Hembera has help now, and the Huskies are winning

CEDAR RAPIDS - This is why she gutted it out.

Shelby Hembera toiled through three losing seasons for the Cedar Valley Christian girls' basketball team, putting up prodigious numbers in the process.

She could have gone elsewhere and played for a competitive team. Instead, she stayed true to her school, her team, her teammates.

This season is the payoff.

Winners of just nine games in their first three seasons as an IGHSAU-sanctioned program, the Huskies take a 6-2 record into the holiday break.

'I had always hoped we would have such a good record,” said Hembera, a senior who leads the state in scoring for the second straight season, but now has far more help than she had ever had before.

'I'm really happy that I chose to stay. Even when we were losing, the girls were amazing.”

The past three years carried a common theme: Points came in waves for Hembera, but wins at a trickle for the Huskies.

Last season, she earned Class 1A first-team all-state honors after leading the state in scoring (33.2 points per game) and rebounding (16.4 boards per contest). But the Huskies were 1-21.

Even then, Hembera and Coach Craig Foote were looking to the future. And that future is now the present.

This year's team features Hembera, sophomore Emily Masterson and six freshmen.

'The younger kids have helped us a ton,” Foote said. 'They've given us more balance, more depth.”

Hembera is scoring at basically the same rate (34.0 ppg), but doing it with fewer shots and less congestion. Last year, she shot 40.9 percent from the field. This year, it's 55.3 percent.

Her rebound rate (14.6 per game) ranks No. 2 in Iowa.

'I'm not getting as many triple-teams,” said Hembera, who set a Metro five-player record with 48 points against East Buchanan on Dec. 12. 'We have other girls on the team that understand the game. We have more threats.”

Freshman Molly Hembera, Shelby's sister, is adding 8.8 points per game. Emma Slagle, another ninth-grader, is scoring at a 7.5-point clip. Yet another, Maggie Cach, has accumulated 24 assists.

After the Huskies' most recent victory - a 55-40 triumph over Lisbon on Saturday that ran their winning streak to four straight - the Huskies gathered at The Field House on Blairs Ferry Road.

'The kids and the parents had a Christmas party,” Foote said. 'We've had a lot to celebrate. We're all just ecstatic.”

Cedar Valley is 2-1 in the Tri-Rivers Conference East Division, a game behind Midland. The Huskies travel to Wyoming on Jan. 9.

Talk about conference titles and victory totals isn't part of the Huskies' lexicon yet.

'Our goals are based on the process,” Foote said. 'Are we getting better? Is our skill level higher than last week? Do we play our best when our best is called for?”

Barring injury, Hembera is a cinch to reach an exclusive club, that which contains 2,000-point scorers. She's currently at 1,798. Anne O'Neil (Cedar Rapids Kennedy, 1996-2000) is the lone Metro girl in that sorority.

Hembera has received modest interest from colleges, though, and is leaning toward playing at Emmaus Bible College, a private school of about 200 students in Dubuque and a member of the Association of Christian College Athletics.

7 UNBEATENS REMAIN

Led by Cascade, which hasn't lost a regular-season game since January 2013, seven area teams take perfect records into the holiday break.

Cascade has won 36 consecutive regular-season games and is 6-0.

North Linn (9-0) has been the most dominant team in the area, beating its opponents by about 50 points per game. The Lynx's schedule turns tougher after the holidays, with a stretch against Maquoketa Valley, Springville, Barneveld (Wis.) and Alburnett.

Last year's Class 4A state runner-up, Western Dubuque is 8-0. So are Iowa City West and Solon. Springville is 7-0, and Iowa City Regina joins Cascade at 6-0.

l Comments: (319) 368-8857; jeff.linder@thegazette.com