Don't bother trying.

Tember Schechinger has heard all the jokes about her first name. Her uncle Dan probably has the most fun with it.

"He calls me Falling Tree Person. Or Dead Lumber," the IKM-Manning senior said.

There is nothing lumbering about Schechinger on the basketball court. The Northwest Missouri State recruit has a game as unique as her first name, which is her given name and a shortened version of September, her birth month.

The 5-foot-10 guard leads her team in points (14.5), steals (6.6), rebounds (5.9), assists (5.8) and free-throw percentage (.746). Rated third in the state in Class 2-A and second in western Iowa (Class 2-A/1-A), the Wolves (19-2) open 2-A regional play at home on Saturday against Ogden (4-17) at 7 p.m.

Schechinger wreaks havoc on the defensive end with her combination of size, speed and anticipation. She ranks second in the state in steals regardless of class this season, one steal behind Van Buren's Makenzie Zeitler, who averages 6.7.

That's impressive for someone who played strictly in the post as a freshman contributor to IKM-Manning's state championship team. She was the fourth-leading rebounder on that squad, and she had 12 points and eight rebounds in her first state game as a 15-year-old.

Between her freshman and sophomore years, she transitioned to the guard position.

"She really started working hard at her ball handling and her outside shooting," IKM-Manning coach Gene Rasmussen said. "I saw that we could use her out on the perimeter as a guard. She's worked really hard to get where she's at. She's put in a lot of time."

Tember is the youngest of Terry and Jody Schechinger's four children. Although basketball is her favorite sport, she's a well-rounded student. She carries a 3.6 grade-point average and is president of the student council. She's also involved in National Honor Society, volleyball, speech, FFA and her church's youth organization.

In the fifth and sixth grades, Schechinger was the water girl for IKM's state runner-up and championship teams in 2005 and 2006. Her sister Bailey made the all-tournament team both years before going on to an all-conference career at Grand View University.

"It was awesome," Tember Schechinger said of her water-girl experience. "It just made me want to be there so bad."

Schechinger has honed her game with the All Iowa Attack AAU team in recent years. Playing against top-level competition has helped her to play the game at a high rate of speed.

When she returns to her high school team, she's playing a faster game than virtually everyone else. That translates to steals.

"I just kind of read what the offense is doing," she said. "A lot of the girls pretty much tell you where they're going to throw it."

Schechinger's individual goal is to break the single-season school steal record of 153 set by 2011 grad Ashley Hagedorn. She needs 15 to do that.

Of course, the deeper her team goes in the postseason, the greater her chance of breaking the record. That falls in line with one of her team goals of getting the Wolves back to state. IKM-Manning's lone losses this year are a pair of four-point decisions to No. 1 OA-BCIG.

In the state quarterfinals last year, OA-BCIG eliminated the Wolves by — you guessed it — four points.

On Monday in the championship game of the Western Valley Conference tournament, IKM-Manning roared back from 13 down against OA-BCIG in the second half to force overtime, then lost 68-64.

Schechinger was encouraged by the way her team rallied.

"It showed us that we can do anything we want, if we push hard and play the way we should," Schechinger said. "If everything goes right, we have seven games. We want to make sure that every game is the best game that we have."

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402-444-1055, kevin.white@owh.com

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