As Murray reverses streak, playoffs seem within reach

The new year has been much better to the Murray girls' basketball team than 2009 ever was.

An 0-10 start wasn't what the Spartans expected, but that's what Murray got through the first week of January. When they were scoring, they weren't doing well enough on defense. When they started a game well, they couldn't finish. A complete game was lacking in the Spartans preseason.

Once region started, however, it became a whole different story.

At the end of January, the Spartans had a 5-1 record. The goose egg staring at them in the loss column had long since been filled in. The month that saw Murray's fortunes do a major shift started and ended with wins against Cyprus; the lone stain was a hard loss to Region 2's top team, Skyline, on Murray's home court.

Their region record represents the Spartans' return to status quo. The Spartans finished 12-2 last year and gave no indication they were prepared to settle for anything less.

Even the move from 4A to 5A offered little consolation once the losses starting piling up early. They might not have traveled on the path of least resistance, but coach Issachar Beh knew all along his girls would get to where they are now.

"I always knew it," Beh said. "I knew we would do OK when we got to region. We're a pretty good team with some pretty good players. It's worked out well."

It's true Region 2 offers little tough competition, especially when compared to Murray's preseason

schedule. Outside Skyline, Cottonwood is the only other school that has shown substantial promise. Beh's plan was to give the girls a challenging preseason and reap the benefits in the regular season.

Most importantly, the players have settled into their roles on the team. Mariah Duran was almost exclusively a shooter last year and has been given the added responsibility of running the offense. At first, Duran struggled to find a balance between knowing when to pass and knowing when to shoot. A testament to her progress is the 21 three-pointers she's hit during the six regular season games, compared to only 18 in the first 10 games.

An impressive array of secondary scoring has blossomed in the past month. Candace Prestwich, Madison Woodard and Sarah Baron have rotated taking turns in backing up Duran's frontline of scoring. And when the injury bug hit Murray in mid-January, the Spartans got some solid performances off the bench from senior Measha Meier and freshman Courtney Beavers. As if finding the confidence to win after their dreadful start wasn't fun enough, the Spartans are finding pleasure in earning victories where they are tested.

"Playing with whoever we've got has been fun," Beh said. "It's fun because they knuckled down and got after it and managed to win a couple of games where a lot of things were starting to stack up against us."

Odds are Beh would have preferred to get one of those wins during the preseason. Most teams, particularly in high school on a young team like Murray, would fold under the circumstances. Basketball would take a back seat to distractions.

It's a testament to the team's fortitude to find the motivation to keep showing up, much less pull a nearly perfect reversal of fortune. If the Spartans lose in the first round of the playoffs, and Beh is confident they will make the playoffs, then it will be another Cinderella story that ends too soon.