Women's basketball make playoffs after 6 yrs

The women's basketball team played their final game of the season this past Tuesday, a 51-73 NCAC tournament loss to number-one seeded Kenyon College. The playoff game was the first Oberlin had been to in six years, when Coach Ann Gilbert was a player on the team.

Oberlin acquired the final spot in the tournament through a coin toss on Monday after Saturday's 52-73 loss to Earlham College. The top eight teams in the nine member NCAC are invited to tournament play, based on conference performance. After the Earlham game, Oberlin was tied with Denison with one win apiece in the conference.

Both of those wins came against each other. Denison beat Oberlin on their home court in the teams' first matchup of the season, and then the Yeowomen tied the series with a win when the Big Red came to Oberlin.

The Yeowomen had hoped that they would be able to avoid the coin toss with a victory at Earlham, but inconsistent play and early foul trouble undermined the Yeowomen. Three players had three fouls each at the end of the first half, when Oberlin was only down by two points.

"It seemed like every time we scored a point they called a foul," said senior Toah Nkromah. "I think the referees were completely unfair."

Tentativeness on offense and defense made the second half much more lopsided, with Earlham outscoring the Yeowomen by nineteen points.

"They penetrated [to the basket] every single time [on offense] in the second half, because they knew we were in foul trouble," said coach Ann Gilbert.

The coin toss immediately followed the game.

As the team with the better overall record, Gilbert was given the option of calling the toss, but she deferred to Denison's coach, who called tails. It was heads.

"I was very excited," said Gilbert. "I almost promised the kids that we would be going to the tournament."

Nevertheless, it wasn't quite the way Gilbert and her team had hoped they would make the playoffs.

"We weren't exactly pleased with the way we got into the tournament, we wanted to win it outright. But you have to start somewhere," said Gilbert.

First-year Chamia Peterson seconded Gilbert's thoughts, "Hey, we went. And that's enough. We really can't say too much about the past."

And the touch of luck they had getting into the playoffs didn't help with their difficult seeding versus Kenyon.

The Ladies pounded Oberlin in the first half, but the Yeowomen refused to quit and stayed with Kenyon virtually point for point thereafter.

The game saw solid performances by Nkromah, sophomore Nicole James, and continuing strong play from first-years Ikeya Hillman and Monica Bush.

Nkromah, playing her last game for Oberlin, in particular was cited by Gilbert as having an excellent game.

"This season has been a best season for me," said Nkromah. "[Against Kenyon] I just had an on day."

Bush and Hillman also had superb performances this season. Both ended the year with honorable mention for All-Conference honors, and as two out of three first-years selected. Bush lead the NCAC in field goal percentage and rebounding, and was fifth in scoring. Hillman was third in the conference for scoring.

As the Yeowomen look to next season, they will have seven returning players, and a team that has proven in moments that it can play with the best the NCAC has to offer right now.

"We proved that we could hang with anyone," said Peterson. "We've seen what's out there, now we want to take over."

It will take another strong recruiting class for that to happen, and another player besides Bush or Hillman to add consistent scoring.

Leadership will be a key as well. Even with the presence of Nkromah, this was an extremely young, and small, team. The experience of a year should make a difference for this year's class come next season, particularly if Gilbert gets the prospects she wants.

And, of course, there's the question of how long Oberlin can keep its mitts on Gilbert. She has spoken of an interest in playing in the professional women's basketball league, the WNBA, starting this summer, as well as possibly coaching Division I at some future date.

Despite the glitzy possibilities, Gilbert seems dedicated to Oberlin. For example, she was offered a coaching position at Kenyon College, but decided to stay to fulfill her commitment to the prospectives she recruited.

"I really want to stay until [Oberlin's] program turns around," she said. "I would like to be in the top four teams in the conference."

Gilbert's goal is feasible if the trend of strong oncoming players continues. She projects three to five years as being a rough time frame for the team to reach these goals, and hopefully much sooner for the team to break .500.

The Yeowomen were 4-21 this season, not much of an improvement on last year, except when you look at the stats boxes. Oberlin point totals and rebounding were much better than last year, and their defense held teams to lower scoring as well.

Still, there are lots of maybes. Of course, that's unless you talk to the Yeowomen themselves.

"Just because we started out on the bottom doesn't mean we belong there," said Nkromah.

Good recruiting and a touch of luck will make the difference.