How good was the St. James High School girls’ basketball junior varsity team this season?
Try perfection.
The jayvee Lady Tigers couldn’t get any better record-wise, as the squad roared through its schedule at a perfect 16-0 clip. The St. James jayvee squad ended its season last week.
St. James jayvee head coach Jim Engelbrecht said he had a great group to work with this season. Practicing every day against one of the state’s top Class 4 teams -- the Lady Tiger varsity unit -- doesn’t hurt either, he says.
“The way (St. James girls’ basketball head coach Brad) Conway has practice set up we play against the varsity a lot,” Engelbrecht said. “And when we do that, getting in a game is almost a sigh of relief.”
It was certainly no relief for Lady Tiger jayvee opponents this year. Not only did the St. James jayvees go undefeated, they won most of their games in blowout fashion. Many times the outcome was decided before halftime.
Mirroring the Lady Tiger varsity squad, the jayvee team used a smothering, trapping defense to ignite much of its offense.
But the schedule was still strong enough to be a challenge throughout.
“I thought seven or eight teams on our schedule handled the press pretty well and we had to tweak it at times,” Engelbrecht said. “Licking, Newburg, Rolla, (Jefferson City) Helias and Hermann were some of the teams able to break the press.”
The Lady Tiger varsity team will be hit hard by graduation after this season, as four key players will be leaving, including three guards. However, it appears the squad, as usual, will simply re-load through a talented feeder program.
