Lady Apaches are among nation’s elite
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By Nate Bloomquist
Usually when a college team is almost entirely made up of freshmen, it is considered a rebuilding year. But that’s not the case for the IVCC women’s basketball team.
The Lady Apaches (5-3) are currently ranked 10th in the nation in scoring amongst Division II junior colleges. IVCC also features Jaci Bice (25 points per game before the Dec. 3-4 Danville Classic) who is currently leading all players in the nation at the D-II level in scoring.
Women’s head coach Steve Crick insists his squad isn’t one-dimensional.
"We’re not too worried about them blocking Jaci (Bice)," says Crick who currently has four players averaging in double figures. "We’ve got several other players that we can count on to score."
What Crick is worried about is his team’s rebounding ability. With the team’s tallest player, Megan Walters, standing at a mere 5-foot-10, the team continually struggles to pull down boards.
"When we play bigger more physical teams and we have trouble rebounding," says Crick. "A lot of times we can’t get offensive boards and it’s one shot and out. Because of that we have to be good at shooting, and we are. Unless someone comes out of the woodwork and saves us in rebounding, we’ll struggle with that all year. We don’t have anyone over six-feet tall and everyone else we play does."
IVCC split a pair of games on Dec. 3-4 in the Danville Classic, as they took a 78-46 win over Spoon River in the opening game, and a 88-81 loss to Shawnee in the second game.
Crick says his team’s high scoring is a result the way his team’s offense is set up. The Lady Apaches run a motion offense, which means the ball is always moving.
"Sometimes we’ll run a fast break," says Crick. "We’re fast, but the thing is that we can’t get a fast break unless we get a defensive rebound. A lot of the games we play are so high scoring because we just trade baskets back and forth."
Crick says his team is continually improving.
"They’ve all been playing really well," he says. "We’ve got a lot of things to work on, but they’re really quick to learn."
And Crick’s young team has also adjusted from playing in high school, which according to Crick, is completely different from playing in junior college.
"The team has begun to realize that the refs aren’t going to call every ticky-tack foul," says the first-year IVCC women’s head coach. "They are realizing that this game is a lot more physical at this level. We’re really happy with what they’ve been doing because they are mostly only freshmen. I think that starting second semester they’ll have made an adjustment and they won’t be playing like freshmen anymore."