Scoring and Discipline Keys to Success for Girls' Basketball

In her fourth year as head coach of the Quakers girls' basketball team, Christine Hill is preaching scoring and discipline to her girls. The team was 13-16 and 3-5 in the division last year.

“We have a very tough conference, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I welcome the challenge,” Hill said. “I’m looking forward to the RV (Rancocas Valley). I think that they are going to be our nicest challenge aside from Trenton Catholic. Trenton Catholic is going to be a large mount to overcome, but not insurmountable.”

The Quakers installed a new offense last year and Hill said they "barely scratched the surface of it." Refining the offense has been a focus since practice began the Monday after Thanksgiving.

“What needs to improve, if anything, is our patience on offense," she said. "This year we are just putting in some more layers of it. We need to be more patient on offense in terms of the switch."

There are a handful of seniors on this year’s squad who have shown their leadership on an off the court to the younger players.

“Our seniors, we have six of them, have been stepping up in their own way and have shown leadership qualities. I think making a captain decision is going to be difficult,” Hill said.

Despite making a run to the South, Group 3 Final last season, the Quakers still struggled with scoring.

“We have to score more than in the 30s. We cannot be plagued with ‘How are we going to put the ball in the basket?'" Hill said. "We were able to step it up in the playoffs and score 40-45 points per game. When you come up against good teams you are going to be in trouble."

“We scored around 30 or 40 points per game last year," said Lauren Leskow. "This year we're trying to get that up to 50 or 60."

The Quakers enjoyed a surprise playoff ride last season, one that set a program mark.

“Moorestown really isn’t known for its basketball program and last year we had a crazy playoff ride. (We want) to have a better regular season this year and get back to where we were last year in the playoffs,” Steph Toy said. “It’s different because no one ever expects us to do that in basketball. We were the 14 seed, completely unexpected, and that's what made it such a good feeling.”

“We lost only one person from last year’s team and I think we can recover from that so we can definitely go on a run this year,” Marisa Randazzo said.

The Quakers open their season Friday against division rival Trenton Catholic at 5:30 p.m.