After finishing up the 2012-13 campaign playing the best basketball of the season, the Blackburn College Women’s Basketball Team looks to pick up right where they left off for the upcoming year.
“They’ve been looking really good. Those who saw us at the end of last season were pretty excited to see what was going to happen in the future. We’re going to use the same defense and that same fast pace style of offense. We're more athletic than most of the teams in conference and we plan to use that to our advantage,” Blackburn Women's Basketball Coach Jen Windmiller stated.
The Beavers return six players from last year’s squad, including co-MVP’s, senior Shelby Smith (Jerseyville, Ill) and junior Briana Rae (Staunton, Ill). Rae was also named captain for the upcoming season. Also returning for her final year is senior captain Charitie Goodman (Pittsburg, Mo)
“I think Charitie is about to play the best basketball she’s played in her four years here,” said Windmiller. “Bri and Charitie have definitely embraced the role of pushing the intensity in practice and making sure that we are physically and mentally prepared for the season,” she added.
Rounding out the returners for Blackburn will be twins, sophomores Danique and Danae Smith (Decatur, Ill) and sophomore captain Erin Bell (Edwardsville, Ill). “The twins have showed up to play this year. The improvement they made over what they were able to do last season compared to now will be huge. Again, our returners are playing great basketball right now. They’ve got that team chemistry we need for the offense we run,” Windmiller explained.
New to team this year will be junior Ciara Morgan (Springfield, Ill), junior Erica Nugent (Melvin, Ill), and freshman Andie Marvel (Springfield, Ill).
“They will contribute right off the bat. Ciara will contribute early on with a lot of minutes and Andie will play the role of our three-point threat,” she said. Although the Beavers have found themselves in the bottom half of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings the past few seasons, don’t expect the pieces to fall the same way as before.
“Conference will be interesting this year. The top teams graduated a lot of great talent, and you never know who brought in what to replace them so you can’t tell, especially with Iowa Wesleyan joining conference this year,” Windmiller added.
The regular season tip-off will be Saturday November, 16th as the team travels to Memphis, Tennessee to battle Rhodes College at 8:00 pm.