When I saw the 11:00 start I was sure that it must be a game with the Oxford elementary students attending. However, we did not have such a game last year and I have seen nothing in any of the interviews or the previews that mentions it so I don’t know why we are playing at 11:00.
Hiram is 2-2. They play in the North Coast Athletic Conference and are NCAA Division III. Sr Brook Hickmen is averaging 20.3ppg and 10.3 rpg and is shooting 66% from the floor. In their most recent game they set school records for most points and largest margin of victory in a 104 to 28 win over SUNY Delhi.
This will be the last time we can go into a game expecting to play everybody double digit minutes. Freshman Emily Bratton has a broken nose and I don’t know how long she might be out. Jr Camille Jackson did not play in the last game and is probably injured. After this game our schedule steps up significantly. In November we played 4 home games and only one game on the road. Two of the games were vs D3 teams. In December we play 5 games versus D1 teams and only 1 home game and that is against Purdue. So it will be a big step up in competition.
Box said on a podcast he will run no special plays, expect vanilla. He hopes to play the entire roster. Looks forward to some extended practice time after this game.
Pretty satisfying performance today. Everybody got to play significant minutes, everyone scored. In particular, 3 girls who are important to our season put up some good numbers which has to be a big confidence boost. Camille Jackson, who had been struggling after sitting at the far end of the bench for two years just exploded today with 27 points and 8 rebounds. Probably more total points than she had scored in her college career. Ilse DeVreau had 11 points, by far her best offensive game. Nuria Jurjo also had her career high with 16 points and an amazing 8 steals. In fact the team had 26 steals, one off the school record. Also, most of our points came on rebounds and we really shared the ball well.
In our next 3 games we are stepping up to much tougher competition as we play at 4-0 Western
Kentucky and 4-1 Dayton. Both have long histories of great mid major basketball. Then we come home and play Purdue. This will be a real challenge and will get us ready for the top MAC teams.