The heart of this Logan High School girls basketball team can be best explained through one random defensive possession against Eau Claire Memorial on Saturday.

The Old Abes were having no luck getting anything going offensively.

They had yet to score, and Memorial coach Jessie Maas called a timeout after her team rebounded a missed shot midway through the first quarter.

It doesn't matter what Maas instructed her team to do because it didn't work.

They passed the ball four or five times and pounded it against the gym floor a hundred times trying to get a shot.

Logan freshman Adaysha Williams cut off one drive to the basket, and her teammates stopped two others.

Everyone on the floor - Williams, Kasey Cook, Gracie Onsrud, Vanessa Blackwell and Kennedy Johnson - reacted to every movement and took away every possibility.

The Old Abes looked for an opening for about a minute before Blackwell ended the possession by stealing the ball.

Memorial spent an entire timeout discussing how to get the shot it wanted, and the Rangers stopped it from getting a shot at all.

The intensity, especially from a group that included two freshmen, was overwhelming.

"That comes from Michelle (Mueller), Taylor (Johnson), Vanessa and Abby (Wiedman)," Logan coach Cameron Bruce said. "The newbies we have, and we have a lot of them, see it from those players in practice."

Every player who set foot on the floor during Saturday's 51-38 victory over Memorial was programmed the same way.

Whether they used a man-to-man defense or 1-3-1 zone, the Rangers were nothing but quick feet and active hands.

Wiedman had seven steals, and Mueller and Taylor Johnson had three apiece.

That tenacity didn't stop at the defensive end.

Logan's offense was dreadful in terms of shooting percentage - it made 22 of 69 attempts for 31.9 percent - but it created plenty of good opportunities.

The Rangers had the ball 73 times in the 32-minute game, and only a few of those possessions ended with a bad shot. Most ended with multiple shots.

That's because sophomore Kennedy Johnson's five offensive rebounds led the way for a team that grabbed 20 of them.

Yes, you have to make the shots when you get them, but a bad day is a bad day.

A team that plays good defense and gets offensive rebounds consistently will win many more games than it will lose.

The Rangers will shoot better than 31.9 percent from the floor more often than it won't, and that's what will turn close games into blowouts.

Defense and rebounding will keep them in upcoming games against Milwaukee Vincent - last year's Division 1 champ - on Dec. 4 and Milwaukee King - last year's Division 1 runner-up - on Dec. 5.

It will make a difference when they play perennial state qualifiers Janesville Parker and Kettle Moraine later this season.

Make no mistake about the expectations at Logan this year. The Rangers want to finish their season in the state tournament at the Kohl Center.

Logan's style of play and Bruce's aggressive scheduling mean the Rangers have as good of a chance as anyone to make that happen.