The season didn’t start off too great for the SFU Women’s Basketball team. Meg Wilson was lost for the season before it even began, and by the end of November, the team was down to only six healthy players. Despite the challenges, the team finished with a 13–7 conference record, 16–11 overall, and made it to the GNAC semifinals, before being knocked out by eventual champs Alaska Anchorage.
“I was pretty pleased with the season,” said Head Coach Bruce Langford. “I thought we improved steadily over the course of the year. I thought that players got a lot out of themselves, and met their expectations. At the beginning when we lost Megan, it looked like it could be a nightmare in some ways. But it worked out okay.”
With Wilson down early on, the team could have easily fallen off the rails.
“She’s a big piece of our puzzle,” said Langford. “She was one of our two seniors, and [then] we had one senior, one junior, and all the rest young kids. And I was certainly very nervous of what was going to happen.”
The team relied heavily on the three pointers this year, with the trio of Elisa Homer, Ellen Kett, and Alisha Roberts leading the Clan offensively throughout the season. Homer finished fourth in the GNAC in scoring, averaging 16.5 points per game, and making the second most threes in the conference with 99. Kett finished first in three-point percentage (49.5 percent) and assists per game, and Roberts finished fourth the free throw percentage.
“I think we’ll be a better shooting team next year than this year,” exclaimed Langford. “The kids we’re bringing in can shoot the ball, a couple of them can really shoot the ball. I’m counting on Homer putting in a few shots [over the summer] and improving her shot, and I’m hoping Ellen will do the same.
Those kids are Claudia Hart, Ozioma Nwabuko, Jessica Jones, Tia Sang, and Tayler Drynan, a group which Langford described as one of the most talented recruiting classes in his 15 years coaching the Clan according to a SFU Athletics report back in December.
“I think we’ll be a better shooting team next year than this year.”
“I think all of them are able to contribute something right now. [. . .] But I’m open to any plan, we’re just very excited with who we have coming back, the strength we have coming back, and the strength we’re adding, it’s very exciting.”
A couple of players are expected to redshirt, but Langford is excited for more players at his disposal on the bench, which will allow for a wider array of tactics to be used, as well as keeping players rested throughout the season.
“I’d like to see us pick up full court defence a little more,” explained Coach Bruce Langford . “I think I’d to see us get out and be more athletic defensively a little more, press, deny the ball.
“This year we really counted on three kids to get a lot of minutes and down the end, as we got close to the end. Like the win in Alaska [Anchorage on February 27], we had 35, 35, 35, 35, and 38 minutes in five kids. That’s tough. It’s hard to play certain styles that way. It be nice to get everybody’s minutes down, where they can harder, and shorter.”
Langford hopes that next season they can improve on their fourth place position this year.
“Between now and the end of the year, we [need to] be certain that people are on board for the same goals and mission, and that goal is to win a GNAC championship on our way to a regional championship, and that people recognize the time needed to do that [. . .] We have some very talented kids [that are new], coming to some very talented kids that are here. But the talented kids here each have pieces they need to grow on.”
