This year’s Lee University women’s basketball team has the capacity to go further in the NAIA Division I tournament than any of its predecessors, but it faces perhaps the program’s most formidable first-round matchup, coach Marty Rowe believes.
The Lady Flames (28-5) are a 3 seed in the 32-team bracket at Jackson, Tenn., and they open against Langston (Okla.) University (25-7) at 11:45 EDT Thursday. That will be about the time the Lee men (26-7) finish their opener in Kansas City, Mo., against Olivet Nazarene (19-10). That game is scheduled to tip off at 10 a.m. EDT.
“The consensus here is that they’re underrated,” Rowe said from Jackson about Langston’s Lady Lions. “I’m a national rater and I saw them on film for the first time Friday. They’re very talented.
“They may have the best post player in the state of Oklahoma, and I’m including the University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. She’s a juco transfer who didn’t have the grades to go NCAA, and she averages a double-double. And they have a guard averaging about 20 points. We’ve got our hands full.”
The Lady Lions’ post is 6-foot-1 junior Stephanie Madden, averaging 17.6 points and 10.5 rebounds a game. She was the Red River Athletic Conference newcomer of the year and tournament MVP.
Langston’s Sanetra Jackson (19.5 ppg) was the RRAC player of the year, and Latesha Calton-Woods joined Jackson and Madden on the All-RRAC first team by leading the team in assists and steals per game.
The Langston-Lee matchup becomes all the more interesting with the realization that the Lady Flames likewise had three all-conference first-teamers: senior player of the year Katie Nelson averaging 17.6 points and 8.3 rebounds, junior shooting guard Brooke McKinnon from Tellico Plains scoring 16.7 points a game and senior point guard Allison Rader from Cleveland leading the team in assists and steals.
Nelson, the 6-2 senior from Scottsboro (Ala.) High School, was named an NAIA State Farm All-American on Tuesday.
“That should be a great matchup of two great post players,” Rowe said, adding that 6-2 Kayla Carlisle also will help out on Madden.
Carlisle, who joined the team after helping Lee’s volleyball team reach the NAIA final four in the fall, missed seven games deep in the season with mononucleosis. That helped explain three losses after the Lady Flames took control of the Southern States Athletic Conference. Like Tommy Brown’s Flames, they won the regular season and lost to Southern Polytechnic in the SSAC tournament finals.
That ended a 13-game winning streak for the Lee men. The women had their 13-game win streak earlier.
“We only lost to good teams. The opponents in our league have elevated their play,” Rowe said. “If losing those games helps our players to focus more, then I think it’s OK. Our league has really improved the last couple of years, and that has helped us here.”
The Lady Flames reached the quarterfinals last year.
“This team is a lot different from past Lee teams,” Rowe said. “It’s probably the longest and most athletic team I’ve ever coached, particularly inside. Defensively we can be very good the way we contest shots, but it’s no secret this team relies very heavily on two people to score, and we know other teams will try to stop Katie and Brooke.”
Rowe said outside shooting has not been the consistent strength he thought it would be for the Lady Flames, but several players are capable of helping with the scoring. Carlisle and Kayce Addison at the 4 spot may help take pressure off Nelson, and Angela Spann at the 3 “could be our wild card,” Rowe said.
Junior college transfer Jerel Blocker has led Brown’s continually changing lineup with 16.5 points a game, and senior Josh Nofflet and junior Stephen McClellan also average double-figure scoring with 12.6 and 11.5 points. Senior forward Chad James averages only 3.3 points but is the defensive glue for the Flames.
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