The structure of the Bishop McNamara girls program is a little unique. The Fightin’ Irish are beginning the 2025-26 season with just one senior, point guard Eliana Isom, and are in the process of replacing five graduated seniors, including program legend Trinity Davis. But yet the Irish also have a good chunk of experience with third-year starting junior forwards Trinitee Thompson and Jaide Burse.

Hosting Coal City on Tuesday night, the Fightin’ Irish (3-2) saw both familiar and new faces contribute on both sides of the floor for a runaway 55-21 win.

"It’s OK for the start, but there are definitely a lot of things we need to work on," Thompson, who notched a 14-point, 14-rebound double-double, said. “Mostly the little things and coming together as a team, but it’s a good start.”

The Irish certainly had good starts on Tuesday, outscoring the Coalers 19-4 in the first quarter, and after taking a 27-11 lead into halftime, opened the second half on an 18-2 run.

With juniors Hailey Jackson, Anna Manes and Kaneyce Davis and freshmen Mahlyia Johnson and Dylan Pallisard supporting their experienced trio, the Fightin’ Irish saw a few stretches where the offense fell behind, primarily a four-minute scoring drought to open the second quarter. But for head coach Khadaizha Sanders, the aggressiveness on the offensive end stayed throughout, which was most important for her to see.

“I’ve been harping on it at practice a whole lot, letting them know we’re not just looking for one or two people to take the shots, everybody has to bring it,” Sanders said. “I’m giving them the green light, telling everybody to be aggressive because I understand it has to be a team thing on the offensive end just like the defensive end.”

Manes (11 points) and Jackson (10 points) joined Thompson in double figures while Isom dished out five assists. But it’s the defensive side where Sanders wants the Irish to hang their hats, and that side of the game was effective as well, holding the Coalers to their third-lowest point total in the last five seasons. Manes tallied six steals to lead the defensive charge.

“It’s probably the biggest emphasis,” Thompson said. “Defense is the main thing we’re focusing on this year.”

While McNamara’s full-court press did cause the Coalers (2-3) fits, they did find some success in taking advantage of McNamara’s aggressiveness in the second quarter, where they shot 14 free throws. They made just six of them, but as the Coalers figure out how to replace more than 20 points per game that graduated in Kylee Kennell and Emma Rodriguez, coach Brad Schmitt liked how his group didn’t back down from the Irish’s stingy defense.

"There’s definitely positives," Schmitt said. “We want to be aggressive and protect the ball. They were obviously in attack mode with their press and full-court stuff, but we got there. We just didn’t finish, whether or not that was tired legs or just not being able to convert. But that’s a step in the right direction and we’ll go from there.”

The Irish have a week off before they host Pontiac next Tuesday. As they head into their Thanksgiving break, Sanders said they’re doing so on a positive note just because of the lopsided score, but how they were able to achieve it.

“For me, it’s not about the score at all. I don’t care if we win by 50-60 points, it’s how we win,” Sanders said. " ... They’re getting the hang of it and it’s only game five. It’s a process and we’re continuing to grind it out."

The Coalers, who got a team-high eight points from Rileigh Eddy, host Lisle on Monday. They’ve seen some stout competition through two weeks, as their three losses have all come to teams that won 20-plus games and/or a regional title last season in the Irish, Kankakee and Reed-Custer. Schmitt hopes that early exposure can help them as the season develops.

“We don’t have one single person we’re going to lean on, we definitely have to lean on team offense, and defensively we’ll get better,” Schmitt said. “We’ve been trying to guard some teams that have us outsized and outquicked right now, but hopefully when we get to the teeth of our (Illinois Central Eight) Conference season we can hang in there.”