ASU women set

sights on Furman
By Steve Behr
 
It’s all a matter of persecutive as to which was tougher on Appalachian State’s women’s basketball team — their final exams or the 2 1/2 hour practice they went through Wednesday morning.

Head coach Darcie Vincent took the Mountaineers through a busy workout, trying to work out any cobwebs that might remain from not playing any games since Dec. 8, when they lost 63-46 at Wichita State.

Since then, the Mountaineers took final exams this past week and look forward to playing games. Their first test since Wichita State is Saturday when they travel to face Furman.

“We’ve been doing absolutely nothing,” Vincent said. “They’ve been studying for their finals.”

Vincent said she liked the way the university sets up its final exams by starting them late one week, then giving students the weekend off to regroup, and then finishing the exams the next week.

However, though the system helps her players pass their exams, it makes it difficult to schedule practice times. Vincent said the Mountaineers worked out a little over last weekend, but did no heavy work until Wednesday.

“I think that’s phenomenal for the students,” Vincent said. “I think it allows them to have that break for them to study better. As a basketball coach, it’s a little harder because now instead of spending four days giving them time for finals, I have to give them seven days for finals. It makes it a little more difficult, but over the weekend we got couple of hours of practice in. The kids are still a little lethargic and tired from staying up all night and studying so much.”

The Mountaineers will switch their focus from the books to the Furman paladins, who are 4-5 overall, 0-2 in the Southern Conference. They are 4-1 in Timmons Arena, the site of their game with ASU Saturday.

The Paladins have seen the highs of an 82-68 win over Clemson and the lows of an 82-38 home disaster loss to Chattanooga. They’ve lost at Texas and went through a five-game losing streak before beating Berry 77-45 on Dec. 13.

Lee Stevens leads the Paladins in scoring with 15.7 points per game. She is followed by Melissa Liebschwager, a 5-foot-11 guard who chips in 11.1. Stevens scored 34 points in the Paladins’ win over Clemson in Furman’s first game of the season.

Appalachian State (1-7), stuck with a four-game losing streak, is 0-5 away from the Holmes Center.
Sophomore guard Francis Hernandez leads the team in scoring with 11.0 points per game. Senior center Brittany Mixon is next at 9.9 ppg. Canesha Edwards scores 7.0 points per game and leads the team with 7.6 rebounds each time out.

Vincent said at this point of the season, she’s more concerned about the Mountaineers improving instead of what Furman brings to the court.

“It’s got to be more about what we are and where we are right now instead of our opponent,” Vincent said.

“Our opponents are basically looking the same. All of them are so experienced. We’re playing (against) all of these juniors and seniors on each team and that’s all we’re facing. It’s more about what we can do and how we can grow up.”

The game is Appalachian State’s lone appearance on the court until Dec. 28, when they play at Georgetown.

They’ll play two days later at George Mason before returning home Jan. 3 to host Western Carolina. It will be the first time the Mountaineers would be playing at home in five games and in almost a month.

“It’s never easy between finals and during the Christmas holiday,” Vincent said. “Every coach does it differently.”

Vincent added that since classes won’t begin until Jan. 12, the players can focus on basketball and improving on their 1-7 record.

“Now until Jan. (12) they don’t have that to worry about,” Vincent said. “Our main focus is to become a better basketball team before we start up with classes, because once classes start up, you’re right back to the drawing board of them coming straight from a class or a test, or they’re going to a class or a test. That’s the thing about student-athletes — it’s very difficult on you. So now, it’s the time to make ourselves better basketball players.”