I'm back

I'm back. Ok, so I'm very sorry that it's been almost 2 weeks since I last wrote anything. I haven't done laundry in that same two weeks either so you can imagine how busy and crazy things have been around here with games and recruiting as the season heads into the final week of the regular season. Since I last updated you guys on the season, we got a huge win over High Point that avenged a loss to them earlier in the season. The girls stepped on the floor that night and looked like they had something to prove. That was a fun game to watch and the outcome was a very fun one with us winning by 16. Last weekend, the beach came to us. We beat Charleston Southern on Saturday by 30 something but came up 6 points short to Coastal on Monday night. That loss dropped us out of the first place tie and took our conference record to 8-3 and our overall record to 16-9. When we talked as a team before practice on Wednesday, the thoughts of the girls were all centered on not letting that happen again. That loss may have been good for us (if any loss can be good)...it refocused our team and made us realize that we can be beaten if we don't play a complete game. Coastal wanted that game more than us on Monday night and they came onto our floor and got the job done. I think that game got our attention...and we will be ready to leave it all on the floor when we head down to Birmingham Southern this weekend. Yeah, that's right...we're going to Alabama in the morning...the best place in the world (just in case some of you didn't know). I look forward to seeing all of my family and friends and coming back with conference win number 9!
JRA
Coach and E.J. discussing the game plan...I absolutely love this picture of them!

Second time around the Big South

What we did in the first half of conference play got us a 5-2 record but it means absolutely nothing to every team we will face in the second half. Teams that we beat will play us tougher the second time around and as for High Point and Liberty, we have some unsettled business with them. This was very true for us as we went in to Rock Hill, SC on Saturday to play Winthrop. After we beat them so badly at home, we had to expect that they would make some adjustments and that they would be a much tougher team at home. They did exactly that. We had to battle for 40 minutes on Saturday and we left SC with a 3 point win. Kelli D had a major part in the win scoring a career high 31 points. Again, if I had a vote for Big South Player of the week, she'd get it this week! Our post game has been pretty much unstoppable lately and our guards are hitting just enough shots to make the defense have a tough decision to make on how to defend our team. If we can just find a way to get back to defending the way we did for the large part of this season, we are going to be a tough team to beat in our 6 remaining regular season games. Tuesday night is a huge game. High Point comes to the Dedmon Center and we owe them one. A win will put us in a tie for first place in the conference. A win will also extend our home win streak to 10 in a row. This game is a big one. Tuesday night at 7 in the Dedmon Center...don't miss out!

JRA

Corrie and Kelli dominate UNCA

If you didn't have the chance to watch the Lady Highlanders take on UNC Asheville last night, you missed a great game. The matchup between RU and UNCA is always a hard fought battle at home and on the road. Asheville is known to be a very hard working team who never gives up and our challenge to the team in practice as well as Coach Porter's thoughts before the game were "Don't get outworked." Coach talked in the locker room about goals for things that we could do to show that we would not get outworked like taking charges, getting on the floor, and getting tips on defense. When the first half ended, we had already met all of those goals. We worked hard on both ends of the floor and came out with a 72-67 victory to put us at 5-2 in the Big South and in 3rd place one game behind Liberty and High Point. Our two starting post players played excellent games last night and have become a nightmare matchup for all of our opponents. Kelli ended the game with 18 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks. Corrie had 17 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 steals. She gets my vote for player of the week in the conference (if I actually got a vote!). J Dub had 14 points, 4 rebounds, and 6 assists which is definitely worth mentioning. These ladies had a great game and made some big plays down the stretch for us. The plan is to pack all of that scoring and rebounding in our travel bags and head down to Rock Hill, SC tomorrow afternoon to grab another road win against Winthrop on Saturday afternoon. Wish us luck!

Alumni Weekend

Our 1st annual Alumni Weekend and Alumni Game was a success! The Lady Highlanders also experienced some success on Saturday with another Big South win over Birmingham Southern. We are now 12-8 overall and 4-2 in the Big South with UNC-Asheville coming in to the Dedmon Center on Wednesday night. The UNC-A game marks the end of the first half of conference play and will be a big game in the conference race because the Bulldogs are also 4-2. The winner of Wednesday night's matchup will take sole possession of 3rd place in the conference with 7 games remaining before the conference tournament. Every game is very important right now!
This weekend, we had the opportunity to welcome several Lady Highlander alumni back to Radford. We held our first alumni game on Friday night after practice and had several former players come back to show off their skills and I must say, a few of them looked like they could've played with us on Saturday! Our current players participated in the game acting as coaches, water girls, ball girls, stat keepers, and scoreboard operators. Shavon and Corrie's red team won the game and we all had a great time watching and laughing. I hope next year's alumni game can grow and a few more of our recent alumni will have the chance to come back to play. Pictures will be posted soon! Thanks to all of our alumni who attended and for their continued support of Lady Highlander Basketball.

Question and Answer with Serena White

1. What are your top 3 favorite things to do on the bus on road trips? I think my top favorite thing to do on road trips is to serenade everyone on the bus. I must say I think everyone enjoys my singing, coach even said that I should go on american idol. I also like eating for free on road trips and having short practices before games.
2. Which Big South Conference team do you most want to beat this season? Why? I'd have to say Liberty because for some reason, every time we play them we cant put two halves together. It's frustrating that we keep losing to them but I think it's more frustrating that we let ourselves down by not playing to our full potential.
3. Who is your favorite teammate to share a room with on the road? Why? I would have to say Kelli, as long as she doesnt eat salsa from chili's :) Kelli and I get along pretty well and we have to same sense of humor so I feel like I'm laughing the entire road trip when she is my roommate.
4. What is your game day routine when we play at home? I go to shootaround then pregame, and I try to get in a nap after that. I like to get to the gym 2 to 2 1/2 hours before the game to get treatment and get some extra shooting in. I listen to my ipod while I'm shooting just to get my self to relax and get ready for the game.
5. What should opposing teams prepare the most for when we are the next team on their schedule? Teams should prepare for an all around team....we have people that can penetrate, shoot, post up, etc. We have a very well rounded team when it comes to offense and often times I think that's hard for other teams to stop. Defensively, they should prepare for pressure defense for 40 minutes, as well as us overplaying the passing lanes. They should probably work on blocking out because we crash the boards hard (most nights). Really the only thing that need to be prepared for is to lose.
6. What is one goal that you individually or our team has not yet accomplished this season? Individually, I haven't accomplished my goal of being consistent. Team goal wise, we haven't won our conference championship yet and I think everyone is thinking that this is our year.