Girls basketball: Despite key injury, Putnam County prepared to grind out wins again

Just who are the Putnam County Panthers? Not even coach Jared Sale knows for sure.

Not just yet.

While some bad luck over the summer has left several question marks in his lineup, Sale feels that his club has the work ethic and talent to, at worst, be competitive every night, and at best, contend for the Tri-County Conference regular-season and tournament titles.

The Panthers return their best player from a year ago, Ava Hatton, who was a unanimous first-team Tri-County Conference pick and News Tribune All-Area first-team choice as a sophomore after her 15.4 points a game accounting for 43.5% of all PC’s points. She also averaged 4.9 rebounds, 3.7 steals, 2.2 assists and 0.7 blocked shots for the 14-17 PC club.

But the loss to injury of junior Esmeralda Avila, who would have been the No. 2 scorer behind her, has changed the expected roles for virtually everyone else on the squad. Avila tore an ACL during the last two minutes of the last summer league game and now is out for the season.

“We’re really excited to have Ava back,” said Sale, now in his eighth season on the PC bench. “She’s only a junior, so when we play conference teams, they’re always thinking, ‘Wow, she’s back again? Isn’t she a senior yet?’ That brings back a ton of our scoring, so that’s a great piece to build off of. But because she’s going to be at the top of everyone’s scouting report, we’re asking some other kids to take on some of that scoring when they focus on her.

“Es is a big loss for us. She was kind of the glue girl who gets dirty, plays her tail off. In the summer we’d battle, grind things out and find ways to get it done. Es was a big part of that, so her absence changes our identity a bit. … Fortunately, we have [players] who could slide into that role, but we’re not sure how all that’s going to go just yet.”

The most likely candidates to provide scoring will be 5-7 senior point guard Gracie Ciucci, who had several double-digit games last year; 5-6 senior post Mikenna Boyd, who is undersized but handles chores in the paint; and 5-4 junior shooting guard Gabby Doyle, who started last season on the JV but by Christmas was the varsity’s first guard off the bench.

Vying for that reserve role will be 5-4 junior Sara Johnson and 5-5 junior Salina Breckenridge, along with a trio of 5-6 sophomores — Eme Bouxsein, Kacie Coleman and Valeria Villagomez.

Also in the post mix with Boyd will be 5-9 junior, Emma Henderson, 5-11 sophomore Maggie Spratt and 5-11 junior Maggie Richetta, a star on the PC volleyball squad but back in hoops for the first time since sixth grade.

“This is one of the most enjoyable groups I’ve been around,” Sale said. “They work their tails off every day, and they’re a smart group. They understand what needs to be done … and if we can get a few girls to take on [Avila’s] role together, we can be a grind-it-out team like last year.

“Can we knock down shots consistently? Can our posts contribute at the offensive end? Can we consistently get points from players other than Ava? That’s the big thing for us right now. If we can do that, I think we grind it out on the defensive end enough to be a tough team to play against.”