Zaria Reese tried to smile even though she was hurting. She doesn’t have to do it anymore, which makes the girls on the Hannibal basketball team happy.
As a sophomore, Reese, who is now a senior forward for the Pirates, had pain in her left knee for most of the season.
Reese said, “I love to give it my all, rebound, and play defense.” I got hurt every time I did something back then. Reese found out she had a partly torn ACL after the 2022–23 season.
“I could not stand the pain any longer, so I went to get it checked out. They told me yes, you partially tore it,” Reese said. She had surgery on June 26, 2023, to fix the ligament, which kept her out of action for more than seven months.
As Reese got better, she said, “I went to physical therapy three times a week and did the same stretches, bending my knee more and more every day.
I had to work out at home.” I would do small things on the sidelines when I could practice. I wasn’t able to practice with my team because I had to be on the sidelines. It felt like growth.
Being pushed to the sidelines made Reese want to go back even more. Reese said, “It was so hard to be away.” “I shed tears at practice.” I wanted to work hard to get back because I saw everyone else work hard.
Reese came back in time for the last three games of her junior year. She wasn’t fully recovered yet, but Hannibal coach Shawn Gaines noticed that her mood was getting better as she slowly got back to normal.
Gaines said, “To start with, she was a little angry.” “Everyone wants to play.” Everyone wants to do something. At first, she was a little angry, but once the season started, her mood got a little better.
This past summer, Reese felt like herself again when she played for her AAU team, the Missouri Phenom.
Reese said, “That’s when I knew I was really back.” “That’s when my coaches, teammates from my AAU team, and even the players here said, ‘Yeah, she’s back.'”
Now that she is fully healthy, Reese returns to lead a Pirates team with only two other seniors (Mariyah Mayfield and Jay Lajoy) and four freshmen (Kaliyah Chinn, Peyton Harsell, Selena Thompson, and Lyla Dorsey) who are expected to get a lot of playing time.
While Reese was out last season, Mayfield said the Pirates missed her a lot.
Mayfield said, “That was hard for us because she’s really strong down there in the post.” She’s coming back this year, which is great for us.
It helps us a lot that we have someone really good with the ball down there who can score under pressure against bigger people, since our team is pretty short.
Dorsey, an outside hitter for the Pirates volleyball team, will spend most of the time at center. Reese, on the other hand, will play small forward and power forward, with Mayfield as an off-ball guard.
Defense will be led by junior point guard Malia Stolte. Last season, both Mayfield and Stolte scored more than 10 points per game and were named to the All-North Central Missouri Conference team.
In the Pirates’ high-pressure scheme, the two guards stole the ball 6.3 times per game, and Stolte gave out 2.1 assists per game.
Stolte said, “I love getting steals.” “I love making other teams feel bad about not doing well.” It’s great when we get steals and make those layups. I think this year will be even better.
Stolte’s ability to make plays and Reese and Dorsey’s presence in the paint are complemented by Mayfield’s scoring. For the school record, Mayfield made seven 3-pointers as the Pirates beat Warrenton 64–51 in the Class 5 District 4 semifinals last year.
Mayfield said, “I think it will help both the first choice play and the kick out if we can’t get a look down low. We can dribble drive and kick out to the wing or corner to get that shot.”
Even though Reese is tough and strong, Gaines said that teams might not realize how good of a shooter Reese is.
Gaines said, “She can finish almost anything around the bucket.” “At only 5 feet 9 inches, she’s a great rebounder.” Many people are shocked to find out that she has a great jump shot. If you leave her open, she can knock down a 3 or 2.
When Reese is fully fit, he gives the Pirates a strong offensive and defensive weapon. They are eager to build on back-to-back winning seasons under Gaines, who is starting his third season as head coach.
Gaines said, “We’re not always the biggest or tallest, but we are athletic and fast, so we try to use that to our liking.” “I want Hannibal girls’ basketball to get back to where it was.
HHS girls’ basketball was great in the middle to late 1980s and early 1990s. That was my main goal when I took over: to get us back to where we used to be.