Women’s basketball looks for fresh start

By Eric Woodyard
Western Herald

(Nicole Watkins / Western Herald) Senior Tiera DeLaHoussaye will lead the Broncos this season as point guard. DeLaHoussaye was named team MVP last season and set a conference record for being named MAC Played of the Week on six occasions.

New Coach. New Roster. New Strategy. The women’s basketball team of Western Michigan University is preparing for their upcoming season with a brand new attitude.

The team will begin their new journey with its first exhibition game this Sunday, as the Broncos will take on Davenport University at Read Fieldhouse.

This will give first-year WMU head coach Tasha McDowell a place to showcase the strengths in her new system, as well as give the team a chance to meet all of her lofty expectations.

“I’m expecting to see them disciplined, I’m expecting to see them play defense and I’m expecting to see them improve and show what we’ve done to this point,” McDowell said. “We’ve changed everything and we’ve got a whole new defensive scheme. Offensively, we’re changing what we do and how we do it, so this is all new. Everything we’re doing is new to them.”

McDowell replaced Ron Stewart at the head coaching position during the offseason. Stewart previously spent 11 seasons at the helm of WMU. With 11 years of assistant coaching for the University of Wisconsin Badgers, UC-Santa Barbara, Bradley University, the University of Dayton and St. Ambrose University, she brings a comparative amount of knowledge of the game of basketball as Stewart did.

(Nicole Watkins/Western Herald) Junior Molly Dwyer gives teammate sophomore Ebony Cleary some encouragement during a game last season. Both Dwyer and Cleary will be returning this year for the Broncos.

She also played four years of college basketball at the point guard position, which gives her on-the-court experience as well. During her senior year at St. Ambrose, McDowell was a standout and led the team in points, assists and steals. She averaged 13.4 points, 5.1 assists, and 3.6 steals per game.

Her hard-nosed attitude has also increased the intensity and activity in the practices. McDowell has decided to focus more on the defensive end of the floor, which was her specialty for the last four years at Wisconsin. McDowell was the defensive coordinator for the Badgers.

“Since we’ve changed a lot on our defense, we have to be a lot more active, so they’re teaching us basic step-by-step defense so we have to have a lot of intensity,” WMU senior Arianne Wilson said. “Defense will help us on our offense, so if we do good on defense, then we are more eager on offense.”

The Broncos have also added a lot of depth. With five freshmen ready to come in and make an impact, WMU should be refreshed squad.

This group starts with twins Miame and Robin Giden, who add scoring and size to the team (both stand 6 feet 1 inch tall). Hailing from Broadview, Ill., the Giden twins led their team to a regional championship during their senior season.

Fellow freshmen Jazzmyn Harvey, Ryann Fletcher and Jami Cynecki will also help out with the ball handling, as they all will play the guard position. This will help to relieve the stress of senior guard Tiera
DeLaHoussaye, who was named team Most Valuable Player last season.

“We’ve got a great group of freshmen, and they all provide different things to us,” McDowell said. “They’re going be an integral part of what we do. We’re going to need to rely on them, but we need the whole team to do what we need to do for the season.”

DeLaHoussaye and Wilson are the only returning seniors from last season’s team. The two will also be key pieces to the Broncos’ this season.

As the season progresses with a new attitude in effect, the Brown and Gold have their sights set high. However, they feel that it should be that way.

“My expectations are pretty high for the season. I think we’re doing well and we’re progressing,” Wilson said. “We have to stay together. But we come in here, we’re ready to learn, we’re eager to get better. We make mistakes, but we pick each other up and we continue to move, so I really have my expectations high for us.”

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 28 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
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