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Posted Feb. 8, 2008

There are still three undefeated teams left in Division III women's basketball, but two of them appear destined to meet in the NCAA Tournament, if only because they are both in the Great Lakes region. While neither Hope nor Thomas More can afford to look that far ahead, we can, because, well, we're the media, and that's apparently what we're supposed to do.

Jordyn Boles is the leading scorer on an incredibly balanced team.

“I think we have a good team, but I’m not ready to label us as a great team yet,” is one of the first things that the head coach of unbeaten No. 1 Hope, Brian Morehouse, tells us during a lengthy chat earlier this week

From the way that others have talked to us, it sounds like this Hope team is extraordinarily good, if not great, and very difficult for anyone to beat at any point (lest we forget, the school is hosting the last two rounds of the NCAA Tournament). When we asked some folks how this team compared to previous national champions, the comparisons were very strong in Hope’s favor.

“The amount of talent that they have is incredible,” said one Great Lakes area coach. “Wait till you see them. Their sixth through 10th players would be as good as any team in the country, and their 14th/15th best kids would start on almost any team. Their offense has so many weapons. It’s their defensive effort that’s so good. They put a kind of pressure on you that is almost impossible to simulate in practice.”

Said Morehouse, echoing that: “Our best player isn’t a player … it’s our defense. That’s a team thing for us. We’re not going to let you do whatever you think you do comfortably, whether it’s a Princeton offense, a high-low, or something with lots of ball screens.”

This is a team with a good number of significant contributors as freshmen and sophomores from Hope’s national title team of two seasons ago. The leading scorer is senior Jordyn Boles, a lights-out shooter when on her game, who averages ‘only’ 11.5 points per game. Hope’s depth and a significant number of lopsided scores have kept the numbers of the starters down. Boles averages 20 minutes per game, and no one on the team averages more than 21.

"We got beat by 20 and I didn't think we played that badly," said Carthage coach Tim Bernero of the Lady Reds’ 80-60 loss in November. "It's so hard to play them because they come at you in waves."

“That we play so many players allows our kids to play harder,” said Morehouse, who will play 10-11 kids even in a close game. “They know that they only have to play hard for five minutes instead of eight.”

Fifth-year senior Julie Henderson, a survivor of eight knee surgeries, is the point guard who triggers the transition game, and her backup, Kaitlyn Kopke, scores with efficiency, averaging 6.9 points on 57 percent shooting. Forwards Stacy Warsen and Lindsay Lange anchor the post with authority, with the latter leading the team in blocked shots, despite averaging only 16 minutes. The stats are spread out so evenly that it took until the team’s 17th game for someone to score more than 16 points.

“Julie brings an energy and keeps everyone very composed,” Boles said. “She’s an unbelievable passer. Kaitlyn is a speed demon, who can put unbelievable ball-pressure on on the defensive end. Stacy does all the little things, rebounds, dives, and does all the stuff that goes unnoticed. Lindsay Lange brings the intensity to our inside game. She has great post moves. A lot of the younger players look up to the older players who have the championship experience. To me, that means you lead by example.”

Morehouse has had high-caliber teams before that got shut out of NCAA Tournament bids in the smaller field despite having only four losses. It’s for that reason that he’s coaching “like my hair is on fire. Because you can’t afford a slip-up.”

Hope has come close to losing only once, when it trailed Albion at halftime by 13 before rallying to win. (It's worth noting we had two coaches give Albion rave reviews this week, with both saying that if that team makes NCAAs that it will do very well.) That’s the only game that ended with the Flying Dutch winning by single digits. Early in the season they beat CCIW-co-leader Carthage by 20, and now 15-5 Ohio Northern by 28.

One wild card for Hope is the status of 6-3 freshman center Carrie Snikkers, who initially decided to go to Division I Oakland, but changed her mind before classes began after two days there, and came to Hope to be closer to home (she grew up nine miles from the school). Snikkers was Michigan’s runner-up Ms. Basketball as a high school senior, but has been bothered by injuries in her debut collegiate season. She’s averaged only 15 minutes and missed six games but played eight mintues Thursday night at Tri-State. Courtney Knox and Lindsay Lange filled in very well in her place, but when Snikkers is on the court, she’s a game-changer type player, and has averaged 8.8 points and 5.4 rebounds in limited action.

“She’s the female Rasheed (Wallace),” Morehouse said referring to certain aspects of the Pistons forward’s game, though not the penchant for picking up technical fouls. “She has a great feel for the game and senses where the play is going to be. She can be dominant in the low post, and is a tremendous passer, better than most point guards. She can kill you from 3-point range and there aren’t many players who can do that at 6-foot-3, then dominate on the other end of the floor with their length, blocking shots and getting rebounds. But she doesn’t want the credit. She just wants to play. The thing to remember is she’s still a freshman. In a couple of our big games, she’s been a little wide-eyed, but in others she’s played her best basketball. She has levels of play, like (2006 Final Four MVP) Bria Ebels did. If she really has to dig down and get to that next level, she has a next level to get to.”

