Editor’s Note: Above Image by AMZImages.
The UMHB women’s basketball team is set to tip-off in perhaps its toughest non-conference matchup of the season, facing the Abilene Christian Wildcats, a division one opponent, in Abilene Thursday night. Hear from head coach Mark Morefield, learn a little bit about Abilene Christian and take a look at our projected starting lineup in this week’s “Coach’s Clipboard”.
Thoughts from head coach Mark Morefield:
On the advantages of being able to prepare for just one game this week: “Well the good thing is, it gives us time to gameplan, to really study film a little bit more in depth than we normally do. The more time we have [to prepare] the better. You might have more time, instead of spending a bunch of all-nighters watching film, you can space it out and really think it through it, unlike you might if you were playing back-to-back games.”
His staff’s philosophy on non-conference: “There’s three seasons we always talk about, non-conference, conference and the postseason. They all hand in hand kind of help you prepare for the next one. For non-conference, you see a lot of people playing three games in three days, five in seven, or whatever it might be. But for us, we want to play games, but we want to do it at the value, especially in non-conference to where we can learn, get better and continue to mold our team into what they’re going to be this year. So our philosophy is, we’re not going to play three games in three days, because in our opinion, all we’re doing is getting games in but we’re never getting better game to game because we’re not learning from the positives or the negatives of the previous game.”
Projected Starting Lineup
PG- Brooke Elliot, Senior- 8.0 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.5 APG
G- Alexia Martin, Junior- 9.5 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.0 APG
G- Olivia Champion, Sophomore- 8.5 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3.5 APG*
F- Hannah Eggleston, Sophomore- 6.5 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 3.0 APG
P- Taylor Kollmorgen, Graduate Student- 13.5 PPG*, 12.0 RPG*, 0.0 APG
*- Team High
Team Notes:
- Point guard Madison McCoy is out with a knee injury, and though there is a chance she might return for the Dec. 18 game at LeTourneau, it is more probable that she will take the floor for the Cru after Christmas.
- This past week, Taylor Kollmorgen was named the ASC West Division Player of the Week.
- UMHB is 2-0 on the season after opening with wins over UNT Dallas and Arlington Baptist last week.
- Morefield spoke of the decision to not make the contest against ACU an exhibition for UMHB, unlike the majority of other D3 schools facing D1s, stating, “We want to get better, we’re not trying to pad records or anything like that”. In addition, with one exhibition against North American University already scheduled, he wanted to keep that second exhibition slot opened in case they found another team who might want to scrimmage at some point in the season.
About the opponent: Abilene Christian
Date: December 10
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Place: Abilene, Texas (Teague Special Events Center)
Watch: https://www.espn.com/watch/
Notes:
- Abilene Christian will be the first division one team UMHB plays this season, as the Wildcats compete in the Southland Conference.
- ACU is 4-0 on the season with wins over two D1 teams, as well as Howard Payne, an ASC rival of UMHB.
- Head coach Julie Goodenough’s squad is an excellent three-point shooting team, shooting 46% from behind the arc coming into the contest.
- Anna McLeod will be the priority one for the Cru on defense, as senior guard averages 21.5 points per game.
