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Not height, but depth
Women’s basketball team looking to overcome the loss of Tina Schreiner and Nicole Persby with their depth.
By Drew Herron
The competition will be brutal in the NCC this season.
Succeeding in this conference means bringing your ‘A’ game every night, and the young upstart SCSU women’s basketball will be up to the challenge.
“It’s going to be another good season,” head coach Lori Ulferts said. “I think we’ll be up- tempo once again.”
The Huskies lost two All-Conference players from last year, Nicole Persby and Tina Schreiner. Both those players are key losses, especially Schreiner. She averaged 19 points a game and just under ten rebounds, but the Huskies now must turn to new leadership for a new season.
Ulferts has tremendous confidence in this year’s captains: post Jonelle Streed, and guards Celestine Frank and Jessica Abrahams. Abrahams was an All-Conference honorable mention last season, averaging 11 ppg, and is an excellent three-point shooter.
“All three of them have to have great leadership because it’s not just on the court,” Ulferts said. “It’s everywhere. The captains really hold your team and point you in the right direction. They’re three great captains, academically, athletically and on-and-off the court.”
The three captain’s leadership may prove to be essential in the early part of the season. The Huskies don’t open up conference play until January and that may allow the young team to find their rhythm before having to face the grueling competition that the NCC will bring this season.
“This will be the toughest year in the conference,” Ulferts said. “It’s tough every year, but this is going to be a really tough.”
The biggest reason St. Cloud may face an uphill challenge is that they only have several young players with experience. The other top teams are bringing all their top guns back.
“This is a year that the NCC didn’t lose very much,” Ulferts said. “North Dakota didn’t lose anybody and South Dakota State lost one (starter). Everybody’s going to be tough.”
Ulferts isn’t exaggerating the strength of the NCC this season. UND has won the conference four out of the last five years, with North Dakota State being nearly as dominant. The two schools have traded the title exclusively for over a decade. The last time another team has even had a piece of the title was 1989 when SCSU shared it with NDSU.
Before that, the last time a team held the title outright was in 1986 when it belonged to Minnesota State, Mankato.
The preseason Top 25 poll has South Dakota State at No. 2 and North Dakota at No. 3, while NDSU still found their way in at No. 17. UND is coming off a championship season with a 24-5 record and they return two All-NCC selections from last season in forwards Becky Moen and Jenny Boll.
The main ingredient of last year’s successful teams was size, an area where the Huskies fall short.
Opposing teams with dominant posts will certainly pose a challenge for the undersized Huskies. To overcome their weakness in this area, the Huskies will need to rely on their shooting and especially their defense.
“We’re not the tallest team in the league, but we’re a better shooting team than we have been in the past. In addition, our defense is up,” Ulferts said.
A solid defensive effort could be more critical to SCSU compared to other teams because solid outside shooting gives them an excellent chance to compete if they can remain stingy on defense and force opposing teams to play their style of ball.
“In men’s basketball, when you have a great center that’s physical and tough, it’s tough to stop,” Ulferts said. “So that’s what we’re going to run up against, and if we can do a good job on defense, we’ll be OK. But if we don’t, we’ll be hurting.”
On the bright side, SCSU is coming off a winning season, while playing many young players who are ready to make a serious contribution now.
“We have a lot of depth. The other teams don’t have the experience we have in our depth,” Ulferts said. “We played a lot of young kids last year, so we’re strong experience-wise.”
The head coach is excited about some young players who saw playing time last season and are now poised for a breakout year. Sophomore guard Katie Huschle has a sweet shot and Ulferts also expects great things from junior post Kristine DeGroot.
“She played limited minutes last year. I don’t know how many more minutes she’s going to increase, but her minutes will be much more valuable. We need her to score,” Ulferts indicated.
Taking down giants like UND, SDSU and NDSU won’t be easy, but if things fall into place, SCSU could be a dark-horse threat.
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