Women Hoopsters Hope to Carry Winning Streak into Break

Release Date:  December 8, 1999

The Monmouth College Fighting Scots women’s basketball team will take a two-game winning streak into Saturday’s home date against Eureka College at 2 p.m. – their final game before winter break.

Coach Dennis Mann’s Scots put the clamps on Knox College Saturday in a 53-32 victory and then pulled out an exciting game at Blackburn College Sunday, rallying from eight points down with three minutes to play to close within one in the final seconds. Sara Larkin then delivered the game-winner, canning a seven-foot jumper with eight seconds to play. The final score was 61-60, and Larkin’s basket gave her 15 points, breaking her career-record of 14 points set the day before against Knox.

It was announced Monday that Larkin, a sophomore from Cooksville (Colfax-Ridgeview), had earned the Midwest Conference Player of the Week honor.

Monmouth struggled with the loss of three players for periods of time against Blackburn, but all should be better by game-time against Eureka. Erin Bradshaw was battling illness and Amber Kuhrts sprained her ankle in the contest. In addition, Carla Sweet, already hampered by a knee injury, was in foul trouble for much of the contest and eventually did foul out.

Mann expects Sweet will be slowed by her injury most of the year, but he has gotten good production from the sophomore point guard, who’s averaging 7.7 points per game. Kuhrts’ ankle sprain was not severe, according to Mann, and she should be at near full strength for the Eureka game.

Eureka will take a 1-5 record into action Thursday night against Webster University. The Red Devils’ lone win came against Blackburn.

A year ago, Monmouth topped the Red Devils 70-62, with Larkin contributing nine points and nine rebounds.

"Eureka graduated their whole first five, so they’re a lot like us," said Mann. "Throughout the years, it’s always been a war when we play them, but they’re fun games to play, because they get out and make you run, and our girls like to play that way."

The tempo of the game should be accelerated, and the Scots appear to be speeding up their rebuilding process as well. Through seven games – despite losing four starters from last

season – the encouraging results show four wins, and the three losses have been by just 5, 2 and 12 points.

Increased production over last year from Bradshaw (10.9 ppg) and Sweet has been a positive factor, as has the dominance of freshman Melissa Jones, who leads Monmouth in scoring and rebounding in her rookie year. The former UTHS star is scoring 13.4 points per game and adding 8.4 rebounds, eye-opening numbers that have Mann singing her praises.

"Melissa is very athletic," said Mann. "She’s not nearly as big as the kids she’s playing against in that she doesn’t have the body strength, but the thing about her that is so impressive is that she has no fear of any team or situation."

Mann reported that Jones was one of the leading scorers and rebounders in the tough Western Big 6 Conference as a senior, and her numbers are possibly up from her prep career.

"She’s got numbers as good with us, if not better, than she did in high school," he said. "Not many freshmen can come in right away and duplicate their numbers from high school, and she’s done it despite missing the first two weeks of practice because she was still playing volleyball."

The only negative that can be noted about the women’s basketball program is that just as Monmouth seems to be on a roll, it will go nearly a full month before returning to action against league-leading Lake Forest Jan. 7.

Mann said the players will practice about one hour a day during their final exam week, and he’ll send them home for Christmas break Dec. 18. They’ll return to practice Jan. 2 or 3.

"The biggest thing we do is encourage them to get to a gym and at least keep up a little conditioning," said Mann. "It’s a tough time period, but the other schools in the conference are pretty much in the same boat."

A notable exception is Lake Forest, which will play in a tournament over the holidays.