A Season in Review: 2010-2011 Lady Barons Basketball

To sum up the 2010-2011 Franciscan University Lady Barons basketball season, only one word is needed: growth. Time and time again, first-year head coach Luke Heusel talked about how much his team was growing with every game. Heusel's squad, made up of three seniors, two juniors, four sophomores, and three freshmen, only managed to win three of their 23 games this year, but continually showed bright spots that pointed to an encouraging future.

"Being a first time coach with really no coaching experience," Heusel said, "[It was good] for me to get a sense of the strength of competition in the conference. All the teams are pretty tough—we've got a great conference and I was impressed with the level of basketball played." Huesel noted that his first ever group of Franciscan Lady Barons was a great one. "It was a lot of fun," he said. "Traveling with the girls, doing this basketball thing; it was a lot of fun."

Heusel also noted two games in particular that really showed the true heart of the team: the Lady Barons versus the La Roche College Lady Redhawks and the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Lady Panthers, the top two teams in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

On Jan. 22, the Lady Barons traveled to the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, ranked No. 2 in the AMCC at the time, and took the game down to the last second of play. After a back-and-forth battle the whole game, Franciscan came back from a six-point deficit with under two minutes to play. With possession of the ball and down one point with under ten seconds left, freshman Hannah Flanagan—who went 5-10 from three-point range in the contest and led her team with 15 points—was fouled with 1.9 seconds to go. Flanagan was sent to the line for a chance at a one-and-one situation to win the game. Unfortunately, she missed the front end of the free throws and time expired, leaving the Lady Barons defeated, but that game showed something about the team's heart. Pitt-Bradford is the same team that handed Franciscan a 25-point loss earlier in the year. Growth.

"Seeing a freshman, Hannah Flanagan, hit five 3-pointers at Pitt-Bradford to keep us in that game, and to be on that sideline with a chance to beat one of the best teams in the conference at the last second, that was exciting," Heusel said.

The second game versus the eventual AMCC champion, La Roche College, was also a battle until the final horn. The Lady Barons trailed by just four at halftime, and eventually lost by eight. Similar to Pitt-Bradford, La Roche is a team that handed the Franciscan a 40-point defeat at home earlier in the season. Once again: growth.

The Lady Barons senior core was the glue that held the team together, according to Heusel. "They didn't necessarily score a lot of points, but they were a great group to lead us through the conference." In particular, Huesel noted senior Marian Weber, who he said, "was always a spark for us."

Perhaps the seniors didn't score a lot of points because a group of underclassmen teammates took care of it for them. Freshman Molly Coogan, who set the school record for single-game points in the team's first win of the year over Chatham with 32, lead the team in scoring at 12.4 ppg, followed by fellow freshman Flanagan at 10.9 ppg and sophomore Christine Conrad at 10.4 ppg. The trio accounted for 34 of the team's 51 points per game on the year.

"Christine had a great year not only because of her statistics, but because she had to play three or four positions regularly, including the point guard position where she did a nice job," Huesel said. "And Hannah and Molly had great years from the standpoint of getting to play a ton of minutes against really good competition. They both played really well and it was really fun to watch."

As for next season, Huesel said that he is looking to improve on this year's learning experience. "We're going to look to be more physical overall, and I expect us to be better than 3-20," he said. "We were often unable to put together two halves of basketball, and our overall lack of all-the-time intensity is what hurt us—that and turnovers—and I think we'll try and work better with that from the coaching standpoint."

Putting in the work in the off-season, Huesel noted, will produce improvements for the Lady Barons. "Everybody's got to work hard this summer. That's the key. In order for us to move up in the conference, the girls have got to take a little time off, but then be right back into basketball. We're hoping they work hard in the off-season, because we definitely have some nice stuff to work with for the future."