Five 3A Teams Who Will Be Most Improved

As we near the start of the Iowa High School season, we want to take a look at some of the teams who we believe will be the most improved this year. Here are five 3A teams who I think will show the most improvement in terms of gained wins. I only looked at the teams who had a winning percentage of under .500, and excluded the .500 teams from a year ago. <hr /> <h5 style="text-align: center;">Assumption (8-12 last year)</h5> Assumption had a solid season last year as they made it back to Wells Fargo to end their season. They fell in the opening game but were able to win three elimination games to get there. Their schedule was one of the toughest in the state last year as their opponents were a combined 153-88 last season. Assumption was easily the best team under .500 in the state last year and should be above .500 this year. Assumption was led last year by junior-to be [player_tooltip player_id="160549" first="Ava" last="Schubert"] as she scored 12.5 points a game and brought down 6.9 rebounds a game. Seniors [player_tooltip player_id="63607" first="Dawsen" last="Dorsey"] and <strong>Maddie Loken</strong> combined for 13.7 points a game last season. Assumption did have five players in their top nine scorers but return enough talent to be able to flip their record this year. Look for Assumption to have another really good season. <h5 style="text-align: center;">New Hampton (6-16 last year)</h5> New Hampton struggled last year to a 6-16 record but never got in a groove offensively due to some injury trouble. Last year their leading scorer, sophomore [player_tooltip player_id="63061" first="Carlee" last="Rochford"], averaged 15 points a game but only played nine games. Having her for less than half the season hurt New Hampton as they needed to lean on some scorers that they had not had to before. They also played a very tough schedule and they played 11 teams that were over .500 on the season. In those games, New Hampton did not record a win which hurt their overall record. Junior-to be <strong>Kandice Eggerichs</strong> will be returning this season alongside Rochford to lead the team this year. I think New Hampton has the ability to have a really good year this year as they have some really solid returning talent to the team. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Algona (5-15 last year)</h5> Algona is one of those teams that you look at the year prior and immediately sense a potential breakout year coming. They played a really tough schedule and their top five scorers are returning this season. They only lose one senior from their roster and they will be an upperclassman laden team with six juniors and three seniors returning. Algona was 0-13 against teams over .500 a year ago and I think this year that will change as some of those teams have lost some talent and Algona is just becoming experienced. Six of their losses last year were by single digits, including four within three points. The junior-to be duo of <strong>A’Lailah Perry</strong> and [player_tooltip player_id="160572" first="Lillian" last="Etherington"] combined to score 19.1 points a game last year and fellow junior <strong>Tora Solbach</strong> scored 6.6 points a game. If their guards are able to control the basketball better this year it could be a very solid season in Algona. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Sheldon (4-19 last year)</h5> Sheldon went through a tough year last season going 4-19 but were fairly competitive. Despite losing 19 games they were able to get through the season with a point differential of just -10 points a game. 10 of their losses last season were by 15 points or less. As they now come into the year with a lot of returners I would think that a lot of those games would have the potential of being wins. They lose one player who scored over 1.7 points a game last season and return five of their top six scorers. Senior-to be <strong>Maliah Kleinhesselink</strong> scored 10.3 points a game last year and they also return sophomore <strong>Claire Johnson</strong> who scored 8.7 points a game last year. Look for others to step up this year and catapult Sheldon up to nearly double-digit wins. <h5 style="text-align: center;">Oelwein (3-20 last year)</h5> Oelwein had a tough year last season going 3-20 but were riding on the shoulders of a lot of underclassmen. They had three freshmen who were in their top six of scorers last season including two of them being in the top three. Oelwein struggled to score the ball last year not scoring more than 30 points until January 22nd. This year they will be able to score the ball at a much more efficient level and will lean on the scoring of leading returning scorer, <strong>Malayna Kiel</strong>. The senior-to be is going to be relied on to replicate her 10.1 points per game from last year and will need to increase that a bit as well. <strong>Alexa Berryman</strong> and <strong>Natalie Crandall</strong> were two freshmen last year who were second and third in the scoring column for Oelwein. If a few players take a step forward for Oelwein it could be a solid year for them.