Lady Bobcats look to defend ’06 title

The GCSU women’s basketball team (19-8, 10-4 PBC) travels to Lander University in Greenwood, S.C., this week to defend their title as Peach Belt Conference Tournament champions and become the first team to repeat since Columbus State did it in 2001.
The Lady Bobcats won the conference tournament in 2006 with a 67-61 win over top-seeded Clayton State in the semifinals and an 89-83 double-overtime victory over Francis Marion in the championship game.
The road to a repeat as conference champions will be a bit easier this year, as the Lady Bobcats are the third seed.
The ladies begin their quest Thursday at 1 p.m. against No. 2 seed UNC Pembroke. GCSU dominated UNC Pembroke at home this season with a score of 64-37 but are not underestimating the Lady Braves, as the team has beaten both No. 1 seeds in tournament, USC Aiken and Clayton State, and has won nine out of their last 11 games.
“All the teams are really strong in the Peach Belt Conference,” said Emily Bixler, sophomore guard. “Anybody can beat anyone in our conference. We just need to focus on the game we have coming up and bring all that we got every game.”
GCSU also understands the aura of a college basketball tournament.
“Upsets happen all the time in tournaments,”said Lindsey Smith, junior guard. “What’s done is done. We just need to handle what is in front of us and then go to the next thing.”
Head Coach John Carrick is doing many things to get his team prepared including posting player profiles of UNC Pembroke’s team in the locker room, but Carrick starts by informing the team of what the Lady Braves are capable of doing.
“The first thing I do is show my players the facts,” Carrick said. “I show them that the season is history. It doesn’t matter that we beat them by over 20 points. It is a new season, we have new life. We can wash all of our sins away and start over again.”
The team held a light practice on Monday, working on their fundamentals, and will hold an intense practice on Tuesday to simulate the pace and rigor of a basketball tournament. Carrick believes the key to victory in a tournament is to have the passion to win.
“This team is good enough to beat anybody if we play with passion,” Carrick said. “If we play with the passion that siblings play each other with in their driveway, the passion to win and be the best, then we will not come up empty-handed.”
Carrick uses many strategies throughout the season to give his team intensity and is continuing this up to the tip-off of the first game in the tournament. One tactic Carrick does is recite a quote at the beginning of each practice to gets his players pumped up for the upcoming games. Monday’s quote was perfect for this week’s circumstances as a tournament is a both a test to a player’s mental and physical endurance.
The quote read, “It’s a little like wrestling a gorilla- you don’t quit when you’re tired, you quit when the gorilla is tired.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 2 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry