The future is bright, and the foundation is solid. Those are positives about Cathedral High School girls basketball these days, with the 2024-2025 Irish a strong team building toward a promising finish. The Irish are building, and that’s an encouraging step. “By the end of the season, if we stay healthy and everything falls into place and we get everybody on the same page, we could have some success,” Irish girls basketball coach Lisa Finn said. The Irish, who went 12-12 with a first-round loss in the Class 4A, Section 10 tournament in 2023-2024, played through early-season adversity and a period of developing early in 2024-2025 – Finn’s sixth season as head coach. They started 5-6 through 11 games against a tough schedule with balanced team of strong leaders and promising freshmen. The Irish feature four strong senior leaders on the varsity, with the rest of the program mostly freshmen and sophomores. “We're young,” Finn said. The Irish also are moving from Class 4A into Class 3A in 2024-2025 while keeping the same competitive regular-season schedule they traditionally have faced. “It doesn't change anything during the season necessarily,” Finn said. “But for postseason, it takes us out of that sectional that right now is just a gauntlet. We didn't really change our schedule too, too much. We've always competed with those teams.” The Irish in 2024 are led in part by an experienced senior class that includes: *Abby Beasley, a four-year starter who has committed to play soccer at the University of New Hampshire. She was averaging 5.9 points and 3.3 rebounds per game through 10 games. *Guard Jaeda Wilson, who has committed to play basketball at Missouri-St. Louis. She was averaging 11.1 points and 3.8 rebounds per game through 10 games. *Tianna Guy, who transferred to Cathedral as a junior and who is a solid defensive player who consistently guards the opponent’s best player. She was averaging 11.4 points and 3.4 rebounds through 11 games. “She just has a really good basketball IQ,” Finn said. *Reaghan Gilmore, who missed part of his sophomore season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament before returning last season, was averaging 4.5 points and 3.2 rebounds per game through 11 games. “We have a good group of leaders,” Finn said. The Irish also in 2024-2025 feature a strong junior class, with a group of underclassmen that includes two freshmen that could help form of the core of the program moving forward: Caroline Wiggins (8.7 points, 5.7 rebounds through nine games) and Maddy Watko (2.9 points, 1.7 rebounds) through 11 games. “We're kind of starting to figure each other out,” Finn said. “We had a great summer. We played really well together over the summer, so that was really nice to see. I think by the end of the season we're going to be an entirely different team. “Freshmen tend to play a little more passively at the beginning, trying to find their way and what role they fill and what they need to do.” Junior Tatum Triggs was averaging 3.0 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, with junior Precious Anuka – who missed much of the last two seasons with a torn anterior cruciate ligament issues – averaging 5.1 points and 1.8 rebounds per game. “We have a good core group of kids who want to play basketball, which makes it a lot easier,” Finn said. “They're all great kids. They're figuring each other out a little bit more and a little bit quicker than we have in the past. “In the overall scheme of things, I think we'll be fine in the long run.” Finn said the key moving forward will be how a young team learns each other and learns its roles as it matures. “It's knowing how each other plays,” she said. “We're turning the ball over and not handling the ball … things like that. We've just talked about, ‘It doesn't take a lot. The things that won games 50 years ago are still winning games now. The fancy moves that you're learning and training, those things are not not important, but that's not what's consistently winning games.’ “What's winning games is little things and doing them over and over and over, and that's what we've tried to focus on with them. We have to do the little things. You have to make layups. You have to not turn the ball over. You have to win 50-50 balls.” And Finn said this Irish team definitely has the ability to peak at season’s end. “I've said to these girls, ‘You guys just don't understand how good you can be,’’’ Finn said. “I think that's why some of the losses we've had are so frustrating. Maybe we do have to go through that. Maybe they do have to go through that to get to the other side. “We’re nowhere the potential of what we could be this season, but this team could be pretty good by the end of the season.”