With a lot of improvement seen from the Indianola girls basketball team over the course of the year, some of the credit goes to the newcomers to the team who played varsity in freshman Emily Naughton and Brynn Ortlund. Naughton was a staple of the rotation throughout the season, even seeing some starts scattered throughout, and head coach Jeff Janssen tells KNIA Sports Naughton’s two best games this season were against Grinnell, where she scored a combined two points but brought the pressure defensively.

“Her on-ball defense and the pace she plays at as well as her ability to distribute the basketball is not like freshman and is just phenomenal. She knows that defense is her best weapon, and she definitely uses it.”

Ortlund faced some injuries early in the season, but played crucial minutes down the stretch in crunch time when rotation players saw foul trouble.