David City girls basketball focused on creating more offense

COLUMBUS — David City girls basketball competed in the final week of the Scotus summer league with a tournament on June 25 at the Columbus Fieldhouse.

The Scouts won their first round game against Boone Central before falling in the semifinals against Cross County.

“We’ve done two teams camps and then summer league and our last team camp is Thursday. Overall, really good,” David City head coach Sam Schlautman said. “We didn’t have a JV team in summer league last year and we got one this year, so it was good to have some extra girls play. We brought a few different girls to varsity camps with us to see what’s going on there.”

The Scouts are looking to continue making strides on offense with their entire roster back this winter. After scoring 39.9 points per game in 2022-24, they raised their average to 43.1 points per game.

“We just got to find another gear. We went to Wilcox-Hildreth, which was a camp with a shot clock. I think it kind of opened our eyes that it’s not going to be as different as maybe we thought,” Schlautman said. “Last year, we had so many games where if you look at the scoreboard, to me, I’m like, ‘Great. We held them to what we needed to, but we just didn’t take care of business offensively.’

“The crazy part is wasn’t turnovers. It was just lack of making shots, which I know happens some nights but hopefully we can make it happen a little bit less.”

David City senior Meagan Jahde led the team averaging 10 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game. Known as one of the team’s best defender, Jahde increased her scoring average by 1.1 points.

“Individually, I’ve seen some growth on the offensive side being more aggressive,” Jahde said. “This year I’m going to continue to be more aggressive, especially limiting turnovers and taking care of the ball more.”

As a team, they’re looking to progress further in the postseason after having their season end at subdistricts. Jahde said the team needs to be calm and composed in the postseason.

“Having everyone back will definitely help,” Jahde said. “Just continuing to be aggressive and not be scared to take shots because mistakes will always happen.”

Junior Kamryn Behrns ranked just behind Jahde in scoring with 9.6 points per game. As the team’s primary post player, she corralled eight rebounds a game to lead the team.

“I think there’s been ups and downs and stuff like that, but I think it’s just important to kind of see how people mesh together and contribute in other ways,” Behrns said. “Just being more aggressive on rebounds and defensively.”

Behrns said the next progression for the team is staying disciplined.

“I think that’s a huge thing for us,” Behrns said. “I think sometimes we kind of lose what we have and I think we just need to stick to it.”

Schlautman said his message to the team is to continue getting shots up.

“We’ve kind of emphasized that if you got free time, get in there because the shots we take now is going to pay off when we get to the season,” Schlautman said.