By Brittany Jones
With a great gathering of fans to back them, our six women’s basketball seniors made quite the showing on Tuesday night to beat conference opponent Robert Morris University! This was one of the best senior nights I have ever been a part of and I’d argue that our fans and seniors Erin Hanneman, Marquita Smith, Elizabeth Carney, Kathlyn McClain, Maureen Downs and Angie Bush felt the same way!
Not many senior nights conclude a 27-1 season. What an amazing note to end on for these girls and a true pay-off for all of their hard work these past four years. For the fans, it was nothing but entertainment as SXU jumped out to a 17-4 lead. The game was over at this point and the rest of the night was nothing but celebration.
There are six seniors on our team this year and most of which have played quite a few years together at SXU and a few even competed against each other during high school. There is a lot of history, and a lot of talent between these six girls. With the game decided in the first five minutes of play, all the seniors got a lot of playing time for their last official home game. They accounted for 61 of our 88 points! The four-year members of SXU (Hanneman, Carney and Bush) have an exceptional 86% winning percentage in their four years at SXU.
Coach Bob Hallberg gets a lot of credit for the night as well. Beside the fact that he is the coach of the current No. 2 ranked team in the nation, Wednesday’s game was his 250th win at SXU. He also made a lot of ruckus during the game when with about five minutes left and all five of the players on the court being seniors he made an unlikely substitution.
I guess it was not a substitution but instead an addition as he added the sixth senior into the mix. As the players and fans were trying their best to tell him he had six players on the court, Coach Hallberg stood his ground and insisted that they were all supposed to be in the game. With the call of a technical foul on SXU the announcer enjoyed announcing that for the first and last time all six of our seniors were on the court together at the same time. A memory that I know will endure with our seniors forever!
After the game we all enjoyed pizza and pop while celebrating our first place conference title. Our seniors received gifts and a little frosting to the face from some underclassmen players armed with cupcakes. Overall it was an honor to be a part of and I think an experience many seniors, players, coaches, parents, and fans were lucky to have had. So although we still have a tough battle ahead of us in our NAIA conference tournament and in Jackson for nationals, Wednesday was a great end to a great season and career for some!
Brittany Jones is a sophomore I/O psychology major from Tinley Park, IL. She is a Student Government Association senator, Vice President of the American Red Cross Club, and a forward on the Women's basketball team. Consideration for the student bloggers is provided by Saint Xavier University.
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