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For Immediate ReleaseWomen's Basketball -- Dec. 13, 2011
Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook: Dec. 13, 2011
PDF Version of Eureka Women's Basketball Weekly Notebook
RETURNING HOME The Eureka College women’s basketball team will play its first home game in two weeks on Saturday when the Red Devils welcome Silver Lake (Wis.) for a 2 p.m. tip-off. The contest will also serve as Eureka’s second-to-last non-conference home game.
SCOUTING SILVER LAKE Based out of Manitowoc, Wis. and members of the United State Collegiate Athletic Association, Silver Lake is 7-3 on the season. The Lakers dropped a 73-50 decision to NAIA Judson in their most recent outing last Sunday in Manitowoc.
The Lakers defeated Mount Mary (Wis.) in their only previous contest against an NCAA Division III opponent this season, a 82-61 triumph on Dec. 6 in Manitowoc. Saturday’s game against Eureka represents one of only three games on the SLC schedule against Division III opposition.
Mike Flentje is in his second season as head coach of the Lakers. In all, Flentje owns more than 23 years of experience coaching young women, including 14 seasons at the high school level with a 209-88 record.
Eureka and Silver Lake have no common opponents in 2011-12.
RED DEVILS ROLL IN LINCOLN Eureka sophomore guard Caty Eeten scored a game-high 25 points, one of 12 Red Devils to make at least one shot from the field, leading Eureka to a 99-44 non-conference win at Lincoln Christian, Wednesday night at the Laughlin Center in Lincoln, Ill.
Eeten scored 23 of her game-high 25 points and collected nine rebounds in the first half, while senior forward Khassandrae Brown added 15 points in the first 20 minutes. Senior Lisa Byard joined Eeten and Brown in double-figures with 11 points. Sophomore guard Amanda Schreck scored 11 points and set new career-highs with seven rebounds and six assists.
The Red Devils collected 67 rebounds as a team last Wednesday, coming within three rebounds of matching the single-game school record of 70 set against Maryville during the 1995-96 season. All 14 healthy players played at least six minutes for the Red Devils, while no Eureka starter saw the floor for more than 23 minutes.
EETEN LEADS THE NATION Eureka sophomore guard Caty Eeten is the current NCAA Division III scoring leader, according to the first weekly statistical report released by the NCAA on Tuesday. Eeten is scoring 32.3 points per game, more than five points per game better than second-ranked Megan Rahn of Meredith (N.C.) (27.0).
Eeten needs five points to reach 500 for her collegiate career. She leads the SLIAC this season with 32.3 points per game, 64 field goals made, 65 free throws made and an .855 free throw percentage. Eeten’s current career average of 21.5 points per game is the highest among active Red Devils.
Additionally, Eureka ranks second nationally as a team in scoring with 85.2 points per game. Louisiana College is currently the national leader with 87.1 points per game.
THE BYARD WATCH The only four-year member of the Eureka women’s basketball program, forward Lisa Byard continues to climb the program’s all-time rebounding list.
Byard collected six rebounds last week at Lincoln Christian, upping her career total to 586 and passing Deb Owen (1981-85) for eighth place on the all-time Eureka list. Byard, who has started all 80 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 880 career points have put her within striking distance of Eureka’s all-time top-10 scoring list. Byard needs 148 points over her final 18 games to reach Carrie Eisenbarth (1999-03) for 10th place in Eureka women’s basketball history.
MARTIN CLIMBING THE LIST Eureka’s victory at Lincoln Christian last week was noteworthy in the EC record books for head coach Taren Martin. In just her second season as head coach, Martin won her 14th game as move into a fifth-place tie with Colleen Dempsey (1976-78) on the all-time Eureka women’s basketball coaching wins list.
Martin needs four 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).
VEGAS ON THE HORIZON While all of Eureka’s focus will remain on Saturday’s matchup with Silver Lake, the Red Devils’ much-anticipated road trip to Las Vegas, Nev. for the second annual D3Hoops.com Classic is only two weeks away.
Eureka will square off against a pair of traditional Division III powers during its trip to the desert. The Red Devils will play Northern Athletics Conference member Concordia (Wis.) (5-3) on Tuesday, Dec. 27 and Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference member Simpson (7-2) on Thursday, Dec. 29.
A total of 20 Division III teams will participate in the four-day event at South Point Hotel and Casino.
AROUND THE SLIAC Defending regular season SLIAC champion Westminster remains the league’s only unbeaten team (6-0) after an 84-70 home victory over NAIA Stephens (Mo.) last Saturday. The Blue Jays are also 2-0 in league play with wins at traditional SLIAC contenders Webster (59-45) and Spalding (57-46).
SLIAC member schools went 2-3 in non-conference action against NCAA Division III opponents last week, with Fontbonne (55-51 over Illinois College) and Webster (67-63 over Austin) each picking up victories last Sunday.
Blackburn lost at Lindenwood (Ill.) last Monday, 75-57, to remain the only winless team in the conference.
With final exams and the holidays rapidly approaching, SLIAC teams are scheduled to play only eight games this week.
WEEKLY NOTABLES Eureka’s 67-34 advantage on the glass last week at Lincoln Christian improved the Red Devils to 5-0 on the year and 13-2 under head coach Taren Martin when outrebounding the opposition. The Red Devils are now 11-1 since the beginning of last season when leading at halftime, 6-0 when posting a positive assist-to-turnover ratio and 8-1 when shooting at least 40 percent from the field.
Eureka’s 41-point halftime lead last Wednesday at Lincoln Christian was its largest of the season at intermission.
Eureka currently leads the nine-team SLIAC in scoring (85.2), free throw percentage (.768) and rebounding (50.7).
Senior forward Khassandrae Brown leads the SLIAC with 9.8 rebounds per game. The Eureka trio of Brown, Sara Hamilton (9.0) and Caty Eeten (9.0) currently ranks 1-2-3 in the SLIAC in rebounding.
Senior guard Sara Hamilton needs seven more minutes played to join Lisa Byard as active players with at least 1,000 career minutes played.
Junior forward Melissa Clements and sophomore guard Kiley Bugaieski are the only Eureka non-starters to score in all six games this season.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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