Schreiner women are ready to surprise on the basketball court

Stacy Stephens doesn’t mind being the underdog heading into the 2023-2024 Schreiner University women’s basketball season. Quite frankly, Stephens covets the opportunity to surprise people.

On paper, Schreiner’s third-year coach certainly has challenges cut out for her. The paper part? Stephens returns one starter. As a result, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference coaches picked the Mountaineers to finish first.

The reality is that Schreiner’s women’s basketball program could be a stunner this season under Stephens’ steady hand, which orchestrates an up-tempo offense coupled with a relentless pressing defense.

“I’ve always been a fan of being underrated,” Stephens said.

Heading into tonight’s opener against McMurry in Abilene, Stephens faces plenty of big questions about her team, including five first-year players and one key player returning from a significant knee injury.

“That’s why I’m very interested to see what happens tomorrow,” Stephens said. “There’s a lot of upside. We are deeper across the board. It’s going to take some trial and error to see the groups work together.”

Of course, no team will take the Mountaineers lightly with all-SCAC junior guard DeMauria Miles, who led the team with 14.1 points per game last season. In last season’s opener against McMurry, Miles poured in 31 points, including eight 3-pointers. Miles started in every game for the Mountaineers.

Miles, who admits to a bit of shyness, has exhibited leadership skills versus the past two years; she was more prone to a quiet presence.

“(Miles) started talking to her team,” Stephens said. “She’s speaking up and that’s really big. She’s very shy.”

The Mountaineers lost all-SCAC guard Elisa Peralta to a transfer, and hardnosed forward Andrea Ramirez will miss the season while she battles leukemia. Peralta’s loss means 12.4 points per game and an unbelievable tenacity defensively.

However, second-year guard Tianna Murray emerged as an equally skilled point guard and made an impact in the final quarter of last season. But the biggest returner might be Nariyah Buggs, who missed most of last season with a torn anterior cruciate knee ligament. Buggs came off the bench last season, but she was a relentless two-way player when she entered the game.

Buggs played in 13 games before suffering the knee injury at Austin College on Jan. 6. She averaged 16 minutes per game but scored 10.7 points in those minutes.

“She was just medically cleared to play this week,” Stephens said.

With Buggs limited, Stephens will rely on a host of newcomers, including Tivy High School’s Riley Dill, who gives the Mountaineers presence in the paint at 5-foot-10, but she can shoot from 3-point range.

In her first three seasons as coach, Stephens guided the Mountaineers to a school-record 17-10 finish, including a 12-4 SCAC effort. All four of regular season losses came against the two conference titans in women’s sports — Trinity University and Colorado College.