|
Huskies can go one of two ways
By Derek Sullivan
You would think after beating two ranked teams in consecutive weekends, the hard part of your schedule is over. Unfortunately for the SCSU women's basketball team, the schedule is only going to get harder.
If the Huskies can win its third consecutive home game over struggling (7-12,1-5) Minnesota State-Mankato, it will end the first half of the conference season with a 5-2 record. They will be tied for second with the loser of this weekend's North Dakota and North Dakota State game. SCSU will be positioned only one game behind the winner of the fore-mentioned contest.
The Huskies will try to make its first legitimate run at the conference title since 1989-90. That year, the Huskies finished with a 14-4 conference record. With Morningside College and Northern Colorado out of the NCC, the Huskies will play only 14 conference games.
With the Huskies improved play, you can make a case for five of the seven conference teams to be ranked in the top 25. Four are currently ranked and SCSU recieved 14 votes. Assuming they beat up on each other, a team with four losses could tie for the title.
So for the sake of this column, let's say the Huskies need to go 10-4 to put itself in a position for the school's first title in 14 years.
That should not be hard; all the women have to do is beat struggling Minnesota-Mankato twice the next two weekends. That will improve SCSU's conference record to 7-2. Simply close the season with a 3-2 record and hang the banner at Halenbeck Hall.
Sounds easy? Well it's not. The Huskies, thanks to favorable scheduling, will play a fifth of seven conference homes games this Saturday. The Huskies will then be forced to hop on the bus and travel to five tough locations in the next month.
It is actually worse than it sounds. The Huskies play the last four conference games on the road. If the Huskies are in the title chase on the last weekend, they will have to win on the road against strong UND and NDSU teams, who each won at Halenbeck earlier this year.
Okay, enough of the negativity. The simple fact that it is Jan 29th and I can, with a straight face, write this column is amazing. After all, the women were 3-13 in the league last year. Over the past 10 seasons in the NCC, SCSU is only 73-110.
The Huskies do have a lot going for them. First of all, they have center Erica Quigley who recently won her second consecutive NCC Player of the Week honor. Quigley is a steady scorer who provides the Huskies with an offensive presence in the paint.
The Huskies also have one of the conference's most experienced benches. Sophomore April Carlson and juniors Katie Huschle and Molly Jensen have combined for 78 career starts. All three now come off the bench for Coach Lori Ulferts.
Huschle has been especially impressive. She is averaging 10 points, four rebounds and three assists a game. She does the best job getting to the rim and leads the team in free throw shooting percentage (84 percent).
Carlson can play both forward positions and Jensen can play either backcourt position. This allows the starters to get plenty of rest and stay out of foul trouble.
Finally, the team has great leadership. Sophomore Sascha Hansen and senior Jessica Abrahams are the co-captains. Hansen has started every game since arriving on campus last year, and Abrahams has a played in a school record 104 games (starting in 80). Both players love to take the last shot and are automatic at the free throw line.
Abrahams recently moved from the backcourt to the frontcourt to help the Huskies. Despite being undersized, Abrahams has held her own. Also consider that SCSU has won all four games since senior Andrea Shogren was put in the lineup and Abrahams moved to power forward.
The Huskies are now ranked No. 5 nationally in free throw percentage at 78 percent after hitting 27-33 free throws last weekend.
After looking at all the negatives and positives, several questions still remain.
Can the Huskies avoid the upset bug against Minnesota-Mankato? Can the Huskies steal a win at Brookings or Fargo? Can the Huskies beat South Dakota twice in one year?
The answers are just a couple of weeks away.
|
|
|
|
Privacy Policy Network Advertising Article Syndication
|
|
