By RYAN RICHTER

Staff writer

An uncanny trend continues for the Peabody-Burns Lady Warrior basketball team.

For the last three years, coach Scott Bauer has watched his numbers shrink with each passing season.

That’s certainly done the Warriors no favors, with Peabody struggling just to compete, much less win, with lack of depth being a consistent enemy.

That, along with an assortment of other challenges, added up to a 1-20 record a year ago.

With just eight players on his team this year, Bauer might start to get antsy should somebody sustain an injury or run into a lot of foul trouble.

With the loss of Mallory Harris, Anna Lubbers, Nicole Sanders, Jory Rives, and Katie Charles, improvement won’t be easy.

“The weakness of this team is some large hurdles that we have been overcoming the past few years which starts with low numbers,” Bauer said. “We only have eight girls out, which makes everything we do a challenge.

“It’s imperative that we stay healthy this season. These girls have had the deck stacked against them the past three years, but continue to give each other and this team everything they have. As a coach, that’s all I can ask for.”

Graduation wiped out four-fifths of Bauer’s starting lineup from a year ago, leaving Tori Pickens the lone returning starter.

Averaging 5 points and 5 rebounds a game, the 5-7 Pickens is the only returner with a vast supply of varsity experience as well as production.

Precious Kerr is the Warriors’ lone senior and will be called upon immediately for help in what figures to be a five-guard offense.

Junior Sydney Hodges should fill in on the wing, but at 5-7, her natural spot would be in the backcourt.

Outside of Pickens, Kerr, and Hodges, nobody else on Bauer’s roster has logged any varsity minutes.

Rebounding and defense also will be concerns, with the Warriors allowing 43 points a game year ago, while only managing 22.

Briana Lett and T.J. Clover help Pickens and Hodges round out the Warriors’ largest class, with Adrianna Newman the only sophomore.

Thin numbers mean Bauer’s freshman trio of Sarah Spencer, Kaete Johnson, and Mackenzie Eden will have to mature quickly to lend a hand.

“The strength of this team is a group of girls who come to practice every day ready to work,” Bauer said. “They’ve been faced with many obstacles beyond their control, but that doesn’t damper the things within their control.

“This team has the ability to score the ball from the perimeter, but we have to be able to find other ways to score where we’re not shooting well.”