SMC BASKETBALL: Blair's 26 leads Belles in first victory
By JOE HETTLER
Sports Writer
The Saint Mary's basketball team didn't just feast on turkey during Thanksgiving break — the Belles also had their first taste of victory.
On Tuesday, senior captain and forward Anne Blair led the Belles past Manchester College by notching 26 points, 16 rebounds and four blocked shots en route to a 68-62 win. Junior guard Shaun Russell also added 12 points and three assists for the Belles.
Overall head coach Susan Smith attributed the victory to a quick start and a strong finish by the Belles.
"We came out in the first 15 minutes and played really well and took the lead pretty quickly," said Smith. "[Manchester] made some adjustments and threw [us] a match-up zone in the second half, so we struggled a little with that. It came down to the end and we had some young players come through for us."
Katie Miller, who got her first career start because regular starter Mary Campione was ill, was one of those young players stepping up for the Belles.
"[Miller] stepped into the starting role and just did a great job," said Smith.
Miller felt the Belles played a good game and deserved their first win of the season.
"We started off on a good note and we needed a win," said Miller. "We were ready for a win."
Unfortunately for the Belles, their momentum from Tuesday's game didn't carry over to Friday's game against Indiana University-South Bend. Part of the reason behind their 80-67 loss was due to a reshuffled line-up.
"We did not go with our full team [on Friday]," said Smith. "Mary Campione was feeling ill. Katie Christensen went home for family reasons over the break and Kristen Matha was injured in Tuesday's game — and she's a starting post player for us. So three pretty key people were not there for us on Friday."
According to Smith, the Belles came out and started strong again, but just could not close the gap near the end of the game.
Despite the loss, Saint Mary's got another good game from a young player.
"Freshman Emily Creachbaum had a career high 24 points and played really well," said Smith. "It was kind of her homecoming because we were playing in town, and she's a local kid, so she had friends and family at the game."
After a 1-3 start to the season, Smith hopes her team can begin playing better, more consistent basketball this weekend when the Belles host the Saint Mary's Roundball Classic.
"We talked about it as a team [on Sunday] and we said that this week probably wasn't our best week because we kind of stayed the same," said Smith.
"We're real excited about getting back [home]. We have three practices this week, hopefully our whole team will be back and then we'll really get fired up to play at home on Saturday and hopefully have our break out game."
The Belles play Marian College on Friday at 8 p.m. and at either 1 p.m. in the consolation game or 3 p.m. in the championship game on Saturday.
All Sports Stories for Tuesday, November 27, 2001
