Bentonville Looks For Consistency

By Tom Glave

Posted: November 9, 2009 at 4:54 a.m.

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BENTONVILLE — Coach Tom Halbmaier isn’t planning to ride the roller coaster again this year.

Experience should help his Bentonville Lady Tigers avoid the up-and-down play of last year.

“I don’t think we’ll have the emotional roller coaster with these kids,” said Halbmaier, who is entering his ninth season at Bentonville. “We have a good balance of seniors, juniors and sophomores in the mix.”

The Lady Tigers will lean on those juniors and seniors — who helped Bentonville to the state quarterfinals and a 17-12 record — for leadership.

“A lot of those sophomores from last year really matured,” Halbmaier said. “They all bring a different level of skills to the table. We’re finding ways to utilize those skills within the concept of the game.”

Junior guard Montana Lewis returns after averaging 7.7 points per game last year. Lewis (5-foot-7) came on strong at the end of the year and had 18 points in Bentonville’s postseason win against Conway. She’s fully recovered from offseason shoulder surgery, Halbmaier said.

The bulk of the Lady Tigers’ experience comes in the paint, where juniors Blaklee Sanders (5-8), Jessica Stout (5-10) and Jessi Murch (5-10) and 5-7 senior Amanda Coughlin — who will return in December from a knee injury — all played last year.

“We’re a pretty good sized team,” Halbmaier said. “We’ve got some (players with) good size and range on their shot. We just have to find the consistency to mesh that together and be able to play more fluid with one another.”

The Lady Tigers made plenty of strides in that department during the summer. They played well at team camps at Branson, Mo., and Harding University and Halbmaier has been pleased with preseason practices.

“Practice has been real competitive,” he said. “We’re very deep this year in terms of the competitive play. We’re not as thin as we were last year.”

Halbmaier said the Lady Tigers learned a good work ethic and important lessons from last year’s team. More than once, the Lady Tigers squeaked out a 7A-West Conference win against a team they beat by double digits earlier in the season.

“They understand they have compete with consistency,” he said. “A lot of these kids learned from those mistakes last year. They’re a lot more competitive ready. I have less question marks than I did last year.”

Bentonville begins its season with Black and Gold Night on Saturday and hosts Claremore, Okla., for a benefit game on Nov. 17.

The Lady Tigers will compete in the eight-team Crabtree Invitational in Van Buren the first week of December.

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