After setting 40 school records, claiming the Lone Star Conference Championship, NCAA South Central Regional Championship and advancing to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight for the first time in school history with an overall record of 28-9, the Texas A&M University-Commerce Lions women’s basketball team brings high expectations into the 2007-08 season.
Having to fill the biggest shoes in the university’s history, the Lions also shoulder the No. 12 spot in the USA TODAY ESPN Division II Top 25 Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
“I think it’s a tremendous honor that we’re now gaining national respect as being one of the teams to be recognized as a top 12 team in the country,” said women’s basketball head coach Denny Downing.
For the second consecutive season, A&M-Commerce has been voted as the team to beat in the LSC North Division, receiving 18 of 20 first place votes from LSC coaches, sports information directors and various media representatives.
Top returnee for the women’s basketball squad is junior guard Britney Jordan, who has been voted LSC North Division Preseason Player of the Year.
Jordan is one of four players returning from last year’s record-setting squad. Last season, she led the team in field goals (241), field goal attempts (542) and assists (4.8 per game), while placing second in scoring with 18.0 points per game, 3-point field goals (61), three-point field goal attempts (177) and steals with 2.2 steals per game.
“She’s obviously our leader,” Downing. “(The players) call her the floor general, they call her the assistant coach. I would say this for (Jordan), she relishes in the role of being a leader. That’s so important to have somebody like that.”
In winning the team’s first LSC Championship, Jordan took charge scoring 95 points in the Lions’ tournament wins over Tarleton State (43), Angelo State (23) and West Texas A&M (29). The 43 points against Tarleton matched a school record set by Meshelle Graham on Feb. 6, 1988, against Eastern New Mexico. Her efforts earned her the LSC tournaments Most Outstanding Player award.
In addition, Jordan notched a first team All-Lone Star Conference North Division honor, the LSC North Division Newcomer of the Year and a NCAA Division II Daktronics second team All-South Central Region selection.
Alongside Jordan is the backcourt returns junior guard Tarika Campbell. Campbell came off the bench for the Lions last season providing a spark on the defensive end.
She recorded 28 steals, five blocks and 2.9 rebounds per game in 17.5 minutes per outing.
Senior forward Katedria Mosley will look to provide a presence down low for the Lions as she did in 2006-07.
In arguably the most important play in school history, Mosley received a pass from Jordan underneath the basket and scored a lay-up with less than one second left to lift the Lions over the Missouri Western State Griffons 73-72 to advance to the teams’ first ever South Central Regional finale.
Mosley finished the season scoring 12.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game with 57 steals and 36 blocks.
“I think Mosley, you know, being in the program for four years, she’s also somebody that’s going to help us lead,” Downing said. “She probably leads more by example.”
Another integral part in the paint presence for the Lions is senior forward Dominee Evans.
Evans caps off the returnees from ’06-’07. Last season, she was second on the team in rebounds with 5.7 boards per game. She also averaged 7.0 points per game with 40 steals and 10 blocks.
The Lions will have to overcome the loss of third-team All-American guard Kanani Marshal. She is the first Lions women’s basketball player to be named to an All-American squad.
Marshal was an all-around threat, leading the team with 18.2 points per game and 125 steals and setting a single-season school record nailing 125 three-pointers.
Newcomers Genevieve Campbell, Erica Anderson, Melissa Bratton, Angelique Robinson, Nola Taylor, Alycea Wallace and Brittany Williams will look to replace her productivity.
Freshman guard Campbell is coming off a 40-0 Class 5A state championship season with Rockwall High School. The Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) named her to the Class 5A All-State team.
She netted 201 three-point shots combined in her junior and senior seasons and is the TABC single-season leader for three-pointers made for three consecutive seasons.
“She’s an integral part of what we’re going to do and she brings a lot to the table,” Downing said. “The other thing, she is probably more athletic and more of a basketball player than she is just a shooter. And I think in high school she got labeled as just a shooter, and she’s a more compete basketball player than that.”
Campbell also teamed with the state’s best players in the TABC All-Star Game and scored 17 points. TexasHoops.com listed her as the No. 8 player in the Class of 2007 Top 100 Girls coming out of high school.
Downing said newcomers Melissa Bratton and Brittney Williams are “probably as athletic as any kids we’ve ever had here in the five years I’ve been here. Both of those kids are probably as athletic as anybody I have ever coached.”
Angelique Robinson, from James Madison University, will be eligible in the second term for the Lions. As a senior at Berkley High School, she was runner up for Ms. Basketball in the state of Michigan.
“We have more talent this year than we did last year,” Downing said. “Talent doesn’t always equate to wins, but we do have more talent than we did last year.”
Downing is in his sixth season as head coach of the Lions. Under his leadership, he has directed the Lions into a national competitor and his winning percentage of .467 as head coach is the best in school history.
Downing has coached the team to a 33-1 record at home in the past two seasons and helped set a school record with 28 wins last year. He was named LSC North Division Coach of the Year after the regular season.
The Lions have been practicing since Oct. 15 preparing for their season opener on Nov. 17 and hoping to come together to make a push to repeat the success of last season’s team.
“The pressure is that we want to do it again, you know, that’s the pressure we put on ourselves is we got a little taste of it and we’d like to do that again, but we understand much you have to do and how humble you’ve got to remain to get back to that point,” Downing said.