Returning starters key to Kahok girls basketball season
By Mark Jurgena
Third-year Collinsville girls basketball coach Colin Moore has good news and bad news.
The good news is the Kahoks return several key starters from last year’s 15-17 team. Three of them have started for the past two seasons.
The bad news is many of their SWC rivals also have several starters back.
“You just look around and you see how many kids we are bringing back and you think it’s going to be bright,” said Moore. “Then you look at all the other teams that are bringing a bunch of kids back, it just seems like a lot of young kids were playing last year.
“The great thing about our team is just having Megan (Janson) handling the ball along with Jenna (Scheller) this will be her third year on varsity and Ella (Guerrero) her third year on varsity and you know how dominant Talesha (Gilmore) was as a freshman. We’ve just got to not just expect to win just because we started last year. There’s a lot of tough games out there.”
Janson returns for her third and final year at the point for CHS. Last season she averaged 11.5 points, 2.3 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. She hit 29% of her threes and shot 76. 3 percent from the free throw line.
The senior had 21 points twice last season. She hit the jackpot in the 3rd place game of the MICDS tourney against O’Fallon, Mo. (Ft. Zumwalt West) and again in the 5th place game of the Highland Tournament against Nashville. CHS won both of those contests.
Scheller, also a senior, averaged 10.6 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 2.03 blocks per game.
She also had 21 points against Nashville at Highland and pulled down eleven rebounds twice against Belleville West.
Guerrero brings back 7.2 points per game from her sophomore season and Gilmore brings back 312 rebounds from her freshman season. She averaged 9.8 rebounds per game.
Gilmore also holds the girls basketball school record with 24 rebounds in the MICDS Tourney opener against Clayton, Mo. There were 15 occasions last season where she had double digit rebounds.
The Kahoks open with Cahokia at home before heading to Nashville for the Thanksgiving week tournament.
