Week 4

WASHINGTON AND LEE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (2-5, 1-2 ODAC) 

Jan. 5 vs. Virginia Wesleyan (5-4, 2-2 ODAC); 7:00 pm
Jan. 8 at Lynchburg College (2-7, 1-4 ODAC); 7:00 pm
Jan. 9 vs. Randolph (2-8, 1-5 ODAC); 4:30 pm

PDF Version of the Notes

KING OF THE GENERALS
Mandy King (Southern Maine ’98) is in her seventh season as head women’s basketball coach at W&L and is the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 74-90 (.451) record.  She is assisted by Abby Pyzik (Lynchburg ‘04), who is in her second season. Against this week’s competition, King holds records of 4-9 against Virginia Wesleyan, 7-5 versus Lynchburg College and 8-4 against Randolph.

LAST TIME OUT (at Randolph-Macon, 1/3/10)
Senior forward Molly Ariail paced three Yellow Jackets in double-figures with 22 points as Randolph-Macon cruised to a 70-50 victory over W&L on Sunday. R-MC never trailed in the contest and jumped out to a 10-point lead (31-21) at the break.  The Yellow Jackets stretched their advantage to as many as 25 points (61-36) with 8:26 remaining in claiming their second-straight win over the Generals. W&L was led by sophomore forward Becca Bolton, who tallied 12 points and seven rebounds.  First-year forward Rachel Warrick totaled 11 points, while first-year guard Katy Wilson chipped in 10 points.

SCOUTING VIRGINIA WESLEYAN
The Marlins are coming off a 57-45 victory over Lynchburg on Sunday. Senior forward Maggie Davis and sophomore guard Shawnee Lewis scored 13 points each, while sophomore forward Kristen Blalock added 12 points. The win was the 100th in the coaching career of head coach Stephany Dunmyer. Virginia Wesleyan holds a 5-4 record on the season, while going 2-2 in the ODAC. The Marlins are led by senior guard Tonia Jones, who averages 15.0 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. Davis leads the team in rebounds per game with an average of 8.9 and is second on the team in scoring with 9.8 points per game. At home last season, the Generals ended an eight-game losing streak against the Marlins that dated back to Dec. 4, 2005.

SCOUTING LYNCHBURG COLLEGE
Lynchburg College will take to the road to face Roanoke on Tuesday before returning home for Friday’s matchup. The Hornets are 2-7 this season, holding a 1-4 record in conference play. The teams hold an even 15-15 record against each other in 15 seasons of competition. Courtney Brewer leads LC, averaging 11.3 points per game, while Tamara Snead leads the team in rebounds (11.4 rpg) and is second in scoring (10.4 ppg). The Generals are 1-2 over the past three seasons at Turner Gymnasium, with two of those three contests needing extra minutes to determine the winner.

SCOUTING RANDOLPH
Randolph is 2-8 on the season, posting a 1-5 record in the ODAC. The WildCats will take on Randolph-Macon on Tuesday before traveling to Lexington for Saturday’s contest. The Generals lead the all-time series with a record of 23-9. Randolph has a trio of players averaging double-digit points on the season, including senior forward Lindsay Cross (17.3), senior guard Katie Rechnitzer (15.9) and sophomore guard Lauren French (12.5). The WildCats are currently second in the ODAC with a .346 three-point shooting percentage (53-153), paced by French’s impressive .537 (22-41) shooting percentage from behind the arc.

NO PLACE LIKE HOME
W&L concluded its longest streak of consecutive games away from the Warner Center in program history (six games) on Sunday at Randolph-Macon. The previous streak for road contests was five games, which occurred in four seperate seasons. The Generals finished the road trip with a 2-4 record.

NEW YEAR, BETTER RESULTS
Over the past six seasons under head coach Mandy King, the Generals have been more successful in the final two months of the season compared to the first two. King has a record of 10-17 (.370) in November and 9-16 (.360) in December, but in turn has led W&L to a 32-32 (.500) record in January and 23-26 (.469) mark in February.

