GREENFIELD — A year ago Greenfield-Central’s girls basketball team turned the corner.
Now they hoped to go full speed ahead.
Finishing 14-10 last season, 5-2 and in third place in the Hoosier Heritage Conference, the Cougars had their first winning season since 2016-17. They also had a stretch of winning eight of nine games.
With three starters back, a move-in that was the leading scorer on her previous team, and a talented freshman to go with some additional depth, Greenfield-Central could be looking at bigger and better things to come.
“As long as we stay focused and work as a team and work together well, I think we’ll be pretty good this year,” junior guard Brooklyn McConnell said.
McConnell is one of two three-year starters, along with leading scorer Chaney Brown.
Also a junior, Jalyn Smith is in her second year in the starting lineup. Madison Sonsini, a 6-1 junior, was the leading scorer at Richmond High School last year. Frosh Izzy Silcox adds some basketball savvy to go with three more capable juniors, Emma Nelson (5-11), Addi Herrin (5-2) and Kynsey Hasty (5-2), and sophomore Juliann Jones (5-8).
“I like our group,” head coach Bradley Key said. “We have some depth that we’re able to rotate kids in and do different things because more players have experience and understand what we’re trying to get accomplished. We have a big junior group that has been together for a while. Some of them have got to play early in their careers and it will be their third year, Chaney and Brooke have been a big part of that, and Jalyn Smith got a lot of playing time last year, too.”
Brown, a 5-9 forward/guard, averaged 14.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.7 assists per game. She is on pace to be a 1,000-point scorer by the end of the season. She has 670 total points in two seasons. She scored 20 or more points six times last year and has 13 20-plus nights during her career.
“We’ve been really strong (during our preseason practices), coming from last year I think we’re going to continue to get more aggressive and better with our offense,” Brown said. “I think this year we have a chance to do some good things. We’ve been building it up and working hard to get to where we should be. This year and next year we’re going to start to reap the benefits of all of our hard work.
“And, we’ve got some new girls coming in that will really benefit our offense, too.”
McConnell, a 5-3 guard, had 39 3s last season and averaged 7.9 points per game, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals. She scored a career-high 19 points in a big win over rival New Palestine.
Smith was a strong role player and averaged 2.3 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.1 steals.
A big addition is Sonsini.
For Richmond last year, she scored at a 14.4 points per game clip and added 4.8 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.9 steals. She had five 20-plus scoring games, including a pair of 28-point games.
The Cougars will have much better size this season with Sonsini and Nelson, who had some starts and played in 21 games.
Silcox is a 5-6 freshman guard and Herrin and Hasty add depth to the backcourt. More frontcourt depth comes from sophomore Jones, who Key said is one of the team’s best rebounders.
Key thinks this team will continue to get better by the way it competes in practice.
He’s gone from recent years just trying to find five players to play to having depth where the second unit pushes the first unit every night.
“Our second group can give our first group a run for their money. It makes things competitive and all of a sudden everyone is getting better,” he said.
The Cougars graduated three seniors from last year’s team including Ary Hibbard, now at Manchester. Hibbard hit 45 3s last season and averaged 9.8 points. Kammi Anderson added 3.3 points off the bench and Taylor Smith was a consistent contributor. Also gone is Katie Holmes, who averaged 4.2 points and 5.7 rebounds.
Key’s team is still young. There are only two seniors, Kalyn Moss (5-5) and Lauren Pechin (5-10).
“We’re looking to have some fun this year, be competitive,” Key said. “We’ve worked hard. Hopefully, that pays off and kids can feel some of that joy and excitement and understand in life when you work hard good things come to you. This year, hopefully, we get to feel some of that.”
The Cougars open the season tonight, at home, against Greenwood. They travel to Whiteland Saturday. The Hoosier Heritage Conference opener is Nov. 17 at Pendleton Heights.
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2023-24 Greenfield-Central girls basketball schedule
Date;Opponent;Time
Nov. 2;vs. Greenwood;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 4;at Whiteland;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 9;at Tri;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 11;vs. Guerin Catholic;1:30 p.m.
Nov. 14;vs. Richmond;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 17;at Pendleton Heights;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 20;vs. Heritage Christian;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 28;vs. Bishop Chatard;7:30 p.m.
Nov. 30;at Lapel;7:30 p.m.
Dec. 8;at New Palestine;6 p.m.
Dec. 12;vs. Shelbyville;7:30 p.m.
Dec. 16;at Delta;1:30 p.m.
Dec. 19;at Connersville;7:30 p.m.
Dec. 27;at Lebanon Tournament;12 p.m.
Dec. 28;at Lebanon Tournament;TBD
Jan. 2;vs. Perry Meridian;7:30 p.m.
Jan. 12;vs. New Castle;6 p.m.
Jan. 13;at Franklin Central;2:30 p.m.
Jan. 16;at Muncie Central;7:30 p.m.
Jan. 19;vs. Mt. Vernon;7:30 p.m.
Jan. 23;at Yorktown;7:30 p.m.
Jan. 25;vs. Southport;7:30 p.m.
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2023-24 Greenfield-Central Girls Basketball Roster
No.;Name;Cl.;Ht.;Pos.
1;Ainsley Robinson;9;5-3;G
2;Brooklyn McConnell;11;5-3;G
4;Juliann Jones;10;5-8;F
5;Madison Sonsini;11;6-0;F
11;Izzy Silcox;9;5-6;G
12;Chaney Brown;11;5-9;F
15;Kynsey Hasty;11;5-2;G
20;Jalyn Smith;11;5-6;G
21;Addi Herrin;11;5-2;G
22;Emma Nelson;11;5-11;F
23;Kalyn Moss;12;5-5;G
24;Addie Heacox;9;5-3;G
31;Lauren Pechin;12;5-10;F
Head coach: Bradley Key
