Biggs improves while E.N. and Williams girls have struggled

After going 6-20 last season, the Biggs High girls basketball team is the Mid-Valley League's biggest surprise in 2009-10.

In his first year, head coach Tim Sheridan has transformed a once league doormat into a competitive program.

With just four returners, the Lady Wolverines are 13-9 overall and 4-2 in league — and that's a month without their top two players.

One thing is for sure, Biggs will be competitive for another two years — it's loaded with young guns.

Sophomores Fatima Castillo and Maribal Garcia each average 16 points and more than four assists a game. Castillo also averages more than four steals a game.

Without Castillo and Garcia, the Wolverines went 1-6 from mid-December till mid-January.

The one constant has been Holly Chandler.

While Chandler is third in scoring on the team with nine points a game, she also averages 11 rebounds, more than three blocks and two steals per contest as well.

Also contributing for the Wolverines is junior Nancy Duran, who averages six points a game.

East Nicolaus has gone in the opposite direction this season.

After going 18-9 last year, the Spartans are 4-16.

They're led by Juliet Conant and Melinda Kendrick's seven rebounds a game and Emily Toledo, who averages seven points a game.

Williams is in the same boat, sitting at 3-12 overall. The difference is the Yellowjackets have one of the most electric guards in the Mid-Valley area.

As a great ball handler, sharp-shooter and slasher Abby Cranford can do it all.

The junior averages nearly 20 points, five rebounds and five steals a game.