Lady Cougars start regional action

Kumar Bhooshan
Sports Editor

Shooting will be key if the Lady Cougars want to advance in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Regional tournament at Michigan Tech University on Friday.

In their game on friday SIUE only shot 35 percent from the field going 16-for-45 in their loss to the Lady Norse of Northern Kentucky University. The Lady Cougars drew a No. 5 seed in the region and will face the No. 4 seed Northern Michigan University.

The Wildcats will be making their 10th consecutive appearance in the tournament, and they were ranked No. 16 in the nation in the Women's Basketball Association Division II top 25 coach's poll. Northern Michigan finished it's regular season with a 22-5 record.

The Wildcats have a balanced offensive attack from three players, Jill Gobert, Marisa DellAngelo and Maryellen Poutanen. Gobert, a 6-foot-2-inch center from Rapid City, Mich. led the team averaging 16.7 points per game. DellAngelo, a 5-foot-6-inch guard, averaged a solid 16 points per game and was the leading scorer in 11 of the 27 games this year. Gobert was the leader in 11 games as well. Poutanen, a 5-foot-10-inch sophomore was the third leading scorer on the Wildcat team averaging 10 points per game.

Gobert is also the team's leading rebounder averaging just over eight rebounds per game. DellAngelo and Poutanen are third and fourth on the team, both averaging four rebounds per game.

This season the Wildcats have outscored their opponents by an average of 11 points. If the Lady Cougars want to control the game, they will have to do more than shoot the ball better and take care of the ball. In the theirmeeting against Northern Kentucky, the Lady Cougars turned the ball over 22 times. Throughout the season, the Wildcats committed 16 turnovers and forced their opponents to commit an average of 21 per game.

If the Lady Cougars hope to be successful, they will also have to attack the boards. The Wildcats' opponents have out-rebounded them by almost two rebounds per game. The Lady Cougars have bested their opponents by an average of three rebounds per game, giving SIUE a slight advantage.

In a game earlier this year, the Wildcats were downed by Lewis University, a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference by 12 points.

The Lady Cougars split their regular season games against Lewis, winning the first game 57-54, and later being downed by the Lady Flyers 62-58.

If the Lady Cougars want things to go their way, they will have to get more consistent scoring out of senior guard Misi Clark.

In the last two games, Clark has only been able to score a total of two points in the first half of play.

In the loss to Northern Kentucky, Clark only attempted nine shots, four under her average for the season and, finished the day with 13 points.

The Lady Cougars will also have to get some quality points off the bench, having only six players reaching the scoreboard. Northern Kentucky will open up the regional at 5:30 p.m. against Gannon University, followed by the Lady Cougars game at 7:30 p.m.

On Saturday the winner of the Northern Kentucky, Gannon game will meet GLVC champion University of Southern Indiana. The winner of the Lady Cougar and Wildcat game will meet top seed Michigan Tech.