SHEPHERD — It’s been nearly a decade since the Shepherd girls entered the Southern B divisional tournament as a district champion.
The Fillies are looking to buck that trend this season, as they’ve racked up 11 consecutive wins and sit at No. 2 in the MTN Sports girls basketball power rankings.
“I think we were a little disappointed with where we finished last year. This group has matured a little bit, grown up," head coach Becky Anderson said. "We have some experience. That was one of our big goals this year to win the conference, move into districts and feel good about where we're sitting."
Shepherd’s only loss came in its second game of the season — a 46-30 defeat to top-ranked Huntley Project. The Red Devils are still the only team this season to score more than 40 points against the Fillies.
“It is one of our big focuses. We love to get out and play good, hard-nosed man-to-man defense," Anderson said. "It's something we work on a lot in practice and place a lot of emphasis on. They really buy into that.
“They work hard for each other, and this group has played together for a long time — since they were young. They've really found great chemistry at both ends of the floor."
While Shepherd has romped through District 4B, it played an incredibly difficult schedule to open the year, with the aforementioned meeting with Project, and also games against ranked Ennis and Jefferson. Two of those three teams played at the State B tournament last March.
“I thought it was great that we played them early on, because it really determined where we were from the get-go and what we needed to work on," senior Molly Gilbert said. "We knew our district wasn't going to be what it had been in the past, so that was the tone-setter of what we're going to work on before we see these teams again at divisionals, how to get better as a team and where to go from there."
“We do sit in, I think, the toughest division in the state. I think there's seven of the top-10 teams ranked right now are in our division, and three get out. It's going to be a battle. Whoever is tested the most, I think that helps moving into that tournament," Anderson said.
If Shepherd is able to secure its first district title since 2016, it could make that path to the State B tournament a little less treacherous.
