WOOSTER, Ohio — Harley Holloway isn't going to lie.

She readily admits it.

Practicing for a women's basketball season that might never come was incredibly difficult for the Freeport graduate and freshman guard at the College of Wooster.

“The team had a lot of doubts,” Holloway said. “Sometimes, the practices were inconsistent because we didn't believe we were going to play.”

All winter, though, Holloway and her teammates filed into the gym and worked on their craft hoping the coronavirus pandemic wouldn't scuttle the season.

At first, Wooster told them there would be no campaign, then the college and the North Coast Athletic Conference changed course and offered a shortened season.

Finally, a payoff for all that work in practice.

And relief for Holloway and her teammates.

“We were still working,” Holloway said. “We were still keeping our hopes up, but it was hard.

When we found out there would be a season, I was really excited. Everybody was so hyped up and practices were fun again.

Holloway and Wooster had two weeks before the eight-game season. Those practices were unlike the ones before them.

They were upbeat.

When Holloway was finally able to put on the Wooster uniform for the first game of her collegiate career, she was giddy.

And her best was yet to come.

“I was really nervous at first because it was my first college games,” Holloway said. “But once I got used to the pace and how the college game was played, it was really fun. And I loved it.”

Holloway finished strong, scoring 23 points against Hiram College and then 15 in the season-finale, also against Hiram.

Holloway finished second on the Fighting Scots in scoring at 8.9 per game. She also averaged 2.3 rebounds per contest.

“The biggest thing I had to adjust to was getting defended,” Holloway said. “In college, there are better defenders than there are in high school and they play really, really good defense. So that was a big change.”

Holloway played her first two years in high school at Kiski before transferring to Freeport, where she lives.

She eclipsed 1,000 career points as a senior with the Yellowjackets.

Holloway has become a threat from anywhere on the court at Wooster.

“I've been working more on the mid-range jumpers and going to the hoop,” Holloway said. “It has helped.”

This year was bonus basketball for Holloway.

She will still have four years of eligibility left and the time she had this season was invaluable and will only make her better in seasons to come.

Holloway knows the areas she needed to improve and is focused on honing her game this offseason.

The hope is a full 2021-22 campaign — and practices free of uncertainty that surrounded them this year..

“I want to get better on defense,” Holloway said. “I need to improve my speed. There's always things to work on.”