Lady Indians young, but battle tested

The Comanche Lady Indians lost three starters from last year’s basketball team, but they still return quite a bit of experience to this year’s lineup.

“We had a good summer and we had really good scrimmages,” said Braydon Robinson, head coach. “So far, we’ve been very competitive. What I’ve seen out of us, game-action-wise, is we’re young, but I think we are going to be better than what we have been.”

Eight of the 11 players are freshmen or sophomores.

Raelee Ellis returns as the starting point guard, Cassidy Smith and Cianna O’Connor return at guard, Maicee Combs and Dre Sparks return in the post and Bre Gill is back for her senior year.

A combination of those six players will start most nights, according to Robinson. 

“The other two big contributors we will be freshmen Shylah Nichols and Ellie Schreiner,” Robinson said. 

Now entering his third year, Robinson’s job has been made easier from the standpoint of teaching his system, so the team can focus more on other aspects of the game.

“I’m not having to teach everything now, it’s fine-tuning things, so I’m excited about this year,” Robinson said.

The coach said the team chemistry is great. They’ve had a team night and done several different things together.

“These girls enjoy being around each other,” Robinson said. “We’re talking about doing things the right way.”

According to Robinson, some keys to success for the Lady Indians this year will be limiting turnovers and just understanding they are freshman and sophomore-heavy, so they’re going to make mistakes. 

“We just need to make sure those mistakes only lead to 6-0 runs by the other team instead of 12-0 runs,” Robinson said. “We’ll go through some spots where we will struggle to score, but defensively, I’ve been very pleased with where we’ve been so far.”

Robinson thinks Ellis and O’Connor will be the scoring leaders. 

“Cianna is pretty athletic, so that helps her a bunch,” Robinson said. “Cassidy is long and that helps her, but she’s not quite the scorer the other two are.”

The Lady Indians lost their season opener on Nov. 21 at Stratford, 60-35. They are scheduled to play at Amber-Pocasset on Dec. 2 before their home opener on Dec. 5 against Sulphur. Marlow comes to town on Dec. 6. 

Comanche also plays in a new conference this year with Dibble, Little Axe, Lexington and Davis.