Roseville Girls' Basketball Meeting Challenges One Game at a Time

The Roseville Area High School girls’ basketball team has been quietly working hard and going about their business this year.

Their efforts have paid off so far with an 11-1 record, a top-ten ranking in state Class 4A polls, and a 5-0 start to a tough Suburban East Conference schedule.

But third-year coach Jeff Crosby says the Raiders don’t pay attention to such things. They’re more focused on facing the challenges each individual game presents.

“I try to talk about challenging games,” said Crosby. “What games we’ve played that are a challenge, whether it’s who we’re playing or what we’re trying to work on. So we talk more about what games are challenging for us.”

Those challenges could mean gearing up emotionally to face another ranked opponent or going in to a game with the goal of focusing on their defense. No matter what the challenges have been, the Raiders have been exceeding expectations.

“We knew we we’re pretty talented but we didn’t really know what we had,” said Crosby when asked to evaluate the team’s first-half season performance. “We lost a lot of our seniors last year.

"We have no seniors on the roster this year, to say we’d be 11-1 at this point, I didn’t think that. I knew we had a good team. But I would never have said we’d be where we’re at. The kids have really rallied together.”

Roseville has been led,so far, by junior captain Jacqlyn Poss who is averaging more than 17 points per game while fellow juniors Larissa Graham and Emma Schaefer are also scoring in double figures.

That trio’s scoring ability from the perimeter and team defense are what Crosby attributes as the foundation of the team’s success so far.

“Our guard play and defensive effort,” Crosby said when asked about the strengths of the team. “We’re not huge. We've got a bunch of kids that are 5-6, 5-8, so that defense is key. That and our perimeter shooting. When we hit a lot of our perimeter shots, it goes pretty well. When we’re not making those, the score’s been a little bit closer.”

The Raiders have been able to achieve their 11-1 mark by largely rotating seven players. Sophomore guard Maria Ascher and junior forward Maggie Benson have been sidelined with injuries, but Crosby said he expects both back within a few weeks.

“That’s the other surprise for us,” said Crosby. “We’re at 11-1 and we’ve got two kids on the bench. Those two kids will help. We’re missing the depth part right now.”

Crosby says he’s trying to preach playing inspired basketball to the team and so far they’ve responded. He says playing positive, upbeat and uptempo can be contagious and all it takes is one player to provide that spark and make it contagious. So far, there have been many players spreading that spark.

“Right now we’re just trying to be technically sound and put up a great effort,” said Crosby. “They’ve all had a great attitude. The kids are definitely overachieving.”

Crosby hopes that trend continues as they delve deeper into the Suburban East conference and a tough sectional path to state that also includes Mounds View and Centennial. 

But that’s a challenge that lies down the road. Right now, the Raiders are just focusing on their next game.