March 28, 2024

Raider girls seek historic season on the hardwood

BAXTER – The Collins-Maxwell/Baxter girls’ basketball team has never won more than 11 games as a shared program.

That doesn’t stop second-year coach Jamie Zabel from having high expectations this season.

Despite losing his leading scorer and rebounder to graduation a season ago, Zabel feels like he has the roster to be able to compete with the best teams in the Heart of Iowa Conference.

Abbie Haupert has taken her talents to Wartburg College after averaging 16.4 points and a HOIAC-best 12.3 rebounds per game a season. Haupert, a first-team all-HOIAC selection, will be missed but Zabel welcomes back five starters and placed high expectations on each and every one of them.

“Practices have gone well. We are working hard and should be a better team this year,” Zabel said. “Our goal is to beat every team in the conference at least once. That may be a lofty goal, but that’s where we’re at. We want to make a deep tournament run. The idea is to be a darkhorse and make others fear you a little. We want to be competitive.”

Even with Haupert a season ago, the Raiders managed just seven wins and went 4-14 inside the HOIAC for an eighth-place finish.

The return of seniors Lexi Breon and Mackenzie Schmitz, juniors Bridget Hurley and Carter Larson and sophomores Megan Ritter and Mikayla Eslinger as well as the addition of freshman Brianda Bane has Zabel thinking big in his second season.

“We return five starters counting the junior we get back following an injury last year,” Zabel said. “We are looking somewhere between 12 to 15 for wins. We want to put our name on a banner. That’s been our goal for two years. We want to play for a district championship.”

The Raiders were about a minute and a half away from playing in a district final last year. They led West Marshall by two with 1:30 to play but turned it over a few times and missed some late free throws in a 47-45 loss.

Breon returns after setting the school record with 141 assists last season. She also averaged nearly 10 points per game on her way to second-team all-HOIAC honors.

Breon’s senior running mate – Schmitz-- also is a three-year starter. Schmitz missed most of her sophomore year with an ACL injury but is 100 percent healthy in 2014-15. She was an honorable mention all-conference pick last year.

Hurley also nabbed honorable mention all-conference honors a season ago and will be primarily responsible for guarding the other team’s best player. She also scored nearly six points and pulled down 5.4 rebounds per game last year.

Eslinger became a starter during her initial high school season after Larson was lost in the opening quarter of the season with a torn ACL.

Larson returns healthy in 2014-15 and Eslinger averaged 5.4 boards per game as her replacement.

Ritter, Bane and sophomore Sydney Ziesman will give Zabel the luxury of going eight or nine deep. Ritter started three games as a freshman and Ziesman will help the Raiders defensively. Bane plays a lot of AAU ball and will contribute right away as a freshman.

PCM and Saydel are the favorites in the HOIAC, according to Zabel. But he feels like if his Raiders can find a way to score consistently, they could find themselves in the upper half of the league.