The Monmouth-Roseville Titan girls basketball squad’s season came to an end in a class 2A regional quarterfinal loss at Kewanee. The Titans finished ’25-’26 with an overall record of (6-24). Last season, Monmouth-Roseville went (23-11) and claimed the program’s second regional title. On that squad was a pair of all-conference players that graduated last spring and a freshman phenom that averaged nearly a double-double. Those 3 girls alone produced 77% of the scoring for the season. Add in fellow senior Mia Reynolds and those four players combined for 72% of the rebound total. Fast forward to this season, Don Luper took over for Scott Weber after Weber stepped down following the 2024-2025 season. Luper spent the past several seasons as the Titan JV coach. Being associated with the program, he knew that there were going to be a lot of points and rebounds to replace. Making that task even tougher, Layla Katile, who averaged 10 points and 9 rebounds as a freshman, badly injured her knee during summer basketball workouts and missed the entire season. Ever the optimist, Luper overlooked the tough season in the win-loss column and summed up the year in a positive manner.
Next season, the Titans should be bringing back much more experience, as the players that earned most of the playing time this past winter should be back and hopefully a fully healthy Katile. For the full interview with Coach Luper, go to the SPORTS PODCAST section of our website, radiomonmouth.com
