Man. I will openly admit. I was truly excited about tonight. Whatever. I don’t care. If you know me, you know I love Campbell sports–and I’ve always loved our women’s basketball team. I was a bit apprehensive walking in tonight. This is the first time in my lifetime (that I can remember) that Wanda Watkins wasn’t on the bench. I am a homer, and I have always been a fan of her–as a person, as a coach, and as a woman. She’s an amazing woman who recruited and coached amazing young women. To know that she is still with the University in some compactly gives me some relief, but I do miss her.
Ok. So I did my homework prior to the game and one thing that I noticed is this is a relatively young team (2 seniors and 4 freshmen). I was interested to see how this team would play together. Amanda Coffer is gone from last year (choosing to end her college basketball career early), and we graduated some of my favorite players. Two favorites remained, and I was excited to see them in action tonight. Summer Price, a Jr. guard and Sarah Smith, a Jr. forward. Last year they were the epitome of hustle for me. Every time either were on the court they gave 100% and it was just so much fun to watch. Price emerged as a on floor leader last year–always encouraging her teammates and always pushing the ball and the pace of play. I was interested to see how she would play tonight…
When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was Sarah Smith in an arm sling…not good. Already disappointed and I hadn’t even made it to my seat.
Starting line up announced, and Campbell started two Freshmen. Interesting. Off the tip, Summer Price turned the ball over on the offensive end of the court. She dribbled into traffic and got stripped. Not an excellent start. Campbell ended up stealing the ball back but was unable to capitalize on a couple of shots and the ball went back to St. Andrews. Ugggh. Slow start. The eternal pessimist in me lamented aloud, “this may be a long season.” We hit a layup, a few free throws, another layup and had a 6-1 lead. We brought in another freshman (Breanna Foster) and things took a turn. Foster can shoot. She hit 2 back to back 3’s and suddenly had a 12-1 lead.
First quarter ended with the Camels up 21-7. Ok. Not a bad start. The Camels really pushed the pace in the 2nd quarter. This was a lot of fun to watch. Some missed layups aside, it wasn’t a terrible quarter for the Camels. At the half, the Camels were up 41-14.
The same 5 ladies who started the game started the second half, but after only 3 points in right at 2 minutes, wholesale substitutions were in order. Almost immediately Foster nailed another 3 and an immediate turnover by St. Andrews led to an easy Campbell layup with a foul, “and one.” Six quick points and you could see the energy gone from the St. Andrews team. Campbell led at the end of the 3rd: 67-18.
The fourth quarter was much of the same with the Camels really pushing the pace. At some point in the fourth (and probably when she hit another three), I exclaimed, “Foster is my new favorite!” Premature–I know. But man she was a lot of fun to watch. I love the hustle. Love the fight away from the ball. Hustle ends up getting folks easy points. . .like this layup from Foster:
The camels dominated this game and ended up on the good side of a blowout:
Lots of positives from this game. So many in fact, that the negatives aren’t even going to be mentioned here. Here are some of the things I saw that make me look forward to the rest of the season:
- Our Freshmen: Foster led all scorers with 19 points. Guard Kelly Post had some key minutes and added 4 points to the total. Hayley Barber only had 4 points as well but she also had an assist and a block. Taya Bolden also added 4 points to the total with an assist and a block. Overall, 31 points from our freshmen is more than positive.
- Our pace: we put up 94 points. 94. That’s an amazing total for any basketball game, and one I’m not used to seeing in Gore arena. That’s exciting.
- Cribb and Bowns: they put up 11 and 14 and those are great totals from ladies who didn’t put up a ton of minutes/points last season.
- Free Throws: overall the Camels shot only 67.6% from the line tonight, but their best percentage by quarter was in the 4th. This is crucial because it tells me they still had legs in the 4th. Were it not for an abysmal 3rd quarter, they would have finished over 70% for the game. Still though, 23 points from the charity stripe is respectable.
- Hustle: These ladies ran. And ran. And ran some more. I freaking loved it. There was a noticeable area of hustle that wasn’t there last year though and it’s a seemingly small thing, but man is it huge to me: any time a player went down, the other 4 on the floor sprinted to her on the whistle. They sprinted to a huddle on every stop in play. They sprinted to their spots on the floor on set pieces, and they pushed the ball with a purpose.
- Point areas: Campbell had 32 points in the paint, 39 points off of turnovers, 23 second chance points, and 14 points off of fast breaks. These are all huge positives for me as a fan.
- The bench: 68 points off the bench. The bench out scored the starters tonight by a pretty wide margin. I don’t expect this to be the case as these ladies continue to play together, but it’s encouraging that no matter who is in the game, we have offensive weapons.
Huge congratulations to coach Ronny Fisher and the rest of his staff (who were obviously upbeat all night) for being undefeated in this new era of Campbell Basketball.
I’m looking forward to the rest of this season. There is a big gap in the bench that will never be filled (in my heart), but this is a good start for this new look Campbell team.
Good game Camels. See you on-line on the 16th.
the wookiee blog 