Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

The Western Boone girls basketball team kicked off the season with a win on Thursday night, topping Speedway 47-22 to start the Beth DeVinney era off on the right foot. The Stars forced 39 turnovers in the game, 25 coming on steals, and held the host Sparkplugs to below 30% shooting. "We are starting to see the pieces come together," DeVinney said. "The defense tonight was the key. We talked about defense and rebounding the whole week in our scout and what we needed to do to speed them up. It's all starting to come together and we're starting to understand a little bit." Ally Lewis had seven steals in the game, with Ady Nicley having five and Briar King and Mady Monks chipping in with four each. After committing four fouls in the first quarter, the Stars committed just six the rest of the game (one on the offensive end), and held the Sparkplugs to 13 points in the first three quarters. "Our man-to-man defense is actually really good, and we haven't spent a lot of time on it because it is one of our strengths," DeVinney said. "We've spent some time on our presses, which we will use periodically, and we knew if we could speed them up, we could get some turnovers. Our defense won the game tonight." The Stars led 17-7 at the quarter and 30-9 at the half. They lead swelled to 40-13 after three. Nicley led the Stars with 19 points, with Lewis adding 15 and seven rebounds. Monks had eight points and 11 rebounds. "I can't say enough about Ady, obviously first game and you get those little jitters as a freshman, but she played well," DeVinney said. "Ally's defensive effort was great, Mady Monks rebounding, really all our girls stepped up and chipped in and did something. Mickey Burns came in off the bench and did some amazing things on defense and rebounding. It's all starting to come together." The Stars also had 20 offensive rebounds, grabbing about half their misses. One of the areas that the Stars will look to improve in the future is turnovers, where they committed 19 on Thursday night. A lot of those came late with the game out of hand and some different rotations coming in, but the total was still higher than the Stars would like. "We had 11 midway through the third quarter, and that's where we need to be," DeVinney said. "If we could have kept that total around 14 or 15, it would have been a near perfect start. We did sub some and had some people come in, but that's something to work on." DeVinney said a lot of it came down to how they ran in transition, and making sure they get outside more. The Stars spent a lot of time "inside the volleyball court," on Thursday, something they have been trying to limit to practice. Other than that, it comes down to gaining experience. Lewis is the only one with significant varsity experience, and the rest are learning how to play bigger roles. "It's coming down the floor with the ball and maybe not making the best decisions in some cases," DeVinney said. "It's not really their fault, it's just not really knowing. Things like when it's one on three, pulling it out, and take care of the ball rather than force a shot. But I was really proud of our effort tonight, it's a great start for us and we have a lot to build on." The Stars will head to Rossville on Tuesday night looking to go 2-0 for the first time since 2021. DeVinney said she is excited for the group to break down the film and get back to work. "You can't use scrimmage film (on your opponent), so we came into this game blind pretty much," DeVinney said. "We had a pretty good scout on them from last year, some of the tendencies they had and things that they did, and the kids followed the scouting report to a T. They did everything we asked them to do, and they got a win out of it." Will Willems Sports Editor, the Lebanon Reporter will.willems@reporter.net (765)-482-4650 ext. 250128