Now on the same page, Decorah duo forms an elite girls’ basketball backcourt

Bryar Duwe and Yazmeen Whitsitt played on the same team last year.

But, they now agree, they weren’t really teammates.

“We didn’t have the best chemistry,” Duwe said. “We weren’t on the same page. We fought against each other for points.”

Both wanted to be the alpha female.

“Instead of competing together, we were competing against each other,” Whitsitt said. “We both wanted to be the best.”

If the Decorah Vikings were going to reach their true potential, things had to change.

Sometime last summer, they did. Somebody called a truce.

“We needed to get this fixed,” Duwe said. “It shouldn’t be us against each other.”

So through the offseason, they worked out together. Individual numbers became irrelevant: “I can’t think of the last time I looked at Varsity Bound,” Duwe said.

Now in simpatico, Duwe and Whitsitt have become, arguably, the best girls’ basketball backcourt in the area. And the Vikings — ranked No. 6 in Class 4A — are a threat to accomplish significant things between now and March.

Decorah takes an 11-2 record (5-0 in the Northeast Iowa Conference) into Friday’s game at home against Charles City.

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“We set our goals pretty high for this year,” Coach Shannon Quandahl said. “We had an idea that we could be better and take advantage of what we’ve got.”

It was a matter of getting everybody rowing in the same direction. Quandahl coined a simple theme for the season:

Together.

“Everybody needed to understand that one or two people couldn’t do it alone,” Quandahl said. “Everybody has a place and a purpose.”

Duwe’s purpose is as floor general. A 5-foot-6 senior point guard, the Truman State signee averages 17.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game.

“She has become a great leader,” Quandahl said. “It seems she’s always about three plays ahead of everybody else.”

Whitsitt is a 5-7 junior wing who averages 22 points per game and shoots 45 percent from 3-point range.

“She’s really shooting the lights out, really confident,” Quandahl said. “She’s one of the most competitive kids I’ve had.”

Whitsitt missed her freshman season due to a hamstring injury.

Her father, Novian, is from California and played basketball at Stanford University from 1983 to 1987, completed graduate school at the University of Wisconsin and now is a professor at Luther College.

The Vikings’ inside game consists of freshman Brooklyn Fromm (6.7 points per game) and seniors Kylie O’Hara (4.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game) and Haley Gossman (4.8 ppg), the latter of whom returned after missing the first half of the season with an ankle injury.

Decorah enhanced its non-conference schedule this season. The Vikings opened with a competitive loss at Dike-New Hartford, the two-time defending champion in Class 2A. They have defeated traditional powers Center Point-Urbana and Cascade.

Sixteen years have passed since Decorah’s last undisputed NEIC championship (the Vikings shared the crown last year with Waverly-Shell Rock). That 2006-07 season also marked the Vikings’ last state-tournament appearance.

Both of those goals are on the table this season. And an elite backcourt will lead them. Together.

“This could be our year,” Whitsitt said. “We all really want it.”

Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com