Indica Scott began her sophomore season with the Wellsville-Middletown girls basketball team on a high note on Nov. 22.

Now, she hopes she stays healthy for the rest of the season.

Scott was a spark plug off the bench for the Tigers in their season opener against Community R-6, scoring a team-high eight points, including six in the second half. But her effort wasn’t enough to beat the Trojans as W-M fell 45-30.

Still, Scott had reason to be upbeat.

“I’ll admit that it was really sad to lose, but I’m not mad about it,” Scott said. “We did amazing. It was a lot better than last year. I think we could do really well this season.”

Scott played for a W-M team that was in foul trouble for most of the game. Three players fouled out in the fourth quarter, leaving the Tigers with just five players in the final three minutes. W-M has only eight players on its team.

Alyssa Beamer scored nine points to lead Community, which also started its season on Nov. 22.

“They’re strong, they’re quick and they’re well-coached,” W-M coach Todd Cripe said. “(Community) Coach (Bob) Curtis does a great job with them. He preaches the right things. They play good defense. I thought our girls persevered pretty well for being in foul trouble.”

Also for the Tigers, junior Meagan Cripe had five points, juniors Bethany Slovensky and Jenelle Boeckelman each had four and senior Natalie Boeckelman and sophomores Hallie Guzy and Keigan Hall had three points apiece. Cripe said he’s confident his team will bounce back from the loss to the Trojans.

“We’re going to be OK in the long run,” Cripe said. “I’m excited about the direction in which we’re going. Hopefully, we’ll get another crack at them at the end of the year.”

Scott hit a pair of free throws in the second quarter, scored a conventional 3-point play in the third and nailed a 3-pointer in the fourth. The sophomore said with her team in foul trouble, she was determined to turn in a solid effort against the Trojans.

“I saw that a lot of my teammates had four fouls, I knew that I needed to do something about it and not get fouled out,” Scott said. “So I tried my best and just went for it. I had confidence.”

Cripe said he really likes Scott’s aggressive style of play.

“She’s super quick and she defends hard,” the W-M coach said. “When she’s in the game, I love the way she gambles a lot of times. Sometimes, it gets her into a little bit of foul trouble or it gives up something offensively if we don’t get that gamble. But that’s the way she plays. I want her to play aggressive and gamble a little bit and try to get touches on balls and things in that nature.”

Last year, Scott was one of four freshmen on the W-M squad. She had a strong performance against Montgomery County in the Pink Out game, scoring 10 points off the bench. But before Christmas break, she suffered a torn meniscus injury, forcing her to sit out until early February.

“It was really tough because I still had problems with my knee,” Scott said. “But I did some rehab with it and got it back to where it was.”

Later in the season, Scott helped the Tigers reach the Class 1, District 10 district championship game, which they lost to Pilot Grove.

“It felt amazing,” Scott said. “I never was a part of that before and it felt really nice.”

This season, Scott hopes her team can clear the district championship hurdle.

“I think we’ve got a shot,” said Scott, who played softball and competed in cross country this fall. “I think we can do it.”