Senior-laden team returns for Tanners

The Peabody High girls basketball team returns with all its big guns off a team that finished 16-5 last season.Coach Jane Heil starts her 33rd season with a senior-laden team, led by captains Carolyn Scacchi, Alex Lomasney and Amanda Matthews.Scacchi, a 6-1 force for the Tanners last year, averaged 12 points, 10 rebounds and three steals per game. She had 10 double-doubles. Scacchi will be playing volleyball at Southern New Hampshire University next year.Lomasney, a 5-10 forward, can shoot the ball, score from inside and outside and hurt the other team with her speed, but Heil said her biggest asset is her defense. She averaged six points per game. Matthews, who is also a senior, is a versatile player who really came along as a junior.?She flies under the radar,” Heil said, adding that she does a lot of little things that can go unnoticed, but in the end make a big difference.?What we have this year is senior experience, senior confidence and senior stability,” Heil said.The Tanner lineup will also boast another senior who was an impact player in the paint last year: Olivia Summit.?She was probably our second highest rebounder. She gives us tremendous post play,” Heil said.Junior Courtney Bua, a 5-8 power forward, either started or was first off the bench and was second or third on the team in scoring. The returning contingent also includes sophomore Sara Hosman, a tall guard who handles the ball well and contributes offensively. Also returning with some experience is junior Danielle Sullivan. Heil said she also has some nice juniors and freshmen who will hopefully have an impact at the varsity level.Although the Tanners had a 16-4 regular-season record, they lost in the first round of the state tournament to Methuen. Heil is hoping to see this group get deeper in the postseason. She?s keeping an eye on English, which returns a senior crop of guards who have been getting it done since their freshman year. The Bulldogs are the defending Northeastern Conference champions. Peabody was second with a 13-3 record.Heil, who notched her 500th career win last December, heads into the season as a newly-inducted member of the Massachusetts Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place Nov. 24 at Holy Cross. She was one of three coaches receiving the honor, the others being Jim Grant, a coach at Nipmuc Regional High School, and Tom Hill, a coach at Bromfield High in Harvard.Heil said it was an honor she hoped would someday come her way after she retired.?I never expected to be as overwhelmed as I was,” she said.The Tanners will play Medford in the Paul Duchane Jamboree Saturday (2:40) at Classical High School.