Young, hungry, talented: Gregori girls basketball overcomes slow start, wins CCAL opener
The Gregori High girls basketball team once again enters Central California Athletic league play with the capability of making a push for a league title.
Despite the graduation of four seniors who had multiple years of varsity experience and led the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals, Gregori followed up a 10-8 preseason in 2022-23 with a nearly identical 9-8 nonleague schedule to start this season.
All with four sophomores leading the way.
Alanah Lopez (14.4 points per game), Lilly Staggs (11.3), Veronica Whitten (7.7) and Audrey Pacheco (6.3) are not only the Jaguars’ four leading scorers, they are also four of the team’s five starters.
Junior Lilly Morris also starts for the team, which has just one senior on the roster. In a sport that is usually dominated by upperclassmen, Gregori has found success this season without that veteran production.
Head coach Marissa Shull has led the Jaguars to a 10-8 record midway through the season with solid showings in preseason tournaments, including an appearance in the championship game of their host event, the Battle for the Hardwood in early December.
“I don’t think people realize how young we are,” Shull said. “We make adjustments as coaches because they’re so young, they’re still learning the game.”
Lopez, Staggs and Whitten were all freshman standouts, playing the whole season at the varsity level. Even though minutes were tough to come by, they learned from last year’s graduating class, which included Sara Davis, Savannah Pearson, Madalyn Woodard and Chloee Hoffman. Now, they are growing into their roles.
Lopez is the team’s leading scorer at just over 14 points a game. A versatile player who facilitates the offense, she is 14th in the section in made threes and leads the team in assists. Shull describes Staggs as the team’s “defensive hound.” The shifty, quick guard who averages a team-high 3.5 steals a game hangs her hat on defense. Whitten, a guard/forward hybrid, has found her niche in the midrange. She’s also one of the area’s best rebounders, with an 11.2 rebounds-per-game average that ranks 15th in the section.
With depth at the guard position last season, Pacheco did not play varsity, but she has stepped into her role as the team’s do-it-all player. She sets good screens, cuts hard, makes the right play and knocks down the open jump shot as the glue that every good team needs.
“They’re learning how we want to play and even though three of those sophomores played varsity last year with us and they got minutes, they didn’t get minutes to where they’re getting this year,” Shull said. “Getting them to buy into what we’re telling them as far as you playing up at a senior level instead of a sophomore level is a challenge, but they work hard, they listen, they want to be here.”
Playing through their mistakes
Gregori’s youth showed in the first half of its Central California Athletic League opener against Downey, in which the Knights (2-13) kept it close in the first half. They took a one-point lead early in the second quarter and the two teams finished the first half tied at 17.
The second half was a different Jaguars team.
Gregori forced Downey into turnovers, leading to easy transition layups, stopped settling for outside jumpers and attacked the rim, scoring off rebounds and getting to the free-throw line. After scoring 17 first-half points, Gregori scored 17 in the third quarter and allowed just nine points.
Gregori outscored Downey 29-11 in the second half, earning its 10th win of the season.
“Slow start and we weren’t making some shots,” Shull said. “We had to pull them back. They’re young and they get in their heads a little bit. The halftime talk was just about adjusting to the aggressiveness and stepping up. Every team is going to bring their A-game to us. So we have to come out and play hard every single game. We don’t have an opportunity to just sit back.”
A varsity team with four sophomores in the starting lineup and a freshman in the rotation, the Jaguars have had their growing pains, but the goal is to improve in the things they can control. The wins will take care of themselves.
“They’re improving a lot in the aspect of they’re looking for the extra pass right now, they’re feeding each other really well in transition,” Shull said of the improvements the team has made through the season. “We want to run, obviously, so they’re looking at those opportunities to just get the ball out and go. We’re short, so we’re really punching into rebounding, working hard. They’ve grown multitudes in that aspect right there.
“We have our ups and downs like any team. We’re happy with the adjustments that they make when we put them in. We’re happy with their willingness to work.”
Chasing a league title
The Jaguars went into Tuesday night’s matchup on a 19-game league winning streak. They finished CCAL play 10-0 last season and ended their 2021-22 league campaign winners of nine straight. The last time Gregori dropped a league game was Jan. 24, 2022, against Pitman, a 10-point loss. They rebounded three days later with a 42-24 win over the Pride.
Gregori went 9-1 overall and 8-1 in league games during a pandemic-shortened spring season in 2021. During the next two full seasons, the Jaguars captured CCAL championships.
“I mean, we’re pushing we want league,” Shulls said. “That’s what we’re pushing for. They’ve got the pressure. They feel the pressure because we’ve done that for three years now.”
Don’t call it a rebuild. Shull is having none of that talk around the Gregori camp. The standard has been set by three straight playoff appearances dating back to the 2019-20 season.
“We didn’t come in saying we’re rebuilding, we came in saying here’s the expectation and here’s what we want and here’s what we’re going to do,” Shull said. “They’re just following suit with that so we didn’t want to go that (rebuilding) route. We wanted to push out the gate.”
