A look at the hoops

EAST PEORIA — As the spring semester begins, it means both the ICC men’s and women’s basketball teams are heading down the home stretch.

Men’s Head Coach Tony Wysinger would like to see much more improvement out of his team on a number of levels.

“We have to be more consistent with our defensive philosophies. Right now we are too sporadic with the concepts,” Wysinger said. “We need to play harder and retain what has been taught.”

Justin Taylor leads the Cougars men’s basketball team in points with 20.6 points per game and also leads all rebounders with 7.4 per game. Leading the team in assists is sophomore Callen Boddie, and helping with the rebounds are freshman Jamani Pierce and Jared Johnson.

The women’s team has had a superb first half of the season, with 16 wins to only two losses, while the men have gone 13-4. With two months left to play, both teams will look to build off the first halves of their seasons and gain some momentum going into the district tournaments and, hopefully, play for the national championships.

Preparing for the championship-type games of the post season tournaments is an everyday job for Head Coach Karrie Redeker and the ICC women’s team.

“We are focusing on the little things [like] being on time, practicing our free throws, boxing out, paying attention to the scouting report, etc.,” Redeker said, “so when we are in a championship-type game we are prepared and have an understanding of what we need to do to give us the best chance to win.”

Team turnovers have become an issue that is addressed regularly during team practices.

“We play a lot of kids and try to play up-tempo, which sometimes leads to more turnovers, but are trying to become more aware of the importance of the ball,” Redeker said.

Leading the women’s team in both scoring and rebounding is freshman Destiny Ramsey, who is averaging 11.1 points per game and taking in 6.8 rebounds per game. Behind Destiny in the scoring column is freshman Hayley Reneau, who averages 10.3 points per game, followed closely by sophomore April Gebke with 9.3 points per game. Freshman Jemia Carpenter is also averaging 6.8 rebounds per game.

Redeker also is starting the season strong as a coach. With a win on January 5 at Moberly Community College, she reached the 200-win milestone after only seven and a half seasons of coaching.