| CEU Lady Eagle women’s basketball player Megan Hunsaker brings the ball down court during a game earlier this season. Hunsaker broke her foot during one of the games in the Las Vegas Tournament this past weekend and appears to be lost for the season. Other illnesses, some suspensions and other problems have plagued the team this year, a season in which the coaches expected some very good things out of the club. |
It seemed to CEU womens coach Dave Paur that he was going to have one of the best teams in a long time when this years basketball season began.
Little did he know that he would get as many injuries, illnesses and mishaps on one team this year as most entire basketball leagues see in a month.
“Injuries and illnesses continue to plague us,” said Paur in a fax on Monday.
The latest happened this past week as the team traveled to the Dixie State/Las Vegas Invitational Basketball Tournament in Nevada. The team won one game and lost two others during the tournament. First they defeated Brookdale Community College from New Jersey 64-56, which moved them up into the bracket in which they faced perennial power Seward Community College whom they lost to 62-50. That moved them to the second round losers bracket where they faced Scenic West Athletic Conference rival Dixie State and lost them 77-55.
But more important than losing some games that don’t count toward the SWAC standings, was the fact that the team lost two players for what may be the entire season. During the second game Megan Hunsaker broke her foot and will be out indefinitely. Then Paur learned that Brook Wilson has mononucleosis, a condition that may put her out for the rest of the year as well.
That complicates things even more since the team lost one of its star players, Kristen Wallace to an injury last month and has had other types of injury, illness and absence problems as well.
Regardless, the game must go on and so must the season.
In the first game the team played in Las Vegas on Dec. 28 CEU and the Lady Blue Jerseys fought it out in the first half with neither team being able to gain a clear edge. At the half the game was tied 22 all.
In the second half the Lady Eagles started to move out from the beginning of the period and continued to gain ground taking the game by 8 points despite only shooting 36 percent for contest.
The top scorer in the game for CEU was Jana Glover with 16 points, No other player was in double figures.
The next day the team got behind early but held on fairly close up through the first half against the Lady Saints from Seward County, Kan.
However in the second half CEU fell behind farther and never did recover, although the highly rated Seward team (13-0) never did really pull away from the Lady Eagles.
CEU never did get their scoring machine running very well during the game. The team only shot 33 percent for the game from the field and not quite 37 percent from the free throw line.
The Lady Eagles had two players in double figures, with Jeneen Nelson scoring 13 and Glover adding 11.
Whitney Fardig was the top rebounder with 7 and Viva Whitear had five rebounds to go along with her team high 5 assists.
In the final game on Thursday Dixie ran off with the game in the first half running to a 15 point lead at the half 39-24.
In the second half, CEU was able to stop some of the bleeding as they were only outscored by 7, but the final score still reflected a 22 point defeat.
CEU shooting percentage dropped even lower in the final contest as only 27 percent of their field goals went through the hoop. However, one very bright spot was the foul shooting which improved immensely at almost 88 percent as they went 14 for 16 from the charity stripe.
Three CEU players went for double figures in the contest with Whitear getting 13 to go along with Glover and Kaylynn Fager’s 10 each.
The top rebounder for CEU in the game was Fardig with 6.
Playing at away venues continues this weekend for the Lady Eagles as they resume league play in Idaho taking on Southern Idaho on Thursday and North Idaho College on Saturday.