PHILADELPHIA – With its sight set on the school's first ever Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference championship, the Goldey-Beacom College women's basketball team opens its 2010-11 conference schedule on Wed. night, 6 p.m. at the Gallagher Center against South Division foe Philadelphia University.
A live video webcast will be available courtesy of Phila U. Please visit the Rams' schedule page via this link.
The Lightning (1-4), who return last year's top-seven scorers including all five starters, were picked to finish second in the CACC South Division in this year's pre-season CACC coaches' poll. They received 80 points in the poll and two first-place votes after finishing 17-12 (12-7 CACC) and advancing to the CACC semifinals in 2009-10.
GBC, who was also picked to finish second in the South in the Division II Bulletin (the official monthly newsletter of Division II women's basketball), were the only South team other than the division favorite Holy Family to get a first place vote.
Right behind them in the poll was Philadelphia, who was picked third with 76 points. A perennial CACC powerhouse and the 2008-09 conference champions, the Rams were 15-13 (13-6 CACC) last year and finished the 2009-10 regular season second in the conference. They were ousted in the CACC quarterfinals by Goldey-Beacom.
In her third season at the helm last year, head coach Jen Carleton led the Lightning to the school's first-ever two wins over Phila U. when they defeated the Rams at the Gallagher Center twice within a week, including a 72-64 upset win in the playoffs.
Carleton earned the win in her CACC playoff head coaching debut by upsetting a veteran Philadelphia team that consisted of four seniors (six upperclassmen in all) with a youthful squad made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores and a few juniors sprinkled in, but zero seniors on the roster.
The Rams graduated two of the best players in program history last year in First Team All-Conference center Jessica Romano and their assist leader, Nina Brascetta. Together, those two players made up over a third of the team's offense last year.
Picking up the slack thus far for 22nd year head coach Tom Shirley's 2010-11 squad is sophomore forward Kristen Blye and junior guard Stephanie Agger. Blye leads the Rams and is third in the league in scoring at 17.3 ppg and is averaging 6.7 rebounds per game. Agger meanwhile is scoring 14.3 per contest (10th in the CACC), has dished out a team-high (CACC 2nd best) 14 assists and come up with a team-high nine steals.
Both Blye and Agger were role players last year while Christine Wooding and Kate Brennan were key starters and are both back to lead the Rams this year. Wooding, a 6-foot junior forward/center is averaging 14.0 points and 4.7 rebounds per night and Brennan, a senior forward who scored 15 in the last meeting against GBC, is averaging 8.7 points and 8.0 rebounds per-game.
The star for GBC in last year's Quarterfinal showdown, sophomore forward Devonne Richardson, has been outstanding on the glass for the Lightning this season. She leads the team and is fourth in the league in rebounding average with 10.6 per-game. The quarterfinal game high-scorer with 18 points last year, Richardson is also averaging 8.8 points per-game this season.
Redshirt-junior guard Jacinda Jones, senior guard Janae Weldon and sophomore forward Irene Hudson are the team's three double-figure scorers. Jones and Weldon were both named to the UWF Thanksgiving Classic All-Tournament team this past weekend and Jones earned CACC honorable mention on Mon. afternoon. They are averaging 16.6 and 11.0 points per-game, respectively. Meanwhile, Hudson is averaging 11.8 points a game and is coming off a career-high 23 points in the Lightning's win on Sat. over West Florida.
Defensively the Lightning have two outstanding weapons in senior forward Arielle Alford and redshirt-sophomore guard Ashley Rosario. Alford, already the school's all-time blocks leader, had a season-high eight blocks on Sat. and she has 14 on the season. Rosario, usually in charge of guarding the opposition's best backcourt player, has been terrific defensively for GBC and also contributed an average 6.8 points offensively each game.
