TicketsIt's official: the Jamelle Elliott era has begun at UC, and her team responded tonight with a resounding 85-46 victory over the Furman Paladins.
-Elliott always preaches intensity, and tonight her players responded, for the most part. After they were up big in the second half, I thought they let up a bit, and if it had been a close game, Furman would have gotten back into it. After the game, point guard Shareese Ulis mentioned the team needs to work on playing 40 minutes full-out.
It will be interesting to see how the team responds when they play opponents who will challenge them offensively. That could happen as early as the next game, when the Bearcats travel to Bloomington, IN, to take on the Indiana Hoosiers on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
-The Bearcats scored more points in the first half (47) than Furman managed for the entire game (46). On top of the dominant performance, four players finished with double figures in scoring: Kahla Roudebush (18), Shareese Ulis (17), Michelle Jones (13) and Val Schuster (10).
Freshman forward Daress McClung also showed she has the ability to contribute immediately, pulling down 10 rebounds and scoring six points.
-For the time being, UC seems to have solved its turnover struggles from the exhibition. After coughing the ball up 18 times against Kentucky Wesleyan, they played with much better control and finished with only nine tonight. In the Big East conference, the Bearcats aren't going to win many games at all by giving their opponents 18 extra possessions, so this was very encouraging.
-In the postgame press conference, Elliott mentioned how pleased she was with 20 assists on 29 total field goals. The team has already started to develop some really good traits: unselfishness, awareness, and confidence in each other. "Our mentality ... is to stick together," said forward Michelle Jones. "To have each other's backs more. We're buying into coach, and we're buying in and trying to do things together, and have each other's back."
-All 10 Bearcats on the roster this year who are eligible to play saw time tonight and scored.
-Kahla Roudebush's 18 points moved her past Jill Stephens for 18th place on UC's all-time scoring list. She now has 1,062 points for her career. She also knocked down four 3's, moving her past Madinah Slaise for 4th place all-time in 3-point field goals, finishing the night with 149 over her career.
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