Team Storylines.Indd
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2018 ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TIPOFF Boston College • Strong on D: The Tigers ranked fi fth in the ACC in both • Coach Joanna Bernabei-McNamee: This will be Coach Mac’s scoring defense and fi eld goal pct defense during the 2017- fi rst season at the helm of the Boston College women’s basket- 18 season, holding opponents to an average of 60.3 points ball program. McNamee, who is just the eighth head coach in per game. Kobi Thornton led the Tigers averaging 1.7 blocked program history, hired in April of 2018 in hopes of turning the shots per game (fi fth in the ACC), while Danielle Edwards program around. A native of West Virginia, Coach Mac arrived tallied 2.6 steals per game, good for second in the ACC. Both at Boston College after a two-year stint as the head coach at players return to the court this season for the Orange. Albany. She took a break from the game to be a stay-at-home mom to her two boys Luke and Caden. Coach Mac returned Duke in 2013 as an head coach at Pikesville, before taking over • Duke will feature the tallest team in school history as the at Albany. She has ACC experience as an assistant coach at Blue Devils feature an average height of 73.21 inches or 6-1. Maryland from 2003-07, and was an integral part of the Terps The Blue Devils feature 10 student-athletes standing over 6-0, 2006 National Championship season. including four 6-4 or taller. Duke is also the tallest team in the • Sydney Lowery: Sophomore Sydney Lowery has embraced ACC with the next closest being Wake Forest (6-0). the Boston College Jesuit way – Lowery has been proactive in • After missing most of her fi rst two seasons, redshirt junior getting the team involved in Team Impact – as 7-year old Bres- Haley Gorecki came back with a bang last season, before being lyn Clinton signed a “Letter of Intent” to join the team. She is injured once again. She is expected back at full strength in well aware of the struggles Breslyn faces as she is treated for 2018-19 and will be an All-America candidate. Once she was Pilocytic Astrocytoma. The BC sophomore guard has watched inserted into the starting lineup in December, Gorecki scored her mom battle and survive cancer and a seizure. Lowery double-digits in seven straight games. this included 20+ points knows the ups and downs and knows how important it is to be in four of those seven games. She averaged 17.1 points, a support system as well as a cheerleader for those in need. 5.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.8 steals over a span of 11 • The Rookies: Boston College will welcome seven freshmen contests. Gorecki collected a career-high 29 points at North to the program for fi rst-year head coach Joanna Bernabei-Mc- Carolina as she drained 7-of-15 three-pointers, grabbed nine Namee. The Eagles have added guards Jenasae Bishop rebounds and dished six assists, added 28 points at Virginia (Hammond, Ind.), Marnelle Garraud (Lynn, Mass.), Makayla Tech on 7-of-10 three-pointers and 9-of-14 fi eld goals and had Dickens (Virginia Beach, Va.) along with swing players Lana 19 fi rst half points at Louisville on 8-of-8 fi eld goals, before fi n- Hollingsworth (Australia), Kate Klimkiewicz (Oakton, Va.) and ishing with 25 points. She became the fi rst Blue Devil to notch forwards Clara Ford (Vienna, Va.) and Taylor Soule (W. Leba- seven or more three-pointers in back-to-back games. non, N.H.). • Junior Leaonna Odom will be expected to step up in 2018- • Assistant Coach Yolanda Griffi th: Coach Yo brings a wealth 19 and will be an All-America candidate this season. She of knowledge having played in the WNBA for 11 years. Griffi th, showcased her talent in the NCAA Tournament a year ago. She who was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame averaged 21.