AUS Women's Basketball preview

Hard work key for McKenzie’s Capers
CBU, without scoring star Hodgson, seeks third straight AUS title

Courtesy Monty Mosher, The Chronicle Herald

The Cape Breton Capers have lost the greatest player in team history in three-time all-Canadian Kelsey Hodgson.

But Capers head coach Fabian McKenzie thinks his team could contend for a third consecutive AUS women’s basketball championship in 2010-11 if everyone in the program is prepared to dig deep.

The new season opens Thursday night with Acadia at Saint Mary’s. The Capers debut with a weekend set at Memorial.

Hodgson, off to play pro in Europe this year, led the league with 22.1 points per game last year and helped her team to a 19-1 regular season and the AUS title on home court. CBU didn’t have a home loss, beating Saint Mary’s 69-60 in the final.

First all-star Kari Everett (13.1 points per game), Nicole Works, Jahlica Kirnon and Stephanie Toxopeus are the veterans in the Cape Breton stable this year. Academic commitments will make Everett unavailable until January.

Katie McGarrigle, Luciann Lahey and Justine MacNeil are also back.

The new names to watch are American junior college transfers Denisha Haywood and Tanira McClurkin and freshmen Kira Pederson, Kayla McCarron, Che Kara Beals and Melissa Sherwood.

"We have been consistently inconsistent so far this year," McKenzie said on Tuesday. "Our lack of scoring, experience and depth has shown in the pre-season.

"We need to improve our work ethic and take care of the intangibles that don’t show up on the score sheet. This is going to be a long slow ride with the goal being to make the playoffs."

Karmen Brown and Brittany Morrison are the key losses.

Women’s basketball has undergone a playoff change with the AUS champion still headed to nationals, but the second and third-place finishers moving into regional qualifiers.

The four conference winners plus three regional winners will join host Windsor for nationals March 18-20.

The AUS runner-up will host one of the three regional tournaments March 11-12.

Saint Mary’s Huskies (12-8): The Huskies watched first all-star Justine Colley grow into a franchise player as a rookie.

The East Preston product averaged 20.9 points per game, five rebounds and 3.7 assists while totalling 49 steals in her debut campaign. She took the Huskies to the brink of an AUS title.

Colley and third-year guards Robbi Daley and Rebecca Nuttall lead the returning group along with guards Angela Fifield, Shannon Chapman and Stephanie Clarke and forward Amanda Smith.

A pair of transfers head the newcomer list with ex-UPEI forward Susanne Canvin providing a presence under the boards and forward Maegan Seaward joining from Memorial.

Guard Julie Hatcher is a freshman from New Brunswick and forward Jorunn Matthiessen from Oslo, Norway. Hatcher starts the season with a knee injury.

Kelsey Daley, Laure Pitfield and Lia Milito are the losses.

"The Huskies continue to be one of the younger teams in the league with as many as four key backcourt players in their first or second year," said head coach Scott Munro. "The team made the AUS final last year and will be hoping to improve on their second-place finish. Key experience has been added up front to join with the young backcourt."

St. Francis Xavier X-Women (12-8): Fifth-year all-star guard Ashley Stephen, who led the conference in rebounds and steals last season and tied for the team lead in scoring, heads the returning class in Antigonish.

Guards Sheryl Chisholm and Tory Anderson and post Kirsten Jones also provide veteran depth. Chisholm matched Stephen for the lead in scoring and Jones was third.

Wing Camesha McKenzie and forward Rebecca Sheehan, an all-rookie pick last season, and Jocelyn Moore round out the returning group.

Matt Skinn’s club has several key additions in Donisha Young, a fourth-year forward via Sheridan College, post Kiley DeLong, Katerina Kolarova, a former Czech national junior team player, and forward Spencer Lockhart, who missed last season with an ACL tear. Alison MacPherson and Anna Dahl are part of the mix.

Katherine Kanaski, Elyse Hnatiuk and Maria Konchalski have moved on.

"We’re looking to improve on consecutive fourth-place finishes in the regular season," said Skinn. "We have a lot of new players so the transition could be slow going. We are hoping to keep pace with the teams everyone is talking about early (SMU, UNB). It should be a very competitive league this year."

Dalhousie Tigers (10-10): Anna Stammberger’s team will have to replace the big muscle up front of Laurie and Leah Girdwood and the scoring of Cailin Crosby, April Scott and Alex Legge.

Laurie Girdwood, Crosby, Scott and Legge averaged 41.8 points per game on a team that averaged 65.4. Legge has had knee surgery and will help the coaching staff.

Fourth-year power forward Brooke Sullivan, with 5.7 points per game last year, is one of the key returnees. Joining her back in the lineup after an injury is her sister, Brittany.

Third-year guard Carla Norrad returns after knee surgery and Halifax natives Patricia McNeil and Anna von Maltzahn, both guards, will enter their second years. McNeil has been a big producer in the exhibition schedule.

Joining the Tigers roster for the first time is ex-Auburn Drive point guard Stephanie Hiltz.

Guard Courtney Thompson, forward Tia Gerwatoski, a transfer from Alberta small college, guard Lauren Bosnjak and forward Rachel Mays are also in their first year with the Tigers. Guard Christine Ryan joins after two seasons with UNB.

Fifth-year guard Rachael Harrison will sit out the season after a recent surgery. Others red-shirting this year are former Acadia players Keisha Brown and Sondra Medley.

"The 2010-11 Tigers will be young, athletic, aggressive and competitive," said Stammberger.

Acadia Axewomen (7-13): Bev Greenlaw’s team has some rebuilding to do after sisters Alise and Keisha Brown, who combined to average 32 points per game last season, Sondra Medley (8.2), Jasmine Parent (7.9) and Belicia Bella-Ashe (5.4) moved on.

The Axewomen have lost 80 per cent of their scoring from a year ago and five of their top six rebounders.

Sisters Emma Duinker (10.5), now in her fourth year, and Abbey Duinker (4.2) along with sophomore Lindsay Harris (5.4) are among the top returnees along with Stefanie Chapman and Erika Berry, who switched over from the volleyball team last season.

Emma Duinker led the team with six boards per game. Abbey Duinker had to contend with injuries for much of her rookie year.

The new Axewomen are Lydia Van Vilsteren, Dal transfer Tiffany James, Jessica Boutilier, Halifax West grad Kristy Moore, Winnipeg volleyball transfer Ariel Smith, Rachel Savage, St. F.X. transfer Kathleen McIver and Charlotte Larry.

"The Acadia Axewomen guarantee this — they will play hard, they will improve as the season goes on," said Greenlaw.