Coming into last weekend’s Kentridge preseason jamboree, things were looking up for the Auburn Mountainview girls basketball team.

With the bulk of the squad returning from last year’s state 3A tournament team, it looked like this might be the year for the Lions.

It was during the Lions’ recent game against Bellarmine that every coach’s worst nightmare happened. While diving for a loose ball, the Lions’ Stephanie Smolinski suffered a fractured hand after a Bellarmine player landed on it. Smolinki, a senior post player, was a first-team South Puget Sound League 3A all-star who averaged 14 points, three blocks and 12.5 rebounds per game last season.

“It’s a spiral fracture on the top of her hand,” Lions coach Chris Carr said. “She’ll be out through Christmas break.”

And if that wasn’t enough, the Lions also will have to do without the services of a second post player, Hattie Kosko, who is battling tendonitis in her Achilles tendon. She is expected to be out two to three weeks, according to Carr.

“I suppose that it’s better to happen now than later in the season,” Carr said. “But we’ve got to have the other kids pick up the slack. We’ve got five games before the break and two are against Bonney Lake and White River.

“We were comfortably seven-deep, and now we’re testing the water seeing if some of the kids can step up.”

Although the losses hurt, especially for the first part of the season, the Lions’ cupboard is hardly bare. Mountainview started five promising sophomores in a nonleague game at Capital on Tuesday.

“Our youth is very good,” Carr said, “and when we start mixing that with the seniors that we have this year – and keep everybody healthy – this could be a good year for us.”

In addition to Smolinski, the Lions return guard Aalia Braboy, who was inconsistent last season as a freshmen but showed flashes of brilliance. Also back is sophomore post Caitlin Carr and senior guard Angel Pele, who struggled to find her groove after returning from injury last season.

“Her game is developing and is back to where she was,” Carr said. “We need her to be a leader this year, especially with Smolinski out. We need her to step up.”

Carr said the team also will look to his daughter to pick up some slack at the post position this year.

“She has a lot of skill and has to start showing some leadership,” Carr said.

Already, Carr said he’s encouraged by the strides made by the team in the preseason.

“We’re ahead of where we were last year from a defensive and basketball awareness standpoint,” he said. “Everything for us is focused on defense. So we’ll do some different things and hopefully play well enough to survive these first couple of weeks.

“Our goal is making it back to state,” Carr continued. “But I try to get the kids focusing on the journey rather than just getting there. Our goal is to get better every day.”