By Kory Carpenter

Record Sports Editor

The Wright City girls basketball team tried blending youth with experience this season, while trying to win a few games along the way.

The Wildcats finished their season 3-21 after their first-round district loss to North Callaway last month.

“We had a lot more close games this year, which was an improvement from last year,” Head Coach Fred Ross said. “Those are some of the things we look at.”

The Wildcats lost six games by 12 points or less.

“We’re doing some player grades from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, and we saw a lot of improvements from a lot of the kids, and that’s the part we really look for from day one,” Ross said. “We want them to improve on everything, and we thought they did that.”

Senior guard Amy Janowski led the team with 10 points, 2.7 steals and 1.6 assists.

Janowski tied her season-high with 18 points in the season finale against North Callaway and scored double-digits in 13 games.

Janowski, Erin Tomschin and Nikki Styles will graduate this spring, and the trio contributed 41 percent of Wright City’s scoring this year.

“The only good part about having a bad team is that a lot of young kids get to have varsity experience, and we hope they get a little success from their varsity experience and aren’t quite so overwhelmed next year if they play on varsity,” Ross said. “(Sophomore) Aryan Reinhold did well coming back and (freshman) Mercedes Wray looked good in the post at the end of the year. (Sophomore) Melina (Campbell) did some good things, and (sophomores) Lilly Sargent and Riley Heiliger did some good things, as well.”

Wray led the aforementioned group with 2.6 points and five rebounds in 10 games after joining the varsity team late in the season.

“Her athletic ability and jumping ability really started showing, and she felt more confident,” Ross said. “She really learns quickly, so that’s exciting to see. She didn’t play last year, so this was really her first year of organized basketball, and I thought she did well.”

Other notable returners include juniors Abbey Jaspering and Jada Hunter, who were second and third on the team respectively with four and 3.9 points per game.

Jaspering joined Wray as the team’s leading rebounders with five per game.

Ross hopes the duo will lead his team next year as seniors, and he would like to see his players perfect their crafts over the summer.

“We want them to get their gym time and practice good things,” he said. “If you’re at the park, it’s fun to play. But you need to practice the good things that will get you better.”