The Bell City Bruins girls team latched on to a recent worldwide trend in basketball.

Through positionless basketball the Bruins have amplified their all-around talents to build a 16-3 résumé to outscore opponents by more than 25 points a game with a small lineup.

“Playing small, I think it allows us to play faster,” said Bruins head coach Tracy Fontenot. “They can all handle the ball and all run the floor.

“It causes some matchup problems when teams want to play us man-to-man and they have a post player. Because of the fact that they can all shoot and all kind of handle the ball on the out perimeter, it’s got some advantages.”

Speed, 3-point shooting, and overwhelming opponents with shot after shot play heavily into the Bruins’ game plan, Fontenot said. In a Jan. 14 game against Westminster Christian, the Bruins connected on 18 long-range shots.

“The kids like playing fast,” Fontenot said. “I think they play better when they play at that speed.

“It kind of takes away some of the thinking sometimes and just lets them play. And I think that’s what’s great. We shoot the 3 a lot. A lot of the times the game gets out of hand and we have to sub, but our goal is to get 80-plus shots.”

It is not all about scoring, though. Defensively, the Bruins allow 35.3 points a game. Fontenot said that adding former Lacassine head coach Jeremy Hollier and former Cardinal Maddie Brasseaux to his staff has helped.

“We’ve gotten so much better defensively,” Fontenot said. “I think that has a lot to do with my assistant coach (Hollier) and then Mad Brasseaux, who played for Jeremy. I think that’s what’s turned the table for us.”

The Bruins have wins over four teams ranked in the top 10 in the state’s power ratings and three were by double-digits, including a 20-point win over Non-select Division II No. 2 Iowa.

The one area the Bruins say they are hoping to improve is keeping bigger teams off the boards.

“All three games that we lost, all had big post players,” Fontenot said. “We’ve got to get better rebounding, especially defensive rebounding and keeping them off the boards.”

Junior Payton Herpin (24 ppg, 8 rpg, 3 bpg, 3 spg) leads the Bruins in every major statistical category in a lineup that has five starters from last season but one senior. She scored 31 points last week against Westminster Christian.

“She’s got a high basketball IQ,” Johnson said of Herpin. “She kind of knows what’s going on, and so forth.

“She has some (college) offers already, but the one thing about her that we talked about was her getting better defensively. And I think she made an effort to do that this year. That’s helped her a ton.”

Senior Braylee Brabham and sophomore point guard Klancie Hebert average 11 points a game each.

“(Brabham) can score, she can defend, she can handle the ball,” Fontenot said. “(Hebert) is quick and can defend a little bit, and she can shoot the three as well as Braylee and Payton.”

Fontenot said sophomores Caroline Guillory and Kenadie Armentor are strong defenders.

“Caroline is more like a defensive person, a specialist, but can shoot the ball really well and run the floor well,” Fontenot said. “Kenadie Armentor is that one kid that we ask to do a lot. She’s the one that’s going to guard those post players that we see. She’s more physical.”