Frankie Long

Even with a key component missing, Marshalltown girls basketball should look more cohesive on the court this winter.

“We feel really good coming into the season,” MHS head coach Brian Murphy said. “We feel like we already have an established identity, which it felt like we were trying to find for a lot of the first half of last year. I think we feel good about where we’re at and knowing the areas that we’ve got to hit hard and have already been hitting hard over the summer.”

Leading the returning group is sophomore center Frankie Long, a first-team All-Iowa Alliance Conference North Division selection as a freshman after averaging five points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.5 blocks per game for the Bobcats. MHS also returns all four of their honorable mentions from that All-Alliance North team in senior Ellie Hughes and juniors Kinsley Bowie, Sydney Kapayou and Millie Heitmann.

Bowie led the team in scoring at 5.2 points per game last season; Hughes added 4.2 points and 6.1 rebounds, Heitmann 3.9 points and 4.2 rebounds and Kapayou put up 3.3 points and 3.3 rebounds per contest.

“What’s fun is, when that whole group comes back, there’s just a general consensus keeping them together,” Murphy said. “The first thing is just keeping the girls healthy — Kinsley Bowie was battling a hip issue last year and had hip surgery and now looks better than ever; Millie was constantly battling things last year and she’s played a full season of Iowa Attack [club basketball] and that’s really made a big difference with her ball handling. Syd’s another one who just couldn’t get healthy last year and finally, she’s at full strength.

“We’ve got a good combination of players that are both showing growth, and also just getting healthy and starting the season at the point where we want to be.”

On the subject of good health, one blow the Bobcats took in the offseason was a torn ACL for Amairra Johnson during the club basketball season. Johnson was another contributing freshman in the vein of Long, averaging 3.7 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.8 steals last season. Johnson had surgery on the injury in August and is not expected to play for MHS this season.

“That’s obviously had a big impact on our depth,” Murphy said. “We were eight strong last year and now we’re probably about seven deep right now — Morgan Hilderbrand is a freshman coming up and we’re excited about what she’ll bring — she’s ready and capable to step in on the varsity floor. A very different type of player than Amairra, but certainly somebody that we trust to get in there and give us a good look.”

The Bobcats were 6-16 overall last season, including a tough skid with just one win in their final 11 games — the season ended in a 34-15 loss to Des Moines North in a 5A Region 1 quarterfinal.

MHS’s defense ranked in the top half of 5A last season at 43.4 points per game — but the Bobcats’ struggles were on offense, ranked 38th out of 40 5A teams last year at 28.8 points per game.

“We know what end of the floor we need to focus on,” Murphy said. “Our offense is what was holding us back last year. So our challenge to anybody who touches the floor this year is to not only be a threat on offense, but to be assertive and aggressive, and to look for your own shot. And from what we saw this summer, from some of our early scrimmage work, we’ve already seen a number of girls take a jump. We’re looking for that individual growth from everybody, which will raise the floor for our entire offense.”

Murphy sees Ames as the favorite in the Alliance North, though he thinks the Bobcats line up well in terms of overall returning experience compared to how many spots other teams in the division will be looking to fill.

“Mason City graduated almost their entire starting lineup, Waterloo East brings back a lot of girls but lost their starting point guard, Fort Dodge we were right there with for a lot of last year,” Murphy said. “We feel we stack up in the conference. If we’ve made the growth that we feel like we’ve made, we should be right in the middle of things.”

Marshalltown’s season opener was at South Tama on Nov. 26. The home opener is Dec. 3 against Des Moines Lincoln, and Alliance North play begins at Mason City on Dec. 13.

MHS GIRLS BASKETBALL

Tuesday, Nov. 26 at South Tama, 7:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 3 DES MOINES LINCOLN, 6:15 p.m.

Thursday, Dec. 5 at Newton, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 6 at Des Moines East, 6:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Des Moines Hoover, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 13 at Mason City, 6:15 p.m.

Monday, Dec. 16 SOUTHEAST POLK, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 20 FORT DODGE, 6:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 7 at Waterloo East, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 10 AMES, 6:15 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 13 CEDAR RAPIDS JEFFERSON, 6 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 14 DES MOINES NORTH, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 17 at Des Moines Roosevelt, 6:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 21 MASON CITY, 6:15 p.m.

Monday, Jan. 27 GRINNELL, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 28 at Fort Dodge, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 31 WATERLOO EAST, 6:15 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 4 at Ames, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 7 at Ottumwa, 6:15 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 8 at Des Moines North, 1:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Feb. 11 at Des Moines Lincoln, 6:15 p.m.

Friday, Feb. 14 DES MOINES EAST, 6:15 p.m.