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Women’s basketball looks to build chemistry |
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Thursday, 29 March 2007 |
by MATT SCHNEIDER
Sports Reporter
The Appalachian State University women’s basketball program hopes to build on a year of ups and downs after finishing 13-18 overall.
Appalachian finished seventh in the Southern Conference with a record of 6-12 but notched its first SoCon Tournament win in four years, as they defeated Elon University 64-50 in the opening round.
Head coach Adrienne Shuler hopes next year’s team will be able to
overcome the lack of depth that held the Mountaineers down this season.
“The thing that hurt us this year is we had limited depth at our post and guard positions,” Shuler said.
“At the style we want to play, that was really tough.”
Guards Whitney Tossie and Maria Grimes led the Mountaineers offensively
this season, both averaging more than 13 points per game. Four starters
averaged more than 29 minutes per game, which eventually hurt the
Mountaineers during the end of games.
In addition, Shuler said she was hoping for more from her freshmen.
“Our freshmen that we brought in took longer than we anticipated, and it cost us games,” she said.
Next season, Shuler hopes to bring in five new recruits, although none of them have signed National
Letters of Intent to attend ASU.
Shuler said there was a balance of guards and post players that she
hopes to sign and many of them came from state championship programs.
“I believe, especially on the perimeter, we have so many young ladies
that are going to be added to the fold, that are very similar to what
we have in Whitney Tossie and Gigi Thomas,” Shuler said. “We’re
bringing in kids that can score, whether off the dribble or shooting
the long ball.”
Over the past two seasons, the Mountaineers are a combined 28-31.
Shuler believes the team chemistry and having a winning mentality will
be the biggest challenges of the season.
“Any time you bring in a slew of new kids, you wonder how they’re going
to mesh with the returning players, so that’s probably the biggest
question mark is how they are going to mesh,” Shuler said.
Appalachian Sports Network women’s basketball color analyst Adam Hicks
agreed the Mountaineers have the talent necessary to win but need a
mentality change.
“I think they’re good, but they don’t know it,” Hicks said. “They need
the attitude where they can say ‘we can beat this team.’”
The Mountaineers will lose forward Jaime Bennett and guard Carleena
Costner to graduation next year, and they will also red-shirt junior
Shante Williams, who opted to pursue a student-teaching role in the
fall.
The Mountaineers also return sophomore center Brittany Mixon, who shot
nearly 53 percent from the field, and forward Whitney Ketner, who
started 12 games during the season.
The work for next season has already started, and Shuler complimented the focus of her players during post-season workouts.
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