CHERRY TWP — It can be quite easy to overlook the Moniteau girls basketball team.

The Warriors coach is so young, he’s sometimes confused with a team manager. The defensive specialist is a freshman and the other four starters are unassuming and say little.

They don’t cut imposing figures on the court. They don’t have a 30-point scorer or a flamboyant point guard.

Yet here the Warriors are, roughly a third of the way through the season, sitting at 11-5 overall and nipping at the heals of the established upper echelon of the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.

They are the rogues. And they quite enjoy that role.

“We like to be the underdog,” said junior forward Stephanie McCall.

Moniteau was an enigma coming into the season and did little at the start of it to sway that perception.

The Warriors began the year 5-4 with three of the losses coming by four points. It was a frustratingly up-and-down stretch for a team that had high expectation, but no idea if it could achieve them.

Then the wins started piling up, all of them convincing. Six in a row including impressive victories over Cranberry and Clarion.

The Warriors did fall to Keystone, 35-34, Friday night.

“That’s when we knew we are a force,” said senior forward Fontaine Glenn. “We are a team to be reckoned with.”

The five starters have been a perfect blend. McCall leads the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game. She’s also averaging nearly 10 rebounds per contest.

Seniors Emily Rider and Glenn also provide scoring punch. Junior guard Alycia Brehm provides a little bit of everything and freshman guard Alazia Greaves is a defensive wunderkind.

“You never know who is going to be the top scorer every night,” Glenn said. “That’s a great thing to have.”

They play well together in part because they are so close.

There are no secrets between them.

“Ever since elementary school, we’ve been playing together,” Brehm said. “We started young. We know each other’s strengths. We know each other’s weaknesses. We can read each other’s minds.”

Greaves’ big strength has been her defense. She held Cranberry’s Emily Merryman, who was averaging 30 points per game, to seven. She also held West Forest’s leading scorer Jill Wallace to one point.

“She’s our secret weapon,” McCall said.

Well, maybe not so secret anymore.

Greaves has always been a top-notch defender since her early days of playing basketball.

“I’ve always been fast enough to catch up with the other girls,” Greaves said. “My teammates are always helping me. The help-side defense has been great.”

The other freshmen — Sara Hull, Kennedy DeMatteis and Kristina DeMatteis — have meshed well, too.

“In the grand scheme of things, we’re still young,” said Moniteau coach Matt Stebbins. “Yes, we have two seniors and they are big seniors, but we play a lot of young girls. The atmosphere around here has been so much better. We’re happy. We’re having fun. And we’re taking care of business.”

Stebbins is in his second year as the head coach. He’s 25, but looks even younger.

This, too, tends to make people overlook him and his team.

“I get it all the time,” Stebbins said. “I was given a great opportunity here at Moniteau and I am blessed for it. I truly am. I thank everyone here for believing in me. I’m just trying to do what is best for the school and what’s best for this team and they are really buying in.”

Stebbins is intense, both in practice and during games.

“He’s very energetic,” Glenn said, smiling, “as everyone knows.”

McCall said he’s also very passionate.

“It’s great that he loves what he does,” McCall said. “That helps us. He really cares about us. He wants us to succeed and he puts his full heart into it.”

The Warriors as a whole want to succeed, not just for themselves, but for their doubters as well.

“It’s exciting and motivating,” Rider said. “Everyone always underestimates us. It’s like a surprise to them that we are winning.”