The Centralia girls basketball team wants to be the aggressors.

Centralia at Harrisburg Photo Gallery

The Lady Panthers aren’t referring to offense as they finished their summer strong defensively at their final shootout on their schedule on June 24 at Harrisburg. Centralia defeated Chillicothe, Harrisburg and Battle and were 9-5 — losing four of those games by fewer than three points.

Head coach Megan Brinkmann will have most of last season’s Class 3 state quarterfinal team returning this season, including four starters. Centralia had an offense that averaged 57.7 points per game and was led by all-staters Braylin Brunkhorst and Ryenn Gordon, so that wasn’t the main focus this summer.

“We can always get better defensively,” Brinkmann said. “We’re looking at switching a lot of different things with some ball-screen action. I think we’ll be the aggressors. Sometimes, we lay back, but we can get it and go and get some steals. We can really turn our defense into offense. We’re working on a little bit more pressure.”

Brinkmann said there will be different offensive looks, which will have the primary goal of putting girls in the best possible position to score. That will take some more time beyond summer, but defense is showing good promise early.

Chillicothe and Harrisburg were each defeated by Centralia a season ago despite finishing with 20-win seasons, and Battle had 14 wins at the Class 6 level. The tough competition hasn’t been limited to them, Brinkmann said. The Lady Panthers have done well, with four or five of their losses by one or two points, and saving the best for last.

“This last shootout, we definitely played our best basketball,” Brinkmann said. “We were the aggressors defensively at least in the first two games, which I didn’t really think we had been all season yet.”

Brinkmann said it was fun to watch the Lady Panthers communicating well on the court and playing together well in their last intersquad action until the winter. She said knowing their progress will help them in their preparation for the upcoming season.

Centralia has seen girls step up across the roster, according to Brinkmann, including key returners like Brunkhorst, Gordon, Madi Johnson, Ealynne Bostick, Madilynn Hunter and Brooklyn Hardin. Brinkmann said the two transfers each bring value to the roster. Livia Hartley will be a sophomore after coming from North Callaway, and Blakely Sowers will be a freshman after moving from St. Joseph.

“Liv has stepped in, too, and has done really well defensively,” Brinkmann said. “She is also too timid offensively.”

“(Sowers) is a big post. The sky is the limit for her. She can guard anybody at 6-foot tall. She can play the post and shoot it as a guard.”