Nevada girls show strong growth during 2022-2023 season

The Nevada girls basketball team entered the 2022-2023 season needing to replace four of its top five scorers off last season's team that finished 14-10 and placed second in the Heart of Iowa Conference.

The Cubs went through some early growing pains and they also hit a rough patch during their first couple weeks back from Christmas break. But by the end of the regular season they had put things together and as a result they finished .500 at 11-11 and had another good showing in the HOIC by placing third with a 9-5 mark.

"I really enjoyed how this team continued to improve over the season," Nevada coach Jordan Bentley said. "They really began to focus on individual strengths and how to use those strengths to compete as a team. The kids maintained a positive attitude throughout the season which made this season a success."

Nevada opened the season losing at Boone (51-37) and at home to Carlisle (50-31). The Cubs picked up their first win Dec. 2 at Prairie City-Monroe (43-35) then dropped three straight to Iowa Falls-Alden (50-27), Roland-Story (32-28) and eventual HOIC champion and Class 3A state qualifier West Marshall (56-37).

Things came together for Nevada the last week before Christmas. The Cubs won their final three games before the break by upsetting South Hamilton (35-34) and downing Saydel (58-34) and Greene County (51-10).

After the break Nevada hit another rough patch. The Cubs only won two of their first seven games in January.

Nevada lost to Perry (44-32) and Clear Lake (58-32) in its first two games back from break. The Cubs defeated Newton (44-35) and PCM (44-40) on Jan. 12 and 13, but then they fell to Roland-Story (50-39), Gilbert (48-22) and West Marshall (57-48).

The strong showing in defeat against an elite West Marshall team did give the team some momentum. Nevada followed up the loss with an impressive 56-40 victory over South Hamilton that began a five-game winning streak to close out the regular season.

The Cubs defeated Saydel (65-22), Grand View Christian (49-42), Greene County (41-15) and Perry (52-33) in their last four games.

"Our biggest highlight is that we finished third in a highly-competitive Heart of Iowa Conference and had the opportunity to finish even higher going into the last two weeks of the season," Bentley said.

Nevada wasn't able to keep the momentum going in the postseason. The Cubs fell to Roland-Story in the 3A regional quarterfinals by a 43-35 score at Story City, but that didn't take away from what they accomplished overall during their final stretch.

"This team show consistent improvement and won five straight games toward the end of the year," Bentley said. "They maintained positive attitudes with a focus on developing all season long."

Bentley credited his seniors for being tremendous leaders and helping the Cubs get things together at the end of the season.

"Our seniors — Bridget (Cahill), Avery (Hinson) and Kaleigh (Groat) — have provided us with great memories," Bentley said. "They were a tremendous group that gave so much to this program over the years."

On the court Nevada's biggest strength was on defense. The Cubs only gave up 39.9 points per game and they held teams to the low 30s in shooting % and averaged 31.9 rebounds and 10.7 steals.

"We were able to be very competitive because our defense was going to give our offense opportunities," Bentley said. "We held teams to 40 points or less while also holding our opponents to under 32 percent shooting on the year."

Offensively, Nevada averaged 40.8 points shooting 31.3% from the field, 23.5% from 3-point range and 43.8% from the line. The Cubs made 101 3-pointers and averaged 9.1 assists against 18.7 turnovers.

"Our biggest challenge was to find ways to score enough points to win games," Bentley said. "We knew going into this season we had to replace our top scorers from last year's team, so the need find consistency on offense was our biggest challenge."

Junior forward Emma Strottman, Cahill, junior center Isabelle Nelson and Hinson were Nevada's most consistent performers during the season.

Strottman averaged 8.4 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.5 steals. She shot 40.9% from the field.

Cahill put up 7.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game. She led the team in 3-pointers with 39 and shot 60.6% from the line.

Nelson tallied 7.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.6 assists per game. She also shot 40.9% from the field.

Hinson recorded 5.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.1 assists per game. She also made 16 3-pointers on the season.

Junior forward Reagan Davis, junior guard Cinamon Hazlitt and sophomore guard Dakota Hendricks were the other regular varsity contributors for Nevada.

Davis averaged 3.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals. Hazlitt made 19 3-pointers and averaged 3.1 points and 1.5 rebounds and steals apiece and Hendricks tallied 2.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.3 assists per game.

Next season Nevada will have to replace its three valuable senior leaders. But with the bulk of their production back the Cubs have a chance to climb the ladder and contend for the HOIC title in 2023-2024.

"We return five letter winners, with four of them being seniors," Bentley said. "We return our leading scorer and leading rebounder along with our leading 3-point shooter from this season. Defensively, we will look to get more aggressive and limit teams scoring opportunities. We have many younger players as well that are going to be competing for minutes which is always a good thing that leads to success for our team."

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: The Nevada girls basketball team made steady progress in 2022-2023