Sans scoring leaders, Cyclones look to quicken the pace

 HARLAN -- Harlan Community girls basketball head coach Zach Klaassen could not have imagined a much better scenario for his first four years on the job.
 Since taking over for Tony Vis following a 10-11 season in 2011-2012, Klaassen has directed the Cyclones to a sparkling 95-6 record over the last four winter campaigns.
 During that time, HCHS has made four trips to the Girls State Basketball Tournament and claimed the last three Hawkeye Ten Conference titles with perfect 10-0 records. After falling one agonizing point short of a state title vs. Cedar Rapids Xavier in 2013, the Cyclones won back-to-back Class 4-A championships the next two years, each time finishing 26-0.
 Last year’s squad was knocked out in the opening round at state by an upstart Marion team, but still finished 20-3 overall.
 Now, for the first time since becoming the Cyclone girls’ head coach, Klaassen enters a season without (presumably) having at least one future NCAA Division I athlete on the roster as HCHS prepares for Monday night’s 2016-2017 season opener at third-ranked (2-A) Treynor.
 Seven athletes from Coach Klaassen’s first four graduating classes are currently playing either basketball or volleyball at the collegiate level, including Jess Schaben (Iowa State volleyball) and Taylor Frederick (South Dakota basketball).
 Frederick finished her HCHS career last March as the program’s all-time leader in points (1,300) and rebounds (677) while fellow senior Jordyn Moser - now at Morningside College - is the only other 1,000-point scorer at HCHS and the all-time leader with 369 assists and 253 steals.
 Frederick (17.5 ppg.) and Moser (16.0 ppg.) have left a large scoring void in their wake as the Cyclones look to replace six total seniors from last season, but expectations remain high.
 Allison Bruck, already a two-year letter winner, is the team’s only returning starter and the top returning scorer at 5.3 points per game. Bruck and fellow senior Bailey Hansen (2.0 ppg.) give the Cyclones a quick one-two punch in the starting back court and are a big reason the team will switch to a more up-tempo attack with more full-court pressure likely on defense.
 HCHS will no longer have the luxury of a dominant post presence like Schaben or Frederick, but hopes that junior forward Nicole Lange (2.4 ppg.) and six-foot sophomore center Olivia Petersen, along with 5-10 sophomore Anna Ahrenholtz, can supply some scoring and rebounding inside.
 Senior Maggie Langenfeld and junior Lexi Larsen also figure to play big roles as versatile guard/forward players who can knock down outside shots or drive to the basket.