Women’s basketball downs ETSU, preps for SoCon tourney
Mike Vivenzio / Reporter
Elon women’s basketball head coach Brenda Paul
understands the importance of finishing the season on a high
note. Win or lose, Paul said she still feels the team has
finished strong as it prepares for its first Southern
Conference tournament March 3.
“We have won five out of our last seven games,”
Paul said. “Things are moving in a very positive way
this month. We are putting it all together.”
On Feb. 21 the Phoenix faced against the Southern
Conference’s toughest team, the University of Tennessee
at Chattanooga. In a game wrought with turnovers, the first
half was a tightly-contested battle. Chattanooga carried a
25-21 lead into the locker room. However, in the second
half, the Mocs came out on fire. Taking advantage of
poor defense, Chattanooga jumped out to a 20-point lead
midway through the second half. The lady Mocs were able
to score easily in the paint as both Phoenix forwards, senior
Courtney Nyborg and junior Brianne Grey, sat with four fouls
for much of the half. Chattanooga closed out the 58-42
win to extend its win streak to 21 and remain undefeated in
the SoCon at 19-0.
The Phoenix bounced back against East Tennessee State
University. There is some familiarity between these two
teams, as the Bucs head coach Karen Kemp was an All-American
for Paul when Paul was the head coach at Berry College in
1985. For much of the first half, the game remained
close but the Phoenix closed the final seven minutes of the
half with a 15-3 run to take a 31-23 lead into the locker
room.
The second half saw much of the same type of intense, almost
urgent play from the Phoenix. The Bucs made a few runs,
but were never able to get the lead under six points.
The game was dominated under the basket by the Phoenix as
Nyborg scored 18 and Grey added 15. The Phoenix also
out rebounded the Bucs 42-31 on the way to a 77-65
victory. The win moved the Phoenix (16-10, 12-7 SoCon)
into a tie with Davidson for fourth place in the SoCon, with
one game remaining against Furman. Elon is currently the No.
2 seed in the conference.
Since senior leader Holly Andrews’ ACL injury, the
Phoenix is 8-3.
“We knew we had to step it up,” Nyborg
said.
Paul also noted that everyone on the team has stepped up in
Andrews’ absence.
“This is a mature ball club and what I asked of them
is to make up 10 points on the defensive end, and then as a
team make up 10 more points on the offensive end. This
is not a one-dimensional team,” Paul said.
Paul said she is also very pleased with the balance that the
Phoenix get on the offensive side of the ball.
“We have an inside, outside balanced attack,”
she said. “You can’t just key on one
thing.”
One particular player that Paul singled out was senior guard
Lisa Miller.
“Her confidence and courage on the floor is
tremendous,” Paul said. “She plays 40 minutes all
out and leads by example.”
As the Phoenix gets ready for its first ever Southern
Conference tournament, Paul said she doesn’t feel it is
going to be a problem to keep this team focused.
“They want their season to continue,” she
said. “They are very focused and very
competitive. They have personal goals and want to
achieve them.”
As far as her goals for the team, Paul said that she wanted
the team to finish in the upper half of the SoCon to avoid
playing on the first day of the tournament.
“Tournament time is when you just build on what you
have been doing all year long,” Paul
said. “We are going to go into the tournament very
confident.”
Paul noted that this team is exemplified by three
characteristics: Chemistry, character and focus.
“They have a sense now of tradition at Elon.
They are going to make certain they are successful,”
she said. “This team has been doing it together
with confidence. They knew they could do it, we knew we could
do it.”
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