2006-07 Wayne State Women’s Basketball

Warriors look for improvement

Jeff Buck
Staff Writer

The Wayne State women’s basketball team, led by seventh-year coach Gloria Bradley, finished 10-17 overall last season with a 7-10 record in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play. The team had most of its success at home, going 6-6 at the Matthaei Center, with a road record of 3-10.

“If we’re playing aggressively, I see us challenging for a championship,” Bradley said. “If we’re playing passively, there’s a good possibility we’ll finish in the middle-to-bottom of the pack.”

With eleven returning players, the Warriors look for continued improvement in the South Division of the GLIAC this year.

Among those returning players is senior Cherita Smith, who keyed the WSU offense last year by averaging a team-leading 13.1 points per game. Smith – who plays both shooting guard and small forward – was also strong defensively, leading the team in steals with 68.

"As a senior, I have to get my team involved offensively,” Smith said. “It's not really about me scoring outside – it's about me passing the ball around and getting my bigs into the game. And then, (it's about) me locking up on defense.”

Both Bradley and Smith noted WSU’s early-season emphasis on the post players and inside scoring.

"Our practices have been passing into the post, looking to the post,” Smith said. “We know that if we get it in early, the guards are going to be open, and we're going to have an inside and outside game instead of just outside like we've had in the past."

Oakland University transfer Bethany Jury will fill the center position. At 6-foot-2, she will give the team a strong presence in the paint while Rebecca Meyer, a 6-foot-1 freshman from Brighton, will also look to impact the WSU frontcourt in her first season with the team.

“We have to work a lot harder – being big doesn’t necessarily mean you’re better,” Bradley said. “Those two big players inside really have to get a little more aggressive.”

Joining Smith and the centers will be the returning frontcourt duo of Nicole Rogers – who will look to crash the boards after leading the team in rebounds (5.9 per game) last year – and Chastidy Miller, who will provide a spark off the bench after scoring more from the free throw line than any other player on the team last year.

“Our junior class in particular has had so much experience – Nicole Rogers has been a huge factor for us – and even the sophomores like Chastidy Miller have contributed a lot already,” Bradley said.

Joy Nash, a sophomore from Muskegon, will most likely start at point guard after missing the final 15 games last season, with Jessica Howard and Daijon Jefferson also in the backcourt rotation.

“We lost Joy last year and that was huge,” Bradley said. “Those guards (Howard and Jefferson) are looking a lot better. If they were last year where they are this year, we wouldn’t have had to do it by committee. Our loss last year is this year’s gain.”

The final five veterans for the Warriors are Monique George, Bethany Mesko, Ralphanee Peyton, Gina VanderMarliere and Brittany White. Also looking to contribute early is freshman guard Brooke Bowers from Delphos, Ohio.

In the preseason GLIAC coaches’ poll, the Warriors received eight points and were tabbed for fifth in the South Division. Ashland was picked first with four first place votes.

“This is not a fifth place team by any stretch of the imagination,” Bradley said. “We have some good teams in the league, but it’s a matter of what our team wants to do right now.”

The Warriors met Ashland twice during the regular season last year, falling to the Eagles 89-71 and 91-72. The two teams also met in the quarterfinals of the GLIAC Tournament, where the South Division’s top-seeded Eagles won, 88-79.

Wayne State, which opened its season with a 70-54 loss on the road to Missouri-Rolla and a 75-63 setback to No. 7 Henderson State, will play its regular season home opener against Central State (Ohio) at 5:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Matthaei Center.

The South End, November 20, 2006