Edinburgh girls basketball season preview

The final seven games of Edinburgh’s 2020-21 girls basketball season played out over the course of 13 days.

Quarantined on three occasions due to COVID-19, the Lancers forged through the uncertainty created by the various stops and starts to finish 7-12 – mirroring the record of the last Edinburgh girls squad that took part in fewer than 20 games (2008-09).

“We were quarantined so much that it was weird. I’m excited right now to be back on the court,” said senior point guard Alyssa Funkhouser, one of four returning starters for a squad that had four of its games canceled, mostly notably in early December and mid-January.

“I think this season going to be different because there are a lot of shoes to be filled.”

The graduation of guard Annelise Lollar took away 16.7 points a contest – or 36 percent of the Lancers’ average as a team. Funkhouser will need to score more, and the same applies to the team’s other returning starters (guard Callie Hancock and forwards Carly Cowan and Bethany Burton).

Funkhouser, who stands 5 foot, 2 inches, logged minutes early in her varsity career because of her defensive tenacity.

However, she will need to emerge as a scoring threat if the Lancers are to construct their second winning season in three years and emerge as a contender in the Mid-Hoosier Conference. Funkhouser averaged 3.5 points a contest as a junior, with a pair of 10-point efforts in early-season wins over Crothersville and Hauser her high-water performances.

Edinburgh coach Amy Schilling looks for more such outings this time around.

“As a freshman, we really used Alyssa for defense. Now, the last two years, it’s more about handling the ball, and we need her to score 10-12 points for us,” Schilling said. “Alyssa had to become more of a vocal leader, too, and I think she’s done well.”

The challenge officially begins with the season opener at home against Beech Grove on Nov. 3.

Funkhouser, for one, is ready.

“I feel like I’m more vocal now, when before it was always me asking the questions. The more I’ve done it, the easier it is for me,” she said. “Taking care of the basketball and communication are the big things, but I’m also going to have to do more on offense.”

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Mike Beas
Mike Beas is the Daily Journal's veteran sports reporter. He has been to more than 200 Indiana high schools, including 1990s visits to Zionsville to profile current Boston Celtics GM Brad Stevens, Gary Roosevelt to play eventual Purdue All-American Glenn Robinson in HORSE (didn’t end well) and Seeger to visit the old gym in which Stephanie White, later the coach of the Indiana Fever, honed her skills in pickup games involving her dad and his friends. He can be reached at [email protected].