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USF women's basketball team ready to go after enduring difficult pandemic season last year

Anna Brecht has averaged almost 20 points in her first four games at USF
Anna Brecht has averaged almost 20 points in her first four games at USF

The USF women’s basketball team has had plenty of success under 14th-year coach Travis Traphagen – six 20-win seasons, two NCAA tournament berths and an NSIC championship – so last year’s abbreviated 8-6 season was disappointing on multiple levels.

While not trying to downplay his team’s performance, Traphagen admits it hardly felt like a real season to him due to the COVID-19 interruptions.

“I mean, we’d go three weeks without practice and then have to play a game,” he said. “Or we’d have a great week of practice and the game would get canceled. It was terrible. Looking back, I’m just happy we got to play some games at all.”

Now the Cougars are ready to get back to serious business, and they’re optimistic they’ve got another NSIC playoff run in them. USF returns four starters, including preseason South Division player of the year Anna Brecht, and they’re motivated by the chance to do things the way they’re used to. Missing games wasn’t the only thing that made last year difficult. Getting better was a challenge, too, and since returning to a normal offseason program, the Cougar players have found their routine and found their footing.

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“We went through a lot,” said point guard Dallie Hoskinson. “We had to wear masks at practice and that made it hard to breathe. It was one person per basket. You couldn’t share a ball so you didn’t have partners for drills. It’s so nice to be back to normal, and I think all of us have worked extra hard over the offseason and in practice to get better because we’re just so happy we get the chance to do that.”

The Cougar attack will start with Brecht, who averaged 18.0 points and 5.4 rebounds in her first season after transferring from Green Bay. Traphagen expects Hoskinson (who averaged 7.6 points and 7.6 rebounds last year) to be a greater threat on offense to go alongside Brecht, while Megan Fannin, a former Watertown standout who was limited to five games last year, should take a big step forward as a scoring threat.

Danielle Schaub, a grad transfer from Concordia-St. Paul, should also be a key addition. She averaged seven points last year for the Golden Bears, and two seasons ago had a 27-point game against Augustana in which she made nine 3-pointers.

Lauren Sanders returns to provide a veteran presence at guard after averaging 6.4 points, while post players Kiara James and Krystal Carlson (9.2 points, 4.9 rebounds) should be a bigger part of the Cougars’ plans this season.

“Those two are what maybe makes me most excited about this team,” Traphagen said. “We’ve lacked consistency inside and they have really taken the next step. I feel like we’re as good as we’ve been in there in a while.”

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With the extra year given to players due to the pandemic, every team has more depth than ever, and some return every key player. USF wasn’t quite so lucky, but they’re an experienced team, and a hungry one.

“There’s a winning culture here that Coach Trap really hammers into us,” said Brecht. “That’s so important from a player’s perspective. We can be as good as we want to be. I feel like this team doesn’t have any real limitations, especially on offense. Our goal is to win that conference tournament and hopefully we can achieve a lot of smaller goals along the way to help us get there.”

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: USF women's basketball team ready to go after rough pandemic season