Listen to the 2005-06 Women's Basketball Preview with Ed Swanson!
11/16/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Nov. 16, 2005
2005-06 Season Preview with Head Coach Ed Swanson
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The 2005-06 Sacred Heart women's basketball season gets underway this Friday, November 18th at Providence College. The Pioneers are poised for a run at the Northeast Conference title with a wealth of talent and experience returning. Listen now to the 2005-06 Season Preview with head coach Ed Swanson on the SacredHeartPioneers.com Multimedia Page!
The Pioneers have been picked to finish second in the Northeast Conference Coaches Preseason Poll, recieving four first-place votes. Four starters return to the SHU lineup in guards Nicolle Rubino, Kerri Burke and Amanda Pape along with forward Jasmine Walker.
An All-Northeast Conference choice in 2004-05, Pape led the team in scoring for the second-straight year averaging 14.9 points per game. She also led the team in rebounding, pulling down 7.0 boards and in steals with 79 on the year. Rubino, a co-captain this season, is just 36 points away from the 1,000-point plateau heading into her senior season. She finished 2004-05 averaging 10.2 points per contest while handing out a career-best 102 assists and making 54 steals. She grabbed a career-high 125 rebounds on the season (4.5 rpg). Burke, the Pioneers other captain, is coming off a breakout season as a sophomore where she took hold of the point guard position and finished second on the team in scoring. Burke averaged 10.8 points and 4.24 assists per-game last year while playing 36.6 minutes per game, second only to Pape. She also became a major-threat from behind the three-point arc, burying 34.6% (52-143) from downtown. The trio will once again pace the Pioneer offensive attack heading into 2005-06.
Also returning to the guard mix is sophomore Lisa Moray who averaged 4.1 points as a freshman but shot 40.0% from long range (30-75), third in the NEC.
Walker returns after a strong sophomore season to anchor a young group down on the block. Walker posted five double-double games last season and averaged 7.7 points and 7.0 rebounds on the year. She was seventh in the NEC in rebounding and also blocked 23 shots on the year. The junior forward spent much of the early part of last season battling her way through illness. She returned to the starting line-up in game 12 and led the Pioneers to a 13-3 record the rest of the way.
Junior Mary Rush, back from missing all of last season with injury, and sophomores Mikara Cimmino and Jocelyn Kelly will bolster the Pioneer front court.
The addition of five talented freshman round out the 2005-06 squad giving the Pioneers a tremendous amount of depth. Guards Liz Gruber, Khalia Cain and Rachel Hudec will all compete for minutes in a deep and talented back court while 6-4 center Kaitlin Sowinski and 6-2 Katie Brown will bring height and a pressence in the paint.
The Pioneers start the 2005-06 season as road warriors with seven of their first nine scheduled games away from the friendly confines of the William H. Pitt Center. The season gets with the first of two battles with the Big East, at Providence. From there, the Pioneers travel to Hofstra and Syracuse during Thanksgiving week before their home opener on December 1st against cross-state rival Yale.
A pair of Northeast Conference games also highlight the last month on the calendar as SHU welcomes St. Francis (NY) to the Pitt Center on December 7th before traveling out to Loretto, PA for a December 10th date with four-time defending champion St. Francis (PA). The remainder of 2005 plays out with trips to Iona, Ohio State and Rider.
The New Year tips-off a four-game home stand for Sacred Heart as they round out non-conference play with games against St. Peter's and Columbia. The NEC slate will feature home and away games with every team except conference runner-up Robert Morris and Monmouth.
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