Winthrop women look for consistency on court

By Karl Lyles

Six games into the 2009-2010 basketball season and the Winthrop women are off to a 2-4 start. The Lady Eagles have shown signs they can score with a 72-59 win Friday over Utah Valley State in Bozeman, Mont. But in the four losses, they have averaged 39.5 points per game.

Senior combo guard Shanice Cole leads the team in scoring (8.7 ppg) and leads the Big South thus far in rebounding (9.5 rpg). Not bad for a 5-foot-11 guard. She also leads the team in turnovers with 5.8 per outing.

The team is still a work in progress. It hasa full week to prepare for its next game, Saturday at home against Division II's USC Aiken. The Lady Eagles have had five different players lead the team in scoring. Cole has done it twice; Shelly Hankins, Jessica Fansler, TaQuoia Hammick and Lacey Lyons are the others.

Winthrop lost its last game, 60-41, to Montana State. Lyons led the Lady Eagles with 18 points off the bench. Coach Bud Childers said two weeks ago that finding minutes for Lyons, a sharp-shooting redshirt junior, was a problem.

The coach found a way to give her 22 minutes Saturday against Montana State — by far the most court time she's seen in a Winthrop uniform. She responded with a 7-for-10 night from the field including going 3-for-4 on 3-pointers. The 18 points more than doubled her season total to date. She scored a career-high 33 points in the 2007-2008 season, her sophomore year at Coastal Carolina.

HOT AND COLD — Fansler scored a season-high 14 points against Utah Valley State. The effort was sandwiched by a pair of scoreless outings. She was 0-for-6 shooting in 29 minutes at Towson on Nov. 21 and 0-for-2 from the floor in 17 minutes at Montana State on Saturday. Fansler has started all six games this season.

WINTHROP DEBUT — Katie Fitzgerald, one of Childers' promising freshmen, made her first appearance Saturday at Montana State. She probably would have played already if she hadn't been diagnosed with mononucleosis to start the season.

AROUND THE BIG SOUTH — Liberty is off to a 5-0 start. Liberty, along with High Point, was picked as preseason favorites to win the Big South Conference. The Flames are winning by an average of 24.2 points per game and have wins over UNC Greensboro, Tulane and Navy.

High Point is 2-2 with wins over Youngstown State and UNC Greensboro. It has lost to Wake Forest and Navy.

Devon Brown, a 5-foot-10 redshirt freshman guard for Liberty, leads the BSC with 21.2 points per game. Jurica Hargraves, High Point's junior preseason player of the year, is off to a slow start (6.5 ppg).

High Point's Mackenzie Maier is a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line. The Panthers' center led the league in blocks last season and already has seven blocked shots in her team's first four games. Gardner-Webb's LaTroya Pope has 12 blocks but has played three more games than Maier.

Gardner-Webb is 6-1. They host Wofford tonight and East Carolina on Saturday. That gives the Runnin' Bulldogs more than a week to prepare for their Dec. 13 game at North Carolina. Monique Hudson has returned to the team after missing most of the 2008-2009 season with health issues. Her twin sister, Dominique, leads the team in assists. At 6-foot-6, Lithuanian center Sandra Vaitkute is the tallest player in the league. She sat out last season but leads the team in scoring and rebounds this year.

Charleston Southern's Katie Tull (18.2 ppg) and Kelsey Wasmer (13.8) are next in line in scoring. Tull and Wasmer combined to launch more than 19 3s per contest. CSU coach Julie Goodenough has turned the point guard position over to freshman Helen Terry.

Terry and Frances Fields of High Point lead the BSC with five assists per game. The Buccaneers are 3-3 and can light up the scoreboard. They lost Sunday at No. 4 North Carolina, 76-67. The 67 points was their lowest point production of the year.

Coastal Carolina played in a tournament in Anchorage, Alaska, on Nov. 24 and 25. They lost to the host, Alaska-Anchorage, 89-47, and then beat Western Carolina, 72-64.