Cougars are getting Defensive at Holiday Tournament
Jeremy Jacob, Harbinger
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015
Defense has been a valuable weapon for the Illinois Central College women’s basketball team. It has especially been effective against a stacked field–including the 3rd, 5th, and 6th along with 4th ranked ICC–at the 35th annual Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center Holiday Tournament at ICC.
The Cougar defense has been a pressing matter for some time now. Coach Redeker made an observation against a pair of teams that thrashed the Cougars about a month ago. Chipola and Gulf Coast State not only employed a press but also throughout the whole game even when they already built a sizable lead.
“We got beat by 32 points one night and 20 points the next and those teams just kept pressing us,” coach Redeker said tonight after their win to advance them to the championship game. “We started pressing more after seeing them press us.”
It has, so far, mirrored the same results the Cougars had experienced against the pressing teams a month ago with them coming up on the winning side more. ICC has won eight straight games since suffering those two crushing losses. They have also done it in convincing fashion winning seven of them by at least 20 points and two of them by at least 60 points.
Their first victim this week was McHenry County which didn’t come in as one of the ranked Division II teams but were standing in the Cougars way of advancing. ICC ended up winning 91-30 and that potent defense forced 32 turnovers converting them into 43 points.
The first of multiple ranked teams ICC has to beat to extend their winning streak came the next night in the form of North Iowa Area Community College–a team ICC has faced twice this season splitting the first two games. Bad luck isn’t the reason for the Cougars challenging schedule. Coach Redeker actually makes sure they face a plenty of ranked teams.
“We try to schedule as many tough teams as we can,” Redeker said. “We want to reap the benefits of playing good competition.” Those benefits include preparing them for postseason play on the road to a possible championship.
NIACC has played ICC hard this season forcing a game in which ICC lost into overtime and hanging with the Cougars through halftime until Redeker’s team eventually pulled away. Both teams got off to a slow start in their third meeting, but the Cougars would press them into submission. ICC won by a score of 87-54 marking the first time this season NIACC was held under 70 points.
Coach Redeker, of course, isn’t going to use their most recent success to become complacent. Her team does have some room to improve to be even better against their second half competition.
“Our free throw shooting needs to become more consistent,” Redeker said. “We need to make sure also that we’re getting good shots in our half court offense and not just in transition.”
ICC now has a date tomorrow to face another ranked team that they’ve faced and beaten this season. Kirkwood will try to prevent the Cougars from celebrating a tournament championship on their home court at 4 p.m.
At the halfway point, sophomore Destiny Ramsey leads the team in scoring with 12.4 ppg. Sophomore Jemia Carpenter leads the team in rebounds with 6.9 per game and steals with 2.5 per game while sophomore Clarisa Martinez leads the team in blocks with 2.2 per game. Freshmen Brandi Fier and Emma Heisler have contributed in their first years leading with 3.1 assists per game and 2.5-6.5 made three-pointers per game, respectively.
Cover photo by David Cruz. Freshman Sommer Burgard blocking the shot of a Black Hawk-Moline player Dec. 2.