Fillies banking on experience
Ed Cope
Laurel Highlands Kaitlyn Thurby goes in for a layup during practice and welcomes you to Hoops 2011-12, our annual basketball preview edition. We hope you enjoy this special publication of HeraldStandard.com.
Laurel Highlands girls basketball coach Amy Tungate.
Laurel Highlands girls basketball team warms up for practice.
After a preliminary round WPIAL Class AAA playoff win last year, the Laurel Highlands girls basketball team saw its playoff run end with a first-round setback. But with six letterwinners returning and experience in the form of three returning starters, the Fillies are ready to take that next playoff step.
“We can absolutely contend for another playoff berth,” second-year coach Amy Tungate said. “We have experience coming back and the girls came together as a team this past summer. They realized that by playing together and winning, it can be fun. We have inside players who work well together and an outside game just as good and aggressive. We are intent on improving on our record (14-10, 6-6) from last year.”
If experience is a plus for the Fillies this season, so too is versatility, noted Tungate, a member of Laurel Highlands’ section-winning team in 2002.
“We won’t be a one-dimension team. We have to run at times and play a half-court game, depending on our opponent. We’ll adjust depending on what the opposition presents.”
Leading the way are senior center Brandi Liptock, who averaged 7.7 points and 7.6 rebounds per game last season, junior forward Marissa Erminio, who averaged a double-double with 12.8 points and 11.2 rebounds, and sophomore point guard Haley Moreland, who averaged 6.7 points and stepped in as a freshman when an injury sidelined an upperclassman.
Working on her strength over the summer, Liptock “improved her ability to post-up,” Tungate said. “She’s our strength at the post and she’s a great communicator on defense.”
Erminio’s key is “her physicality,” Tungate explained. “She goes one hundred percent all the time. She has a nose for the ball and is a great rebounder. She’s versatile and can go inside or outside.” Erminio is the lone junior on the squad.
Starting half the team’s games, Moreland “handled herself well,” added Tungate. “She’s improved her game since last year, is smarter and knows her teammates and where they need to get the ball to be productive.”
Tungate will look toward a trio of senior guards in Dawn Williams, Tori Simpson and Maggie Krichbaum to add depth to the lineup.
Williams “is our blue-collar player,” Tungate said. “She will get on the floor and do the little things that don’t show up in the scorebook. We’ll depend on her to do the little things to create big plays. Tori is a shooter and an outside threat from three-point range, but she gets more excited when she makes a good pass. She’s unselfish and improved her overall game. Maggie can do a little of everything, shooting, rebounding and handling the ball. She is a good rebounder for a 5-8 guard and uses her height to her advantage.”
Laurel Highlands opens its exhibition season in the Dec. 9-10 Fayette County Coaches Association Tip-Off Tournament against Albert Gallatin (Friday) and Connellsville (Saturday). Uniontown rounds out the four-team grouping. Tungate’s Fillies travel to Greensburg Salem on Dec. 15 to open section play. Laurel Highlands’ last section crown came in 2004.