GIRLS BB: Winamac enters Stesiak's 2nd season poised for improvement

Nov. 3—Tony Stesiak took over a young team last year in his first season at Winamac.

The Lady Warriors struggled to a 4-20 record but they were competitive against some tough teams. They had a halftime lead against eventual sectional champion North Miami in a sectional contest before NM pulled away in the second half for a win.

But the Warriors return a lot more varsity experience this year and they already look like a much-improved team. They opened the season with a 53-22 win at Frontier on Tuesday.

"What a difference a year makes," Stesiak said. "I thought we were way farther ahead than where we were last year. With a lot of inexperience last year I had hoped that those lessons as tough as they were to learn could pay off this year. This was certainly a step in that direction."

Kandace Kroft and Sadie Popejoy had 12 points apiece to lead the Warriors. Maggie Smith was also in double figures with 11.

Stesiak is looking for those three guards to lead the team in scoring this year. Kroft is a sophomore who was a second-team All-Loganland selection a year ago after averaging 8.5 points and 5 rebounds per game. Smith averaged 5.0 per game a year ago and ran in the cross country State Finals just three days before Tuesday's season opener. Popejoy is a freshman.

"I thought all the returners played like veterans," Stesiak said. "Maggie doesn't have her basketball legs yet. She's been practicing on a limited basis with us. But to come off of a state cross country meet on Saturday and to play in a game on Tuesday, and she played a bunch of minutes. I told her, hey, be honest with me, but she never really looked tired and knocked down shots. She had 11 points, made three 3s. I thought she played like a senior guard.

"Even Kroft, a sophomore, I thought she played like a junior or senior tonight. Then Popejoy, a freshman, doesn't play like a freshman. She plays a lot of basketball outside the season and to have those three guards this year was a significant difference. And we had good balance."

Piper Link added eight points for Winamac and Marissa Iverson had six off the bench.

"Tonight we started Link and [Lily] Bennett. It's our small lineup. It's a small, athletic lineup," Stesiak said. "Then we've got size in Iverson, Kaelyn O'Connor and Cyaira Wolford off the bench and we have guards Mershai Loehmer and Brody Goodman to rotate in. So I feel really good about being able to go 10-deep if we need to this year. Then we have some other kids who are knocking on the door. We've got 14 girls in the program and there's a lot of competition for spots and it's nice to have depth to look to and have healthy competition in practice to make us all better."

Winamac trailed Frontier 7-1 three minutes in. The Warriors took an 11-7 lead after one. They then outscored the Falcons 21-3 in the second quarter to take a 32-10 lead into halftime. They led 42-14 after three.

"They wanted to play a halfcourt game and the first couple minutes were that way," Stesiak said. "Then we got them up and down the floor and got turnovers which led to layups and transition baskets which got our offense going, built our confidence. Once we were able to make the tempo in our favor, up tempo, it kind of decided the game right there."

The Warriors were competitive against some good teams last year and are looking to build off of that.

"I credit how they were able to compete and hang with it last year even though the record was tough," Stesiak said. "A lot of that credit goes to last year's seniors. Nobody wants a senior year that goes 4-20 but they really bought in and helped lead in attitude, kept positive, they kept working hard, they bought in. So you hope those lessons paid off.

"But turnovers was a big emphasis of mine, I thought we turned it over way too much. We averaged about 25 turnovers last year, tonight we only turned it over 12. And we forced 29. That's a winning formula, no doubt about it. That's more of what you're looking for this year is to knock the turnovers down but also to force teams into more turnovers at the other end. We were able to do that tonight. That's a big goal and to be more consistent on the offensive end. But if we're playing good defense and scoring in transition that certainly helps the offense too and we did that tonight. The turnovers and the transition game are going to be two big points of emphasis as well as using our depth that I think we have this year."

Defending champion Caston looks to be the favorite in the HNAC this year.

"In terms of HNAC, yeah, it's Caston's to lose," Stesiak said. "I'm just so impressed with those three-sport athletes in that senior class. They've stuck together and had a lot of success. They're just a really well coached, hard-nosed basketball team. Having all those seniors they've been through the battles and nobody's got the depth in terms of the starting five and the experience and the success that they can throw out there on a nightly basis. Everybody I think is chasing them.

"After that a lot of unknowns. I think the race for anywhere from second to last could be pretty tight. I think everyone has reasons for optimism but also a lot of question marks. I'd put us right in there. We do have a lot more home games this year. It felt like we were on the road for a bunch. I think we only had two or three HNAC home games last year and that flips this year. So we're looking forward to having more HNAC games at home and hopefully that can help turn our conference record around a little bit."

North Miami, led by senior Kaiden Hanley, remains the sectional favorite.

"We played extremely well against North Miami last year. They're certainly the favorites," Stesiak said. "They've won two sectionals in a row and I would consider them the favorites and everybody else has a really good chance as well. I think it's a really competitive sectional, a lot of basketball obviously between now and then. But I think pretty much all five teams are looking at it now like they've got a chance."

Winamac next hosts Westville on Tuesday for its home opener.