ROCHELLE — The Rochelle girls basketball team received a rude awakening from its Interstate 8 Conference opponents this season, and head coach Tony Rowan will be looking for returning Lady Hub players to step up over the offseason.

The Lady Hubs closed out a 5-27 season with an IHSA 3A Regional Semifinal loss against Sycamore on Tuesday. Rochelle finished 1-13 in the conference, with the team’s only victory coming over the Plano Reapers at home. Fortunately for the Lady Hubs, only two seniors (Gabrielle Harding and Lilly Portzen) are graduating, meaning there is plenty of room for the team’s sophomore and junior players to grow.

“One of the fun things about playing Sycamore was watching five players on the court who live and breathe basketball,” Rowan said. “We need more girls with basketballs in their hands throughout the offseason, especially between June and November, as opposed to only playing for a few weeks in June.”

Morrison, Indian Creek, Genoa-Kingston and Belvidere were the other four teams the Lady Hubs took down this season. Offensive struggles were prevalent throughout the season, as Rochelle averaged only 35.5 points per game, but Rowan noted significant improvements from players like Sofia Lenkaitis, who led the Lady Hubs with 8.9 points per game. Sophomore Josie Lundquist increased her scoring output as well, averaging 8.1 points per game.

“There were a lot of positives throughout the season,” Rowan said. “Afi [Gati] did a great job defending and rebounding all season, but we’re going to be looking for her to score more next season… Lucy [Bunger] did a fantastic job defending game in and game out. There are a lot of positives, but we need to see more consistency.”

Rochelle played nearly the entire season without sophomore point guard Zoey Tabor, who was sidelined with hip injuries, but the Lady Hubs will have her and several sophomores back next season including Lundquist, Bunger, Jordin Dickey and Abby Luxton. Juniors like Gati, Lenkaitis, Sam House and Bella Lodico will be in the fold as well. Gati finished with a team-high 4.7 rebounds per game, and House shot a team-best 35.3 percent from 3-point range.

“It was definitely an up-and-down season,” Rowan said. “In terms of our focus and intensity, when we were in the game, we were in it. When we weren’t, we weren’t. We’re really looking for the girls to be more consistent throughout the year.”