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St. Cloud State University
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Ulferts positive about team's future
By Drew Herron
Published:
Thursday, March 6, 2003
It was Murphy's Law for the SCSU women's basketball team this season and a lot of things went wrong.
The Huskies were burnt on opening night at home by a sharp-shooting Minnesota-Duluth team and never got back on track.
After rebounding to thoroughly defeat Bemidji State the next evening and salvaging the weekend split, the team headed to Phoenix over the Thanksgiving holiday and earned another split while competing in the Grand Canyon Classic.
It was during that weekend when sophomore guard Katie Huschle proved her value in the backcourt. Huschle led the Huskies against Grand Canyon scoring 18 points, while going a perfect three for three from downtown and seven for nine from the foul line.
Huschle would go on to average 10 points and three assists per game for the team and finish at .815 from the free throw line, good for fourth in the conference.
"With Jess leaving, Katie could just score and build confidence," head coach Lori Ulferts said of Huschle.
The next weekend the team would realize just how badly they would need Huschle to step up. The Huskies dropped both games of the Southwest State University Classic in Marshall, but even worse, they lost co-captain and their all-around best player, Jessica Abrahams.
Abrahams bruised her knee bone during a mid-court collision in the opening minutes of the first game against host Southwest State and the Huskies went on to lose by 20 points.
"It was a bruised bone that hurt her," Ulferts said. "It's just a slow process of healing. It's almost better to have something you can correct by surgery than to have a bruise because it's so slow to heal."
With Abrahams on the sideline, the team lacked one of the conference's best shooters and worse, they were without their leader.
"She's such a leader on the court, and at times in our losses, we needed someone to step up and get this stop or score now, and she's kind of our quarterback," Ulferts said. "So that really hurt us."
Reeling and looking to pick up the pieces, the Huskies managed to pull things together to go on and win three of their next five games leading up to the conference opener, outscoring the opposition 240 to 176.
The team looked ahead to the new year and a new attitude of confidence that comes with winning. Instead, things were about to get worse. The Huskies would only win three more games in January and February, and they saw their shooting percentage plummet.
After losing on the road to South Dakota on Jan. 4, the Huskies returned home and earned their first conference win of the season in an 84-81 home victory over Augustana on Jan. 10, overcoming a 16-point second half deficit. Late heroics by Huschle, Jonelle Streed and Kris DeGroot helped the Huskies chip away at the Vikings lead and ultimately claim victory.
At that point, with a conference record of 1-4, the Huskies were down, but not out. However, the Huskies dropped their next three games against North Dakota and South Dakota State twice by a combined score of 242 to 175.
Over the course of the next six weeks, the Huskies would win only two more games, both against the same opponent in MSU, Mankato.
Despite the fact that the losses were piling up, the team still had hope of making the playoffs up until the final weekend. But, the team lost its final six games and finished tied for last place with Mankato.
"There's definitely a top half and a bottom half of our league. Everybody has to remember how tough our league is," Ulferts said. "Whoever wins our league usually wins the national championship."
As the team played their last game still clinging to hope for a playoff birth, they may have turned in their most valiant effort in a 96-94 road loss to NDSU. Streed and her career-high 32 points sparked the team and freshman guard Sascha Hansen matched her career-high with 19 points.
The Huskies shot 45.6 percent from the field and 60 percent from three-point range, making 12 of 20 from beyond the arc and setting a school record for three-pointers made in a game with 12.
"I think it really helps us leading into next year. We played so well against North Dakota and North Dakota State both times," Ulferts said. "That gives us a lot of hope and ends the season not so bitter and frustrated. It still was a frustrating season, but it was nice to end on a positive."
The positives emerging from this disappointing season are highlighted by the development of a young and solid backcourt. Huschle and Hansen are young and have gained valuable experience this season.
Sophomore Molly Jensen played well, averaging just under seven points per game, and Abrahams will be back after obtaining a medical redshirt.
"Our backcourt is going to be tough, especially with Jess back," Ulferts said. "And our recruit that we've already signed, Shannon Francis from Mahnomen. Monday she just scored her 2,000 point. She's one of the best scorers in Minnesota."
The combination of guards could prove to be one of the best backcourts in the conference next year and Ulferts expects big things from junior post Kris DeGroot. DeGroot emerged this season as the team's leading scorer and perhaps its MVP.
SCSU will lose four seniors in Celestine Frank, Andrea Bennet, Karen Voss and Jonelle Streed.
"It will be difficult to say goodbye to all the seniors," Ulferts said. "All of them had a role, whether it was make us better in practice or in a game, scoring, rebounding, or defense or just coming in and giving us a consistent rest. All four of them will be missed in some way or another."
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