| BY JOHN RENSHAW •
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• December 12, 2009 | | The Hurricane girls' basketball team is young and learning varsity competition on the fly. They're still transitioning to coach Shelly Kidd-Thomas - who is in her first campaign at the Tigers helm - and her philosophy.
All those elements finally clicked together for success on Friday as Hurricane ended a three-game losing streak after cruising to a 52-35 win over Virgin Valley.
"It's coming together. We won today (Friday). We're not where we want to be yet, but we're getting close," Kidd Thomas said.
In addition to being young, the Tigers (1-3 overall) aren't tall either.
Courting 10 out of 13 junior with only three of those players standing more than 5-foot-9, Hurricane will go through plenty ups and downs this season.
The key in the win over the Bulldogs, though, was the emergence of one of those young prospects in Lini Ieremia.
The undersized forward (5-foot-6) controlled the paint behind 13 points and five rebounds. Many of her points came on loose ball pick-ups followed by turn around, high arching six-footers. In any case, the southpaw has found playing time and shot opportunities rare this season. That is until Friday's contest.
"I haven't played a complete game like this so far," Ieremia said. "I think we're getting better with each game. Our chemistry on the court is improved, talking a lot more and just playing as a team."
The forward was part of a sophomore team group that tallied endured only one defeat last year. Success they hope to portray at the varsity level.
Against Virgin Valley, the name of the game was defense.
The Bulldogs - also young - struggled in moving the ball up court for four quarters. The Tigers forced 25 steals - 12 were created by sophomore Carly Stratton - that led to numerous easy buckets.
Ahead 27-19 heading into the third, Hurricane began to put the game out of reach despite playing the bench a good portion of the second half.
Virgin Valley's Rachel Morris showed her promising talent with numerous blocks in the paint and 13 points on the floor. But it wasn't enough as too many turnovers ultimately made this a one-sided contest.
"Since we're not very tall we want to be aggressive and push the ball up the floor offensively. And defensively we like to go with a full court press set," Kidd-Thomas said.
By all accounts in the first win of the season, Hurricane's philosophy has potential in 2009-10.
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