Season Outlook
2008-09
As the third year of Brenau basketball gets underway, there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. The return of the top eight players from last season, including All-Conference selection Sarah Ledford is the main reason the Tigers are excited to get underway. Additionally, last year’s team surprised everyone in the conference by finishing 6th in the 11 team SSAC, which qualified them for the conference playoffs. The Tigers were picked in the pre-season coaches poll to finish 10th. They also recorded a winning season record (16-15), which is remarkable for a second-year team. Of the returners, six have been with the program since the beginning and all have started at one time or another during that span. Ledford, a junior from Ellijay, was the team MVP last season and has scored 678 points (11.1 ppg) in her two years. Another junior, Vicky Wilson (Buford), has averaged 10.4 ppg in two seasons, dumping in 623 points. Wilson was also the team co-captain for 2007-08 and will continue in that role this season. The third junior is Paige Cooper (Bradenton, FL) and she has scored 589 points (9.7 ppg) and was named to the SSAC All-Freshman Team in 2006-07. She also leads the team in rebounding with 361 boards (5.9 rpg) in two seasons. Another returning starter is senior Lori Pope (Atlanta), who has scored 376 points (6.2 ppg) in her two years. Junior Tasha Anderson, a team captain in all three of her years at Brenau, has amassed 124 assists and 101 steals in two years. She was named to the SSAC All Academic team last season. Junior Tori Collins (New Orleans) also returns and has averaged 4.7 ppg during her first two campaigns. Meg Henson, a junior from Gainesville, joined the team last year and scored 169 points (5.6 ppg) and was named to the SSAC All Academic Team. Also back is sophomore Amanda Parker (Snellville), who scored 96 points and pulled down 51 rebounds during her freshman year. Newcomers Ashley Hagans (Georgia Perimeter College), Brittney Crews (Jefferson) and Ashley Johnson (Auburn, AL) should all make contributions to this season. With last year’s success and the experience of the core of returning players, this could be another year that the young program from Brenau will surprise the experts, who have picked the Tigers to finish 8th in this year’s conference race.
|
