Basketball bounces into season
Dan Wilson, Guest Reporter
November 28, 2007
This season's hopes are high for the George Fox women's basketball team, which returns seven seniors from last season as well as four starters from a team that won a share of the Northwest Conference Championship last year and advanced to the NCAA Division 3 tournament last season. National polls have this year's squad ranked as high as 21st in the nation according to D3hoops.com; they also received a ranking of 26th in the nation from the ESPN/USA Today division 3 hoops preseason rankings.
With the NWC player of the year Katy Campbell, and second team All-NWC player Melissa Marek-Farris returning this year, scoring should not be a problem for the Lady Bruins. And if what was seen over the first two games for this club is any indication as to what will come in this season for them, we are in for a treat here in Newberg.
In their first game of the season, Fox came out and tromped a team that could have been beaten by many high school JV teams, however probably not with such authority. The Bruins seemed to be on cruise control for much of the night and still pulled out the squeaker 111-13. This game was truly a record setting one as the women broke six different records including points scored, most assists, and fewest points allowed.
However, the Lady Bruins ran into a little stiffer competition in their second game when they faced Warner Pacific. Although this game was still unlike some of the competition they will face in the NWC, it was still more of a challenge than their first game. But Fox was able to come out and control the game from the get go as they started with an 11-0 run as they dominated down low and rolled to a 50-34 victory.
Unlike the women's team, the men's basketball team has many holes to fill from last year's team and they are currently trying to find that right combination that will best fit. Coming into the season, the hopes were high as they were expecting three starters to return from a team that finished 5th in the NWC last season. However after an unexpected season ending knee injury to Brady Strutz the Bruins are now trying to fill in a big hole in the middle. Through the first couple games of the season it seems like coach Mark Sundquist is really trying to experiment to see which people are going to best compliment each other on the court. However, one person who has really stepped up in the absence of Strutz has been Evan Atwater.
Atwater, who averaged just over five points a game last season, stepped up huge for this team in their first couple games as he was named to the all-tournament team in Colorado. In their two games he averaged 21.5 points per game, including a huge 25 point performance in their win in which he knocked down seven three pointers.
This team may struggle a bit at the beginning of the season as they attempt to discover their identity, but look for them under the experience of Sundquist to be a force in conference play towards the middle and end of the year. And I expect the gym to be packed every night to support our Bruin basketball teams, starting with the first conference game on January 4th against Pacific Lutheran University.