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in three in her fi rst year of eligibility in 2014, arrived at the Heights games NCAA games last season. Odom totaled a career-high along with Coach Mac from Albany. Prior to Albany, she was an 25 points against Belmont and then had a game-high 22 points, assistant at Dartmouth, Lafayette and UMass. eight rebounds and four assists in the NCAA regional game against top-seeded Connecticut. Odom is one of the most Clemson athletic players in the nation and can play most any position on • New coaching staff: head coach Amanda Butler and her the court. brand new coaching staff joined the Clemson Family, looking to • Duke was without the services of point guard Kyra Lambert rebuild a program that was once a perennial contender in the last season, after she was recovering from a torn ACL that hap- ACC. Heading into her 25th season as a coach (13th as a head pened in the NCAA Tournament fi rst round in 2017. She is on coach), Butler comes to Clemson from Florida where she post- schedule to be cleared in November to play in games. Lambert ed a 190-136 record. The coaching staff as a whole combines had started 56-of-65 career games played at point guard for for over 52 years of basketball coaching experience. the Blue Devils. • Simone Westbrook: Simone (or Moe) joins the Tigers as a graduate transfer after receiving a 7th year of eligibility. She is believed, according to the NCAA, to be the fi rst Division I wom- en’s basketball player to be granted a 7th year of eligibility. She is the only member of the team that played for Coach Butler at Florida. @ACCWBB | #ACCTIPOFF 2018 ACC WOMEN’S BASKETBALL TIPOFF • Mikayla Boykin suffered a torn ACL in her 10th game of the • The new foundation for Florida State Women’s Basketball 2017-18 campaign. Boykin had started eight of those 10 has a chance to be strong moving forward with the nation’s contests prior to the injury. She is progressing well with the sixth-ranked recruiting class that is very guard-heavy. The class rehab and is expected to play this season. Boykin might not includes four guards in Izabela Nicoletti (No. 16 overall; Brazil), be available at the start of the season, but is expected to play Kourtney Weber (No. 51; New Orleans), Morgan Jones (No. in non-conference action. Duke appealed in the offseason to 66; Jonesboro, Ga.) and Amaya Brown (No. 99; Albuquerque, have her receive a medical redshirt and the appeal was grant- N.M.) as well as power forward Valencia Myers (No. 63; Solon, ed. Boykin will have four years of eligibility remaining with the Ohio). Nicoletti will sit out the season after sustaining a knee Blue Devils. injury on July 25. • Redshirt junior Kyra Lambert has been volunteering at the • The Seminoles’ back court remains in good hands moving Ronald McDonald House for a little over a year now. She tries forward as junior guards Nausia Woolfolk and Nicki Ekhomu to go once a week when her class schedule/workouts allow. (E-Kah-Moo) return this season. Ekhomu returns as Florida She does guest services and helps out with whatever the State’s most experienced student-athlete in terms of minutes managers need help with – answering phones, getting sup- played (20 minutes per game in her career), and she is fi fth plies, helping cook/clean, etc. Duke women’s basketball has among ACC returnees in percentage of team free throws made had a special relationship with the Durham RMH and has been from 2017-18 (24.8 percent). Woolfolk, who has experience at going for over 20 years. The Blue Devils started a tradition both the 1 and the 2, has shown fl ashes of brilliance in her FSU where families/visitors write on ceiling tiles and it continues career. on today. • A candidate for Florida State’s breakthrough player of the year • After graduating from Duke in 2018, Sofi a Roma is attending is sophomore shooting guard Savannah Wilkinson, a native the Duke Fuqua School of Business - MMS Program for 2018- of London, England, who has experience on Great Britain’s 19. Roma trained with the Puerto Rico Women’s National Team National Team. Wilkinson had a very productive summer over the summer and was offered a spot on their World Cup playing in the FIBA U20 Championships and is already a proven team, but had to turn it down due to school confl icts. shooter who shot 43.3 percent from 3-point range last season • Freshman Miela Goodchild will be competing in the FIBA in limited time. With a year under her belt at the collegiate level Under-18 Asia Championship with her home country of Austra- and a good adjustment to American culture, Wilkinson enters lia. The completion will take place Oct. 28 through Nov. 3 in her second season with a lot of promise. Bengaluru, India. She is a three-time Basketball Queensland • For the fi rst time in quite some time, Florida State Women’s Player of the Year. Basketball has brought in multiple new coaches who help form • Duke graduated two of the best scorer’s in Blue Devil history a very knowledgeable and experienced coaching staff. During – Rebecca Greenwell (1,874 points) and Lexie Brown (1,263 the off-season, former FSU student-athlete and coach Brooke points in two years).