Scots Low on Numbers, High on Talent

Release Date: November 20, 2002

MONMOUTH, Ill. — It wasn’t until Nov. 11 that Monmouth College women’s basketball coach Dennis Mann could scrimmage his team 5-on-5 in practice. That’s the date that Melissa Jones and Karissa Murray joined the squad after completing their volleyball seasons.

What Mann may lack in quantity, though, he feels he’s made up in quality, as all 11 of his players are solid, led by Jones, a three-time All-MWC selection.

“The big thing about Melissa is that she plays so hard on both ends of the floor, and she’s the same way in practice,” said Mann, who enters his 11th season at Monmouth with a record of 98-124. “Another nice thing is that regardless of the type of team that’s around her, she puts up the same type of numbers.”

In a few months when her senior season is complete, those numbers should place her among the top three ever to play women’s basketball at Monmouth, along with Penny Rowan and Hall of Famer Heather Robertson. Jones, who has tallied 307, 313 and 347 points in her first three seasons, enters the year with 967 points. She’s also pulled down an average of 6.9 rebounds per game throughout her career, and her 75.5 free throw percentage is a school record. With 67 blocks entering the season, Jones should break the school record of 76, and she’ll likely wind up at least fourth on the all-time steals list.

“Her role’s not to going to change a whole lot this year, but we feel we’ll have a little more help for her,” added Mann.

Although he recruited several talented players, the newcomer who should take the biggest load off of Jones is all-state honorable mention center Lisa Curry from Stark County. Monmouth’s first true center since Karen Valentas (1995-99), the 6-foot freshman is already pencilled in as a double-digit-type scorer for the Scots.

“She can catch the ball on the block and turn and score, and she also has range out to 15 feet,” said Mann. “Defensively, she’ll also be a presence for us, and she’ll be able to guard the other team’s top post and take that responsibility away from Jones.”

In terms of inside play, Mann is also high on senior Tiffany Baughman, junior Jill Lusher and sophomore Elyse Lambert. All three have the ability to play the three and four slots, and Baughman will be the likely starter of the bunch, based on her strong second half last season.

“She’s an extremely hard worker and a very strong girl for us in the three position,” said Mann of Baughman, who averaged 6.1 points per game in her first season after transferring from Black Hawk East. “She’s proven to me that she can move her feet well enough to guard the other team’s three.”

Lambert (4.5 ppg last year) has an offensive game that will match up very well against some of Monmouth’s opposition, and Lusher (2.7 ppg), a point guard in high school, brings an inside-outside versatility that can make things happen for the Scots’ offense.

Freshman Melissa Brown is a true three who has “improved tremendously since she walked on campus,” according to Mann. “She’s going to be a real nice player for us, and I won’t hesitate to put her into the action.”

Around the perimeter, Mann expects to go with something old and something new. The veteran is Michelle Flaar (4.0 ppg), the former Galesburg Silver Streak who missed the second half of last season due to a broken wrist.

“She’s a very good defender,” said Mann. “We just need to get her to attack the basket off the dribble a little more and be more aggressive offensively.”

Her running mate will be Marie Webster, another transfer from Black Hawk East, who figures to bring a high level of excitement to the point position.

“Marie’s very coachable, and she’s learning quickly,” said Mann. “Her passing and court vision are really going to help us out. She can get the ball in to the post in a way that some of our players can’t.”

Backing her up will be freshman Courtney Scherrer. “I’m very pleased with her progress,” said Mann. “She’s a tremendous defender and a very tough kid.”

Both Scherrer and Webster played their high school ball in the Rockford area. Scherrer was the playmaker at Hononegah, while Webster’s main job at Harlem was to get the ball to Aminata Yanni, who’s now a starter at the University of Illinois.

Rounding out the team’s guard pool is freshman Bridgette O’Malley, “one of our more intelligent players and a good three-point shooter,” and Murray, a “pure jump shooter with great quickness.”

When assessing his team’s strengths and weaknesses, Mann said, “Defensively, I’m really pleased with where we’re at. We have more team quickness than we’ve had in the past couple years. We’re going to apply a lot of full-court man-to-man pressure and play 40 minutes of tough basketball. I’m confident that our freshmen can hold their own.”

On the negative side, he added, “Six of our 11 players are new to the program. They don’t know our opponents yet and they haven’t been exposed to the different style of defense that’s played at this level.

“There’s going to be nothing easy about this season,” he concluded. “We have to play 110 percent to beat teams. We’re not talented enough to beat teams at 90 percent. But I really think this group can achieve more than what the outsiders think we’ll get done.”

Those outsiders, the MWC coaches, have Monmouth ranked eighth in the 10-team MWC. Lake Forest, who Mann feels will be the toughest team in the league, is rated as the pre-season favorite. Ripon, which returns three All-MWC players, is ranked second.

Women's Basketball