The team has a next level of ascent too. Boles says the team can still improve on “close-outs and communication” and the numbers would show that the Flying Dutch can be better from the foul line (62 percent). But there is a high level of trust in each other that things are going to work out for the best. Still, Morehouse is cautious in proclaiming that there’s any sort of inevitability to this season.

“If we can keep healthy,” Morehouse said. “I think we’ll be ok.”

MORE UNBEATENS: While Hope is cruising through the MIAA, Thomas More has been the team to beat in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. The Saints are 20-0 overall, 11-0 in PAC action. Away from home, Thomas More is 11-0, including a game on a neutral floor.

Jayme Thiem transferred from Division I Eastern Kentucky and averages a team-high 13.7 points per game.

“It has been very exciting,” said Thomas More junior guard Alex Gee. “We knew early on that it was going to be a special season, but I don’t think we knew how good we could be. Having the success that we’ve had and beating the teams that we did early on has been really exciting. Everyone’s really close and we all have a lot of fun together.”

“I don’t know how to describe it,” said Saints coach Brian Neal. “It’s been tremendous in the fact that we have a group of young ladies who have been very committed this year. It’s nice to get everybody on the same page, which has made it very enjoyable. To win all of the games so far has made it very nice. We’re having a great time seeing where this takes us.”

While the records for the Saints are impressive, those wearing or coaching the blue and white are not focused on any postseason contests. Although the NCAA Tournament is not far off, they are willing to take on any and all challengers.

“That is something I haven’t thought about yet because we’ll play whoever if we’re lucky enough to get in that tournament,” Neal said of a possible meeting with Hope. “I haven’t seen Hope personally. I’m trying to win the No. 1 seed in our PAC conference right now. I’ve got to get this seed so we could win the automatic bid.

“Whatever conference you’re in, the thing that is so important is consistency night-in, night-out,” he added. “We’ve been fortunate that the girls have been very consistent, especially on those road trips because we travel quite a bit for our conference games. We’ve been able to hang in there and grind it out through that conference season very well.”

“That would be a very exciting game,” Gee said of a possible future game with the Flying Dutch. “I know we’ve been hearing about Hope since I’ve been here and how good they are. I would look forward to having a match-up with them. Especially if we’re both still undefeated, that would be very interesting and exciting.”

If the two teams were to meet, Thomas More would not be worried about facing Hope. They have wins over perennial powerhouses in Wilmington and DePauw. In the second game of the season, they defeated the Quakers on the road by 11 points. The contest against DePauw, as well as a road win at Wittenberg were much closer. The Saints upended DePauw at home 65-59 and Wittenberg on the road 56-53.

“In the first couple games when we were beating teams by more, we knew we were good, but it’s those closer games like those two that you can learn a lot more from,” said Gee. “We knew we could win those kind of games. It’s easy to come in and blow teams out. I didn’t have any question in my mind in those two games that we were going to win. I knew we were talented enough and if we played together that we could do that. It gives us confidence for the games later on in the season and in these big PAC games that are coming up here soon.”

Facing challenges early in the season is something Neal designed to see how his team would respond to playing on the road in hostile territories.

“We played Wilmington in the second game of the year and that was a tight game as well,” Neal said. “We had been coming on for the last couple of years, getting up around that 20-win mark and just have not been able to get over that hurdle against Top 25-type teams. The girls have really committed themselves to doing that this year.

“They gave us a lot of confidence that we could do this and it was just a springboard for the rest of the season,” added Neal about the wins over DePauw, Wittenberg and Wilmington. “I started my coaching career with Coach (Jerry) Scheve at Wilmington. They’re only an hour away from us. To be able to compete with and beat a team like that in your region was a big deal.”

Aside from getting experience playing quality opponents on the road, the games against Wilmington, DePauw and Wittenberg allowed the team to identify its leaders. Knowing who will lead the team through difficult stretches is a key for any team with the goals of a conference championship and a trip to the postseason.

“We can look to the seniors to help us stay calm in those kind of situations,” Gee said. “In the Wittenberg game, things weren’t really going our way. We weren’t playing as well as we had been in the games before that. Some of us were kind of getting anxious, (like) maybe this isn’t going to turn out as we expected. Some of the girls started making some big plays and that was when we knew that was what we could look for.”

“We have a group that primarily has been together for a few years,” Neal added. “Then, we were able to add a couple key pieces. Jayme Thiem transferred in and she is the real deal, a great combo guard. We were able to get a center by the name of Nicole Dickman, who’s a freshman this year. Those two in particular have just raised our talent level. If you combine that with the experience of the kids we already had involved in the program, it’s kind of all come together.”

