As the clocks ticks down, both teams are in their respective locker rooms going over last minute points of focus. The small Thanksgiving weekend crowd consists mainly of parents and local diehards; they all chat quietly about the holiday.
A stream of coaches files out of the room adjacent to the Field house and stand to the side of the door. A muffled chant can be heard that grows louder with the passing seconds: “Bears, get ready to roll!”
The women’s basketball team is waiting in the wings for its next opponent, Lake Forest College. The Bears would go on to lose the game in overtime after a Lake Forest player nailed a shot from behind half court in the waning seconds of regulation.
Head coach Nancy Fahey’s program, a longtime Division III powerhouse, is in unexpected territory. With three losses already on the young season, the same number of defeats as all of last season, the Bears are playing a waiting game. They are waiting for freshmen to become comfortable with their increasingly important roles, waiting for the lessons to be learned, and waiting for the tough UAA competition to come knocking.
There are a number of reasons the Bears have a different feel from years past. With the graduation of a pair of All-Americans in Danielle Beehler and Kelly Manning (also last season’s UAA Player of the Year) who together contributed nearly 45 points per game, the Bears are searching for new sources of offense.
“You can never replace the people and their styles of play; you have to let the new kids find their identity and try not to force people into a similar style of play,” said Fahey. “We recognize their loss but we have to let people develop in their own way.”
And with a shortage of post players, the offensive look may shift to a four-guard set. “We try to play to our team’s strengths. We still have to keep the tempo up and play great defense, but getting better every game is key for this team,” said Fahey.
The guards seem ready to step up to the challenge. Senior captain Sarah Schell entered the season ranked second on the school assists list and is averaging 11 points per game thus far. Last year’s UAA freshman of the year, Shanna-Lei Dacanay will share the point guard responsibilities with Schell. Her 13.5 points and nearly four assists per game leads the Bears in both categories. Standing only 5’3″, Dacanay’s gritty defense and surprising maneuverability in the lane proves that solid ball handling and quick feet can compensate for height.
Classmate Jill Brandt will also need to step into the hole left by Manning. Dropping a career-high 16 points against Central College and a 10-point run in the key moments of the second half against Hanover College, Brandt has shown that she is capable of scoring from outside the paint. “There’s nothing like a kid just coming in and knocking down shots, and she plays with that type of confidence and intensity,” said Fahey. “You must have those players.”
While some of the focus may have shifted to the perimeter, the post play will be even more essential this season. Senior captain Rebecca Parker leads a pack of post players that will need to focus on rebounding in order to start the team’s trademark transition offense. Sophomore Jaimie McFarlin averaged 4.2 rebounds per game last season. Senior captain Jenny Southworth is floating between the post and perimeter and is averaging two rebounds per game this season. “Rebounding, cutting down turnovers, and responding to pressure situations are always the keys to our success,” agreed Fahey.
The returning players are joined by a host of freshmen that will be looked to more than in years past. “We’re making the freshmen as a whole grow up fast and I think they’ll respond well to it,” said Fahey. Zo‰ Unruh has made the most immediate impact averaging 10 points and 4.5 rebounds per game. “Zo‰ is just aggressive and you don’t find that much in a freshmen,” said Fahey. “I always ask my players, ‘what do you care what year they are when you play against them?'”
Laura Lane-Steele and sophomore transfer Halsey Ward are “glue players” that hold the major contributors together and add significantly off the bench through steals, solid defense, and sheer hustle.
“There’s a lot of different ways that we have to win ballgames,” said Fahey. “Defensively we need to be strong and pick up points on steals. We need to expand the ways we score and their scrappiness definitely helps.”
With a turn back to total team play and away from the reliance on just a couple of potent scoring threats, senior captain Nicky Huels, classmate Sarah Tibesar and a deep bench will be essential to the Bears success this season.
“We need to make sure we’re getting better every game,” said Fahey. “We recognize that we’re young in some respects, but that can’t be an excuse. We want to win but we need to focus on getting better and getting to know what kind of team we are. There are more questions but I’m confident there are answers.”
With a record of 2-3 before facing the tough competition in the UAA (four conference opponents qualified for postseason season last year), Fahey stressed the importance of the game’s fundamentals. “Everyone seems to be worried about the “tradition” of Bears basketball. We have to go back to the foundation of that tradition in the first place. If you take care of boxing out, working hard and getting better, the winning comes. If you start thinking about ‘oh my God we’re not winning,’ you start to lose focus of why we play in the first place.”
Fahey certainly knows the essentials of winning; she led her squads to four straight national championships (1998-2001) and has never had a losing season since arriving on the Danforth Campus 21 years ago. With a handful of experienced players and many others waiting to be molded, Fahey’s coaching prowess will have to be utilized more than in the years of Manning and Beehler.
“I’ve never been a fan of losing,” remarked Fahey, “but we still have to learn. You can’t learn if you don’t have games that aren’t challenging.” Picked to be tops in the UAA in the preseason poll and originally ranked tenth nationally, the Bears will face the undefeated University of Rochester, who has already taken down the top-ranked team, and other top 25 teams come conference time.
With no sure wins in the conference this season, the Bears’ future is truly in its own hands. For the first time in years, the conference isn’t theirs to lose; it is anyone’s to take. The Bears cannot play the waiting game any longer; they have to start taking.