Biggest surprises of girls basketball season thus far? Butler’s Emily Hoffer, Karns City’s youth movement, more
It’s getting to the point in the high school girls basketball season where teams are clear on what their identity is. Some Butler County squads have seen players step up, while others have shown promise to do so.
Here are some mostly unheralded surprises that local teams are happy about.
As a junior, Emily Hoffer didn’t get much time on the floor for the Golden Tornado. Now a senior, she’s been, as Butler coach Mark Maier put it, “a revelation.”
“The epitome of a high school player who stuck it out and didn’t play any meaningful varsity minutes until her senior year,” Maier said. “Great story to learn from.”
Hoffer averaged nine points and six boards through her team’s first dozen matchups. She plays bigger than her 5-foot-8 stature, too.
“She’s guarded the other teams’ big girl to shooting guard and does a really good job of playing positional defense and not fouling,” Maier said.
Knoch hasn’t gotten off to the start it was hoping for, but if Neah Ewing’s efforts lately are any indication, the latter half of the season will be more enjoyable than the former.
“We expected her to lead us in scoring, but this is more than expected,” Knights coach Shane McGraw said. “She is heating up and leading our offense.”
During a five-game stretch that started in mid-December and ended with Knoch’s first win of the campaign — a 57-26 triumph over Derry on Monday — Ewing averaged 17 points per game. That included 18 against Redbank Valley, 22 against Karns City and 26 in the victory over the Trojans.
Coach Steve Andreassi’s Karns City group started 8-1, thanks in large part to freshmen Taylor Ritzert, Audrey Heginbotham and Josie Emrick and sophomores Alivia Farren and Maddie Mahood.
“The underclassmen have been key to our early success,” Andreassi said.
Slippery Rock girls coach Jeff Steele has three targets for his team to aim for each outing — rebound half of its missed shots, get 70 possessions per game and bucket 51 points.
“We are 21-3 the last two years when we score 51 points,” Steele said.
Rockets junior point guard Brielle Jordan has been doing more than her fair share to help attain such goals. Sophomore Gia Kovacik is nearly averaging a double-double, and Vanessa Hinkle is “playing as efficiently as anyone and attacking the offensive glass,” Steele said.
Slippery Rock got off to a 7-3 start.
Fans wouldn’t have heard junior Maggie Tatar’s name going to a Trojanettes game last season. Freshman Finley O’Shea, either.
Not now.
Tatar has taken over at point guard for coach Molly Rottmann’s squad, which started 7-3, and is regularly guarding the other side’s best player. O’Shea started on the bench this season but has become a starter due to injuries ahead of her.
“She has been our leading rebounder some games and is second on our team in rebounds,” Rottmann said of O’Shea.
