One statistic was particularly deceiving for the Wright City girls basketball team.The Wildcats had seven different players lead them in scoring at one point or another throughout a 1-23 season.That may sound like an ingredient for success, but the problem existed in that the contribution dropped off considerably after that one player.Coach Fred Ross never knew if or from whom his team’s points were going to come on a given night.“We could get one person to have an excellent game, but we didn’t have more than one at a time,” lamented Ross.The Wildcats’ only victory came during the first week of the season against Barat Academy in the Lutheran St. Peters Tournament.“There were other times we came close, but we had a hard time getting four good quarters,” said Ross. “That consistency with having a bunch of young kids who have never played at the varsity level before just wasn’t there.”Wright City had just two players returning with varsity experience at the beginning of the season and would later regain the services of another.Senior Kyle Winfrey and sophomore Amy Janowski were counted on substantially in the early going and were aided by the addition of senior Orlanda Hill to the team after semester.Hill ended up being the Wildcats’ leading scorer, averaging 8.2 points per game.But opponents often recognized her ability and complicated matters for her, leaving one of the underclassmen to step up.“We had pretty simple offenses with such a young team,” said Ross. “Girls were often afraid to take shots or we tried to do too much or not enough.”Still, Ross was pleased with the development from his underclassmen, especially freshman Alyssa Hart and sophomore Macy Evans, who worked to attack the lane.“Alyssa got a lot of varsity time and made good use of it,” said Ross. “She really showed some improvement that will help her in the future.”Sophomore Erin Tomschin also contributed along the way, as did junior Savannah Bridges, who took on much of the ballhandling responsibility.Ross says one of his team’s major weaknesses was a tendency to veer away from the offensive plan, even when it was working.“We would be going along fine, but if the game plan didn’t get us a bucket one trip down the floor, we started looking for other options,” said Ross.Defensively, the Wildcats often found themselves mismatched, trying to take on players one-on-one in unfavorable situations. Ross says it’s all part of the maturity process.“It’s going to have to start in the summertime,” said Ross. “These sophomores that got so much better as freshmen proved it’s possible. We’ve talked about getting more games in the summer.”He says the team evaluated itself near the end of the season to see how much has been accomplished outside of the win column.“I showed them some film and they were amazed how much their skill level had gotten from the beginning of the year,” said Ross.HILL LEADS WILDCATS IN SCORINGDerrick Forsythe photo.