By Andrew Koob
New Castle News

Success has been hard to come by for the Union High girls basketball team this season.
Players out of position and multiple underclassmen getting varsity minutes usually reserved for seniors has led to a learning experience for the Lady Scots that hasn’t been kind to the win column.
That’s why last week could be a turning point for both this year’s Union squad and its leading scorer in senior Skylar Thompson.
Thompson scored a season-high 21 points in the Lady Scots’ first win of the season, a 43-36 triumph over visiting Northgate.
“She didn’t start off the game very well, but I could tell she was going to try and do a lot,” Union coach Larry Ondako said. “And we ask her to do a lot, this year obviously hasn’t turned out the way we wanted it to. A lot has fallen on Skylar’s shoulders and a lot of the girls really weren’t ready for it. So she’s been asked to do a lot more and she’s growing into that role, she struggled with it earlier in the year but her and all of the girls have grown a little more comfortable, a little more confident.”
Despite the lack of victories and, in some cases, points, Ondako has seen both the progression of Thompson and the team as a whole.
“Even though it doesn’t show it in the win column, sometimes not even in the point column, we’re a lot better team than we were three weeks or a month ago,” Ondako said. “I think that’s because a lot of our girls are just more comfortable playing.”
Ondako has seen the maturation of Thompson, not just on the stat sheet where she averages a team-high nine points per contest, but as a senior leader who continues to work with the younger players, a total of eight underclassmen.
“Skylar has been here for all of my three years, she’s learned and grown a lot,” Ondako said. “She does a lot of things that you can’t teach. She anticipates well, talks on defense and is in the right spots. So you need that to be able to show kids how it’s done. In that, she’s been a good example for the younger kids.”
Added Thompson, “I feel like our struggle is with experience. I try to help the younger girls, teach them what to do so they’re better when they’re older. You just have to stick with it.”
It’s been a trying year for both Thompson and the team, yet last week’s victory may have created a spark, one that hasn’t been there throughout much of the season.
“I feel like everyone felt that same energy, that adrenaline after that win,” Thompson said. “They all want it, I think that was a good game in terms of experience, so we’ll go out and try to get some more.”
(Email: AKoob
@ncnewsonline.com)