THEY’RE JUST NUMBERS
With the win over No. 21 Capital at the Surf N’ Slam Small College Women’s Basketball Classic, W&L claimed just its second victory over a ranked opponent in program history. The other victory came Jan. 20, 2007 as W&L defeated No. 24 Bridgewater, 65-60.

MISSING THE MARK
In the Generals’ two wins this season, they have shot a combined 44.9 percent (52-118) from the floor.  Compare that to the team’s five losses, where W&L has shot just 35.2 percent (89-253) from the field.  Additionally, the Generals tend to shoot better from the floor in the first half of games (.435, 80-184) than during the second half (.336, 62-187), a trend that has occurred in every game except for the Guilford (12/2) contest.

THREE’S COMPANY
Last season, the Generals were an impressive 10-3 when making more three-point shots than their opponent. However, this season they are only 1-3 when recording more threes, while shooting just 30.8 percent (36-117) from the arc.

FOLLOW THE LEADER
Sophomore guard Becca Bolton has led the charge for the Generals this season as the leading scorer and rebounder in five of seven contests. She has recorded double-digit points in nine straight games dating back to Feb. 21, 2009. Bolton recorded her second double-double of the season and 10th of her career on Dec. 30 against Point Loma Nazarene (16 pts, 11 reb). Over Bolton’s two-year career, the Generals are only 5-5 (.500) when she records a double-double.

TURN THE BEAT AROUND
After posting averages of 0.0 points, 0.5 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game in 13.5 minutes per game over the first two contests, first-year guard Rachel Warrick has emerged as a legitimate scoring option for the Generals over the past five games.  Over the past five outings, Warrick has averaged 11.0 points and 4.2 rebounds, while averaging 23 minutes per game.  She has gone 12-of-14 (.857) from the free throw line and 5-of-9 (.556) from three point range.  Warrick scored a season-best 18 points in a win over Hollins and has added three more double-figure games since: Guilford (12), Capital (10) and Randolph-Macon (11).

THE MISSING PIECE?  WHY FELICE OF COURSE
One noticeable difference from last season to this season has been the play of junior center Felice Herman.  Herman led the ODAC in field goal percentage (.557) last season, while averaging 10.2 points and 7.1 rebounds per game.  She posted 16 double-figure scoring games a season ago and the Generals prospered in those games, going 10-6 when she scored 10 or more points.  This season, Herman has played only 19.4 minutes per game and has averaged just 4.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per contest.  Herman is shooting 40.6 percent from the floor (13-32), but has averaged just 4.6 shots per game.  Herman played just 10 minutes in W&L’s outing against Guilford on Dec. 2, failing to score for the first time since the final game of her rookie season.

CAUSE AND EFFECT
With sophomore guard/forward Becca Bolton attacking the offensive boards and creating scoring opportunities, she has also been able to frequently find her way to the charity stripe. Bolton recorded 17 free throw attempts on Dec. 2 at Guilford, tying a team individual game record for most free throw attempts in a game. In seven games, Bolton has notched double-digit free throw attempts in three, going 46-60 (.767), and she has been perfect in her last three games (10-10).

A LITTLE ASSISTANCE
With three assists at Guilford, sophomore guard Meg Ingram reached 102 career assists in 30 games, becoming the second-fastest player to reach the century marker in program history. She trailed only Bethany Dannelly ‘05, who recorded 152 of her 459 career assists in 26 games during her freshman campaign (2001-02), and made the 100 plateau in just 18 games.

ADD IT UP
W&L recorded 95 points on Nov. 30 against Hollins, reaching the 90+ point marker for the first time since Jan. 9, 2009 when it defeated Bridgewater, 94-77. The Generals now have recorded 90+ points in three games during the past two seasons: Nov. 30, 2009 vs. Hollins (95), Jan. 9, 2009 vs. Lynchburg (94) and Dec. 11, 2008 vs. Hollins (111). Previous to the 2008-09 season the Generals recorded only one 90+ point game in program history, a 90-26 victory over Hollins on Nov. 28, 2006. The 95-point output is the highest single-game point total in the ODAC thus far.

--GENERALS--