A look back at Washington girls? hoops

?It?s been a season of learning,? said head coach Jordan Bentley regarding the 2016-17 Washington Demon girls basketball season.

The girls ended the year with a 5-17 record, down five losses from from a year ago.

?Based off where we were last year, we had a strong foundation of five seniors and I think that showed with the 10-11 season and that group of kids really showed how things have to go to get things done,? Bentley says.

?This year, we were probably a little bit of a younger team than I even wanted to realize at the beginning of the season. That?s because of the ability I know these girls have.

?I see that every day in practice. I see the athleticism and the things they can do that I know a lot of other kids don?t have the abilities to do.

?Overall, we have everything we need, it?s just coming together, putting those things together and believing.

?You have to believe in yourselves and believe in your teammates that they will do their jobs and then, at one time, it will all spark and continue to spark for us.?

Junior Sarah Nacos dominated the boards this season scoring 289 points for the year, averaging 13.1 per game.

She also led the team in the number of 3s made, going 50-of-177. Bentley likes to see that, but is wishful for more.

?I would like to see her percentages go up so that maybe she wouldn?t have to take those 17-18 shot nights,? he says.

?She could go for a few less, in the 15-shot range, and put a few more of the baskets in the hole.

?But at the same time, if we can get more players around her to be more offensive threats, her looks would look better for her and her percentages would come up.

?Her free-throw percentages would increase; giving her a break would probably help.

?That?s the focus for the summer ? we have to find some other players with some offensive threats to put out there on the floor with Sarah so teams can?t just key up on her because it will be a lot harder for us to score when they know that she?s the only threat.

?I thought we saw that at times this season. That doesn?t mean Sarah didn?t get any shots, she was just shooting a lot more contested shots that brought those percentages down.

?It all boils down to confidence. It?s all in our heads right now.

?We have some kids that can shoot the ball and early in the season we showed that we could do that.

?It?s one of those big things to find out why we struggled to shoot down the stretch.

?At times we had problems getting shots off and to put them in the basket.

?That?s a frustrating thing as a coach?trying to figure that out. But that?s my job, to figure that out to move forward and put a plan together about how we will fix that and move into next year.?

One challenge Washington faces each year is who they play. That?s something the team knows during the summer.

?It?s not always ideal to play a team that you know will probably finish in the top four in the state and others that might end up playing in the state tournament that didn?t quite make it there? Bentley says. ?No matter what, it makes us better.

?We learn a lot about ourselves and what we need to do to get to that level. If the goal is to get to the state tournament, those are the teams we have to beat to get there.

?It?s a good thing to put into perspective of ?these are the goals we want to achieve and this is what we have to do to get there.?

?At the same time, we will look to make some adjustments. Because of the small conference we are in, we can play some non conference games and maybe we will find some different competition.?

The team is only losing one player to graduation this year, Taylor Dicks, who had an average of 2.5 points per game for the season and went 13-19 from the line. How will she be missed?

?She is one of those that leads by example,? Bentley says. ?She always showed up to practice and never complained. She always did what she was asked to do.

?She did some nice things in games in terms of passing, rebounding, scoring and developing an outside shot and wasn?t afraid to take them. It helped us in zones.

?Taylor will be greatly missed and has done a lot for us the last two years, especially with the knowledge of the game that she has.?

Dicks? time as a Demon will be remembered.

?Taylor will leave behind one of those legacies where her teammates always noticed that she never complained.

?They all said after the last game of the season at Mt. Pleasant, ?Taylor always shows up and works hard.?

?She was one of those that just enjoyed the team, enjoyed playing basketball and enjoyed being a part of it.?

Looking ahead to next year, several players will still be on the team. What does Bentley expect?

?The biggest thing we will work on is continuously working on our ball handling and dribbling. We will build the confidence in ourselves.

?We need to realize every day that we come in the gym, that we did something that made us better and telling ourselves at the end of the day that we did just that and not be as hard on ourselves.

?We have to realize that we are getting better. Things are going in the right direction. We were young this past year. Moving into next year, we are going to be more experienced.

?We are going into games where we?ll be the more aggressive team. We?ll be the team that has better kids on the floor and take advantage of that.

?Our other focus is coming together as a team and building each other up.

?We need to understand that everyone is focused on the goal of getting to the state tournament and winning the conference title.

?The overall goal is to win more games. Everybody wants to do that and do what it takes to win them.?