<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[37,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91417"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}