2014-2015 Women’s Basketball Preview

Head Coach: Elizabeth Stitch, 3^rd Year

Last Season’s Record: 2-22 Overall, 1-13 LEC

Last Year’s Playoffs: Ranked 8^th in LEC, lost to Rhode Island College in Conference Quarterfinal Round

Senior Losses: Krystin Corliss, Kait Deering

Key Returners: Taylor Perry, DeAsia Lawrence, Tiffany Lewis

Whose New: Kelley Collins, Immaculate Nyaigoti, Victoria Letarte, Elizabeth Caron

The whole point in playing a sport is to win. Players want to have fun, and there are many different things taken from high school and collegiate sports that will help in whatever life path players choose, but everyone wants to win. Liz Stitch enters her 3^rd season has head coach here at Plymouth with a headstrong attitude. Last year’s record wasn’t pretty, but expect some big changes for this year.

Last year, the PSU women’s basketball club gave up roughly 63 points per game. That doesn’t look good if you’re scoring twenty 43 per game. However, Stitch brushed that off when talking about this season. “In the past we’ve focused on consistently playing hard, communicating, learning how to play defense, and figuring out what it means to compete at a high level. This year we don’t have to focus on those things as much as they are engrained in our culture. Now we have to focus on execution and getting the wins.” What she means is that although this roster is still young, they have experience. Players can’t win games until they realize what it takes to get there. Stitch has combed out all the flaws, and is looking to use “experienced youth” to get her team to the next level.

Being young isn’t always a bad thing, either. Especially if a team has numbers. Four of last year’s starters are returning: sophomore DeAsia Lawrence (Middletown, Conn.), sophomore Savannah Miller (Smithtown, N.Y.) junior Taylor Perry (Simsbury, Conn.) and senior Tiffany Lewis (Hillsboro, N.H.). This team, like the men’s team, has very solid numbers in its sophomore class. Coach Stitch said that although last year’s top scorers return in Lawrence (8.2 PPG) and Perry (8.1 PPG), she expects a lot from second-year players Lewis, Miller, Madison Beatrice (Newtown, Mass.) and Lindsay Poulin (Goffstown, N.H.). Kelly Collins (Groveton, NH) is said to have a great sense for the ball and can definitely bring something to the table offensively, and although hasn’t played much at PSU, has a lot of leadership and knowledge of the game. Coach Stitch said that “Tiffany Lewis is our team’s leader. She has always lead by example, but she is beginning to emerge as an emotional leader as well.”

One of the big things that coach talked about was being able to compete at this level. The Little East Conference is one of the toughest in the nation. If a team can survive here, they’re considered to be a very successful program. Three things the Panthers struggled with last year: shooting (31.9% from the floor, 24.6% from behind the arc, and 64.9% from the free throw line), keeping possession of the ball (20.3 turnovers per game), and rebounding (-8.6 rebound margin per game). On the fine tuning aspect of the game, Stitch said, “The girls are constantly working on improving their fundamentals; including ball handling, footwork, shooting and passing, which in turn leads to increased confidence. In practice we are spending more time working on finishing, both finishing shots and finishing possessions. Last year we were working so hard to figure out how to compete at a high level. We failed to work enough on finishing games.” Rebounding is a different animal, however. As a smaller squad, rebounding is something that is worked hard for, and the entire team needs to contribute.

Overall Expectation

These girls have something to prove. Simple as that. It’s an accomplishment enough to have the chance to play at this level, but there isn’t a point in playing if you don’t compete, and that’s exactly what this team is hungry for. Coming off a rough 2013-2014 season, this team needs to be chomping at the bit to prove to everyone that they’re better than a 2-22 overall record. Stitch said that they’re going to play a high-paced, hard-nosed defense and will have the ability to switch around from man-to-man to a zone at ease to disrupt any tempo that their opponent sets offensively. Liz Stitch and the rest of the Plymouth State Women’s Squad are very happy with how this season looks, and according to her, they’ll be “fun to watch.”