Wesleyan women back in nationals where they belong

Melanie Barker

Sioux City, Iowa, has become an annual destination for the Tennessee Wesleyan College women's basketball team.

Although the Lady Bulldogs were picked to win the Appalachian Athletic Conference again this year, a relatively inexperienced version of the team got off to a slow start and appeared unlikely to return to the site of the NAIA Division II national tournament. Yet here the Athens team is again, preparing for its tournament opener Wednesday afternoon in its sixth appearance in seven years after winning the AAC tournament as the third seed.

Tenth-year head coach Jeff Rice, who also had made six trips to the nationals in his 16 years as Stan Harrison's assistant, said the preseason prediction was based on the program's tradition, but a lot of production and leadership had graduated from last year's 29-4 team.

"I knew we weren't the best team going in," Rice said, "but I thought we could be a good team down the road, and from mid-January on we have been a pretty good team."

Jara Gasper and Melanie Barker, two seniors in their second TWC season after transferring from area schools, have averaged 16.2 and 11.8 points a game, and redshirt sophomore Hunter Simpson has averaged 12.5 with 6.8 rebounds a game. Simpson missed all of last season after tearing an ACL in the first game and has grown more confident in the repaired knee as this season progressed - and increasingly quick and "explosive," as Rice put it.

Wesleyan is 17-9 going into Wednesday's 2:45 p.m. EST meeting with fast-paced Saint Xavier (29-3) of Illinois, one of the No. 1 seeds at the national tournament.

"Jara and Melanie were role players last year, and Hunter didn't even play," Rice said, "so I knew we needed time to get where we could be."

With potential opponents reluctant to schedule the Lady Bulldogs, they had only an exhibition game at Tennessee Tech and one official game before jumping into conference play, and respectable losses to eventual co-champions Milligan and Bryan sandwiched a win over Truett-McConnell.

They didn't get over .500 to stay until Jan. 16, but from then on they went 11-3 and emerged from the AAC pack of chasers to earn the third seed for the tournament. They closed out the regular season and the tournament with 14-point wins over Montreat, but in between they had a harrowing 61-58 overtime defeat of three-win St. Andrews and a put-it-all-together 71-44 triumph over Bryan.

"We knew we had to play the best game we played all season, and we wanted to win possession by possession, minute by minute," Gasper said of the semifinals. "Once we got up 15 or 20, we still kept playing possession by possession."

As Barker said, "We took it personally when we didn't win a possession, and we did a good job of talking on defense and holding each other accountable."

Barker, a former Sequatchie County star who began her college career at Lee, moved from the 3 position to the 4 this year and said she was focused on rebounding and doing "the little things" - and helping "make sure the team meshed together."

Rice noted that Gasper mainly was asked to "knock down some 3s and take care of the ball" as a junior out of Cleveland State, but he needed the Loudon resident to drive to the basket more this season.

"But I didn't think she would score as well as she has game in and game out," Rice said of the first-team all-conference selection.

Barker and Madisonville resident Simpson were second-team choices, and Simpson was all-freshman as well. Senior post Sarah McKinnon from Tellico Plains averages 6.2 rebounds a game, and junior Kelsey Young from Etowah guards the opponent's best player and "does what she has to on offense," the coach said.

Sophomore Madison Walkup has been an effective top reserve - slashing to the basket, getting rebounds from the perimeter and averaging 9.3 points a game.

"One of the biggest things (about our improvement) is Walkup's play down the stretch," Rice said. "We don't have as much size as we would have liked, but we're extremely athletic on the perimeter."

Leighann McAfee and Destanie Smith also have made a few starts and provided quality depth along with Kassi Knight.

"I felt like I had to step up a lot more from last year, and get my teammates to step up with me," Gasper said. "I thought we would get better. We just had to figure out how to play together - put everything together and lock down on defense. I think we ended up doing that toward the end."

Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.