Kalamazoo Valley Women's Basketball

December 8, 2007    KVCC (78) vs. Lakeland C. C.(58) at Cougar Arena, Kalamazoo, MI

Kalamazoo Gazette article

Coach's comments:

    Weird start.  Great finish.  Shannon Dumond swished two free throws before the opening tip and KVCC's women's basketball team was off to the races.  "Never been involved in a game that a team scored before the opening tip."  Cougar Head coach Ron Welch explained further,  "Lakeland had a player forget her game uniform and try to start the game in a practice jersey - clearly a violation of the uniform rule.  The officials came and asked me if it was alright with me if she played that way and my comment back was that 'I don't think that's my call'.  The game officials enforced the rule.  I'm sure Coach Jones thinks I'm a jerk, but this is college basketball."

     "Nice team win."  Coach Welch thought out loud. "We played well for long stretches as a team, but we're still having little lulls' that will cause us problems playing the teams in our conference. I was also a little disappointed that we allowed Lakeland's sophomore pre-season All American, Gabrielle Flonnoy, to go off on us. (Flonnoy had 27 of her team's 58 points)  She's a pretty good player, but I'm just old school enough to feel like we shouldn't let anybody get 20 on us.  That's a pride thing for our teams.  We're not quite there yet as a team, but we'll get there.  Our defense is getting better every game.  We forced 30 turnovers in this game - 9 by their starting point guard." 

                                                                                                      
                                                                        
                                         Freshman Nicole Compher - on the move in a previous game

     One of the real bright spots pointed out by Welch was the play of Mattawan freshman Nicole Compher.  "Coley gave us a huge lift off the bench in both halves at both ends of the floor." said Welch. "She is always a defensive constant for us. Tonight she made back to back plays after they had cut our early double digit lead to 7 that got the lead back to double figures and then later in the game when they were mounting another comeback she made a four point play when she was fouled  after knocking down a big three.  I'm very happy for her.  This should be a tremendous confidence boost for her. She's so hard on herself."
      For the second game in a row the Cougars got great bench production with 34 bench points.  "We played all twelve kids today and they all scored for us." Said the Cougar coach. "That makes the life of the starters a lot easier and really instills a sense of team pride in the group." 
      Speaking of starters,  they were pretty special, too.  Shannon Dumond found her way to another double digit scoring performance with 13 points even though her shooting touch from the floor wasn't as sharp as usual.  Dumond was 7/7 from the charity stripe.  "She's reminding me more and more every game of former Cougar star Kortni Matteson." said Coach.  "She's finds a way to score."  Freshman Caitlin Krull had another nice game on the boards with 12 caroms and also added 7 points by getting herself to the line.  Fellow freshman post Jeannie Closson was also solid with 6 rebounds, 6 points and seven big blocks. 
     "We were better in the second half at taking care of the ball and getting to the line." continued Welch.  "They (Lakeland) got pretty aggressive towards the end of the first half and I thought our kids showed a lot of character and made them pay for their aggressiveness in the second half.  This is a pretty good free throw shooting team.  I don't think you want to put us at the line."
     Speaking of shooting, the Cougars lit it up from three for the game connecting on 8 of 17 (47.1%).  "Obviously it's a bonus when you shoot it that well from outside the arc," concluded Welch, "But I think we can score in a lot of ways.  Balance is good - it makes it tough on the defense to know what they have to concentrate on.  Good situation for us."  In addition to Compher's 2/3 showing from deep, Shay Stevenson was also 2/3 and Ericka King was a perfect 2/2 and got to double figures for the first time as a Cougar with 10 points.

                                             Lady Cougar Sharp Shooters.............

                                                    
                              Ericka King                                                       Shay Stevenson
 
     Next up for the Cougars is a home league contest with old rival Kellogg Community College at Cougar arena on Wednesday, the 12th.  The Bruins are off to a good start also at 5-2 and return 4 starters from last year's outstanding team.  "This is a huge week for us,"  said Welch. "Kellogg is the pre-season favorite in our conference and every league game is important - particularly when playing at home - and then on Saturday the #2 team in the country , Kankakee Community College invades Cougar arena.  Both are great challenges.  We like a challenge and I think our kids are looking forward to the week. The only downside is that it is also finals week and we look at THOSE tests as being far more important in the long run than these two basketball games.  Hopefully we can be successful in both arenas! 

     The balance of the schedule can be found on the schedule page of the KVCC women's basketball site.  Click on the link below for more info.

Schedule Page