Having a talented backcourt with the ability to score in the paint has made the sharpshooting Saints more difficult to defend. As a team, they have hit on 45.7 percent of their overall attempts and nearly one out of every three triples. The dual threat could be the difference for the Saints as the season winds down.

“We have nine kids that we can rotate through,” Neal said. “We’re able to play multiple styles. People try to slow down against us. They try to speed up. They try to press us. They try to zone us. We’ve been able to match and outplay anybody (with) whatever style they tried on us.

“The other teams have to pick their poison,” he concluded. “There’s not too many weak spots out there.”

WORTH WATCHING: No bad weekends from here on out, as we get closer to Selection Sunday.

Saturday
Men
Richard Stockton at William Paterson: Matchup of the two runaway division leaders in the New Jersey Athletic Conference and a shameless plug audio link. William Paterson has been the one constant in the NJAC this year in a season in which perennial powers Ramapo and New Jersey City, haven’t performed as they usually do. The Pioneers are 8-0 in league, unbeaten in the New Year and look primed to get back to the NCAA Tournament again.

Washington & Lee at Randolph-Macon: The murderers row portion of Washington & Lee’s schedule concludes this weekend with visits to Randolph-Macon and Virginia Wesleyan. The Generals beat the Yellowjackets in overtime the first go-around, and at 12-6, 8-3, have already surpassed their win total from last season. The Generals have come a long way since going 2-23, 0-18 when Greg Bienemann was a freshman. He’s now averaging 22.3 points and Washington & Lee has far surpassed expectations from ODAC coaches who had them pegged to finish seventh.

Gustavus Adolphus at St. Thomas: Rematch of the Jan. 12 game in which Tyler Kaus hit a buzzer-beater to give the Gusties the win. St. Thomas hasn’t lost since, and leads Gustavus by 1½ games in a two team race for the MIAC’s top spot.

Mass-Dartmouth at Keene State: Don’t pass up the chance to watch the nation’s only unbeaten Division III men’s team, which visits Keene State in what should be an electric atmosphere. Mass-Dartmouth survived a “trap” game by beating Tufts midweek, and if it can get past an Owls team looking for a pick-me-up kind of win, it has an excellent chance to get through the regular season unbeaten.

Women’s
Eastern Connecticut at Southern Maine: The Huskies have won 78 straight at home, 11 straight overall, and 15 straight against Eastern Connecticut, but the Warriors present a formidable challenge. In their first meeting this season, Eastern Connecticut was up eight points, but USM’s Stacey Kent came through with an Ashley Marble-like effort, scoring 15 points in the final seven minutes to get her team the win. This not the only Saturday game of significance in New England, as Salem State visits Fitchburg State in a key MASCAC matchup, and Wheaton visits Coast Guard with the NEWMAC lead on the line.

Medaille at Pitt-Greensburg: The Bobcats are the one AMCC team to really put a scare into Medaille this year, taking them to the final seconds before falling by a point. The Bobcats have gotten back to their form of a few seasons ago, when they were regularly a 20-win squad, but recently lost one of their stars, Tiffany Menhorn to injury and will have to find a way to challenge the Mavericks without her.

Howard Payne at Hardin-Simmons: Howard Payne concludes the brutal part of its schedule with this second meeting with Hardin-Simmons in a week’s span. The Yellow Jackets need one more win to make it 4-for-4 against their two toughest ASC foes.

Sunday
Rochester at Washington University: Let’s do it again, shall we? It doesn’t get any better than last week’s men’s game between Rochester and Washington, arguably the best game of the season, and the women’s game wasn’t too bad either. Nancy Fahey is going to want her team to take care of the ball better, after a 22-turnover performance the first time, including eight by freshman forward Kathryn Berger. She can’t ask too much more from her defense, which held Rochester to 1-for-14 three-point shooting and 28 percent shooting from the floor overall. Jim Scheible will want his four starters not named Alex Porter to combine for more than three field goals.

In the men’s game, Wash U basically played with a six-man rotation, with three players combining for a total of 11 minutes in an overtime contest. Tyler Nading appears to be the key – he draws a difficult defensive assignment in the post against the Rochester big men and struggled early on from the floor before making four of his last five shots. Rochester got plenty of minutes from its bench but just three points.

If you have a tip or note, send it to atn@d3hoops.com.

Previous columns
2007-08 columns
March 6: Faith restored
Feb. 27: John Jay, Cinderella
Feb. 21: No safety net
Feb. 14: Ursinus better enough
Feb. 8: Hope-TMC on collision course
Jan. 31: Plattsburgh's big shot
Jan. 24: UMD answers call
Jan. 18: Like Bosko, like son
Jan. 11: Keystone stakes
Dec. 13: Unstoppable
Dec. 7: UWW aiming deeper
Nov. 30: Coach's shadow lingers
Nov. 15: Strong duo
2006-07 columns
2005-06 columns
2004-05 columns
2003-04 columns
2002-03 columns
2001-02 columns

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