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The Archbishop Murphy girls basketball team is taking on a much younger look than in previous years.

After back-to-back seasons with strong senior classes, the Wildcats return only a couple of seniors from a team that tied Arlington for the league title.

Archbishop Murphy played in two tournaments this summer and hosted open gyms and practices.

“We’ve got a lot of experience for girls who did not have it,” Archbishop Murphy coach Cassie Snyder said. “We’re very young. … A lot of them played in some different roles. It was good for them to experience those things.”

Snyder said that she and the younger players will be looking to senior Julia Lucas, a four-year starter, to provide leadership on and off the court.

“She’s incredibly talented,” Snyder said. “She’s kind of leaned on her older upperclassmen. Now it’s mainly her.”

Lucas will have plenty of help with senior Chloe Jurdana and a trio of talented sophomores – Alexa Chiangpradit, Taylor Campbell and Taylor Reed.

Chiangpradit came off the bench last season and is penciled in as the new starting point guard. Reed likely will play the off-guard position, and showed solid offensive skills this summer.

“This is a different group,” Snyder said. “It’ll be an interesting year. They’re all good kids who work hard.”

The Archbishop Murphy boys basketball team also was busy with tournaments, a spring/summer league and a team camp at Western Washington University.

Coach Len Bone liked the progress he saw from his players.

“We had a number of guys have good tournaments,” he said. “Some of them had flat-out good summers.”

Bone said seniors Jaxon Miller and Sage Oliveria had strong performances throughout the summer. Miller suffered a sprained ankle that kept him out of some games but resumed play with his select team.

“He’s playing a lot of basketball. It’s too bad he missed quite a bit of time with us,” Bone said. “Sage improved his aggressiveness. He’s a physical, hard-nosed player. He’s not settling for jump shots as much. He’s a good shooter who’s improved his shot. He’s getting to the basket a lot more and driving and passing a lot more.”

Juniors Lukas Dole and Zach Ingle also should be contributors on offense.

Bone wants to see the Wildcats start and end games stronger.

“We just have to take a step and be better at finishing games,” he said. “Sometimes we have to be better at starting games. Against some teams we put ourselves in a big hole and spent a big part of the game catching up. We’ve got to be ready to go at the beginning of games.”