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For Immediate ReleaseWomen's Basketball -- Dec. 26, 2011
Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook
PDF Version of Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook
BACK FROM BREAK The Eureka College women’s basketball team will put an end to its nine-day hiatus from game competition for the Christmas holiday when the Red Devils travel to Las Vegas, Nev. for the second annual D3Hoops.com Classic.
Eureka will take on Concordia (Wis.) at 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday at South Point Hotel & Casino. The Red Devils will close the lengthy road trip on Thursday against Simpson at 1 p.m. CT.
SCOUTING CONCORDIA Concordia is 7-3 through its first 10 games of the 2011-12 season and has won six of its last seven outings since Nov. 26. The Falcons dumped league rival Marian (Wis.) last Wednesday, 75-68, for their third straight victory. Junior guard Tiffany Hendrickson leads the team with 13.5 points per game.
Two-time Northern Athletics Conference Coach of the Year Stacey Brunner-Jones is in her eighth season as head coach. She has won 134 games and directed the Falcons to a pair of NCAA Division III Tournament appearances (2007, 2009).
Founded in 1881 in Mequon, Wis., Concordia University Wisconsin has a full-time enrollment of more than 3,700 students.
SCOUTING SIMPSON A member of the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Simpson is 7-3 on the season and 2-1 against IIAC competition. The Storm, which has been receiving votes throughout the early stages of the season in the weekly D3Hoops.com Top 25 poll, dropped its most recent outing on Dec. 17, a 75-59 setback at Wisconsin-River Falls.
Senior forward Stacey Schutjer leads the Storm this season in scoring with 13.8 points per game. She also collects 6.3 rebounds per contest. Brian Niemuth is in his 25th season as the head coach at Simpson. Since taking over the program in 1987, Niemuth is 464-189, leading the Storm to nine conference titles, six conference tournament championships and nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
Simpson College is a private institution of nearly 1,500 undergraduates founded in 1860 in Indianola, Iowa. The SC women’s basketball program has qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament in each of the past four seasons and 11 times overall.
ABOUT THE D3HOOPS.COM CLASSIC An event that will begin the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 27 and run through Friday, Dec. 30, the D3Hoops.com Classic will feature a total of 20 NCAA Division III men’s and women’s basketball teams from all over the nation.
D3Hoops.com, a national news source for NCAA Division III basketball, was originally conceived and maintained by Steve Ulrich of the Centennial Conference in the winter of 1994-95 before being taken over by current executive editor Pat Coleman on Dec. 4, 1997. The event is being hosted through a partnership of the website and Sport Tours International, Inc.
FOLLOW THE ACTION ONLINE All 20 games of the D3Hoops.com Classic will feature live stats along with live video and audio provided by the staff at D3Hoops.com. A small fee is required for the video broadcast, but the live statistics will be free of charge. All of the coverage can be found at http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/sporttours.portal
RED DEVILS OVERPOWER SILVER LAKE Eureka senior forward Khassandrae Brown led all scorers with 19 points and matched a career-high with 17 rebounds, driving the Red Devils to a 76-34 non-conference rout of USCAA Silver Lake, Saturday afternoon at the Reagan Center.
Brown was a force inside for the Red Devils, going 7-for-12 from the field. Nine of her 17 rebounds were at the offensive end of the floor. Sophomore guard Caty Eeten chipped in with 12 points, nine rebounds and a game-high four steals. The Red Devils finished the game with 67 rebounds, matching their season-high set on Dec. 7 at Lincoln Christian and again narrowly missing the single-game program record of 70. The 34 points allowed by the Red Devils marked their best defensive effort since limiting Lincoln Christian to 27 points on Feb. 9, 2011.
BROWN NAMED SLIAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK Eureka senior forward Khassandrae Brown was chosen as the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Week, according to an announcement from the league office on Dec. 19. Brown scored a game-high 19 points and tied a personal career-best with 17 rebounds in Eureka’s 76-34 non-conference win over Silver Lake on Saturday at the Reagan Center.
Brown has been a key contributor for the Red Devils through the first seven games of the season, leading the conference with 10.9 rebounds per contest. She also ranks second among SLIAC players in scoring with 17.1 points per game.
EETEN STAYS ON TOP Despite scoring a season-low 12 points in Eureka’s non-conference win over Silver Lake on Dec. 17, sophomore guard Caty Eeten remains the NCAA Division III scoring leader at 29.4 points per game. The latest update from the NCAA was released on Tuesday, Dec. 20. Eeten is the only player from the SLIAC to rank among the nation’s top 50 scoring leaders.
Additionally, Eureka’s team scoring average of 83.9 points per game continues to rank second among the 434 teams in Division III. Louisiana College remains the top-scoring team in the nation at 89.2 points per game.
THE BYARD WATCH The only active four-year member of the Eureka women’s basketball program, forward Lisa Byard continues to climb the program’s all-time rebounding list.
Byard upped her career total to 586 earlier this month to pass Deb Owen (1981-85) for eighth place on the all-time Eureka list. Byard, who has started all 81 games of her collegiate career since the 2008-09 season, needs 21 rebounds to tie Kelly Ducat (1988-92) for seventh place.
Additionally, Byard’s 881 career points have put her within striking distance of Eureka’s all-time top-10 scoring list. Byard needs 147 points over her final 17 games -- a shade below her career average of 10.9 points per game -- to reach Carrie Eisenbarth (1999-03) for 10th place in Eureka women’s basketball history.
GETTING TO KNOW YOU All 16 healthy Red Devils logged minutes in Eureka’s blowout victory over Silver Lake, including the debuts of newcomers Jay Stewart and Kelsey Shoemake.
Stewart, who played the previous two seasons at Division I Illinois State, scored nine points and pulled down five rebounds in 14 minutes of action in her Eureka debut.
Shoemake, who wrapped up a decorated prep career at nearby East Peoria in 2011, compiled seven points, six boards and two blocked shots against the Lakers.
Sophomore guard Ashley Segerstrom also made her debut on Dec. 17 after missing the first 30 games of her collegiate career with various injuries.
MARTIN CLIMBING THE LIST Eureka’s fast start to the 2011-12 season has quickly moved head coach Taren Martin up the historical ranks of the EC women’s basketball program. In just her second season as head coach, Martin won her 15th game against Silver Lake on Dec. 17 at the Reagan Center to move into a fourth-place tie with Judy Johnson (1980-82) on the all-time Eureka women’s basketball coaching wins list.
Martin, who is 9-4 against non-conference opponents at Eureka, needs three more victories to reach third place on the all-time Eureka wins list behind all-time leader Sandy Schuster (229 wins) and EC athletics Hall of Famer Nancy LaCursia (141 wins).
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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