LUCAS — Jamie Grover said she doesn’t have a secret recipe.
But the first-year Lucas girls basketball coach is cooking up something good.
The Cubs (11-8, 4-1) can clinch a share of the Mid-Buckeye Conference championship with a win at Crestline on Saturday. A victory would put the exclamation point on a remarkable turnaround after Lucas went winless last winter.
“I think it’s just, they were probably sick and tired (of losing) last season,” said Grover, a Lucas grad who played for her mother and longtime Lucas coach, Kathy Grover.
“I told them, ‘You’ve got to work hard for this. You’ve got to put in the time and the effort.’
“We had to change it up. And the change just sparked something in them,” she said.
The addition of talented freshman guard Riley Trumpower didn’t hurt, either. Trumpower scored 23 points in the win over MCS, including eight in the fourth quarter.
“We’ve just been really pushing hard for Jamie and this program because we’ve been struggling so much the past few years,” Trumpower said. “We finally pushed through.”
Trumpower’s emergence is hardly a surprised to those close to the Lucas basketball program. She practiced with the varsity while still in middle school.
“At the beginning of the season, she was so hard on herself,” Grover said. “She would say, ‘I’ve got to stop playing like a freshman.’
“I said, ‘Riley, you are a freshman. You are way too hard yourself.’ She has developed greatly from the start of the season until now,” the coach said.
Trumpower has had plenty of help.
Sophomore guard Emma Brown scored 13 points against Mansfield Christian, including the game-winning layup.
Junior forward Katie Griffey and junior guard Maggie Restelli have shouldered some of the scoring burden, as well, with help from seniors Katie Brown and Chloe Sturts and freshman Shiloh Walter.
“We’re all super close and we all have chemistry together,” Trumpower said. “It’s super-nice.”
Five of Lucas’ eight losses have been decided by 10 points or less. Three were decided by one possession, including a 50-47 loss to Mansfield Christian.
“After the first game, it was really a turning point for my girls this season,” Grover said. “They noticed what they were capable of. It boosted their confidence and we won some pretty big games after that.
“They’re working extremely well together and I really hope they see how big of a turn-around for the program they are making.”