CU Women's Basketball Preview - at Cardinal Classic (11/17-18)

After a season-opening win against Oswego State on Wednesday, the Clarkson University Women's Basketball team will be playing its second and third games in a stretch of four days at the Cardinal Classic, hosted by Plattsburgh State.

The Golden Knights will take on the University of New England at 8:00 pm on Friday and will then face either Plymouth State of Plattsburgh State on Saturday afternoon.

The Series: The Golden Knights have faced the Nor'easters just once, a loss back during the 2001-02 season. If Clarkson takes on Plymouth State on Saturday, it will be the two teams' first meeting ever, while a Clarkson-Plattsburgh State match up would provide a little more familiarity, as those two squads have faced each other 42 previous times, with Clarkson leading the all-time series 24-18. However, Clarkson and the Cardinals haven't played one another since the 2010-11 season.

Key Stats for Clarkson: The Golden Knights did an outstanding job of taking care of the ball on Wednesday against Oswego, committing just seven turnovers while forcing the Lakers into 19 miscues. That is a stat that Clarkson has excelled in under fourth year head coach Maureen Webster. The Knights have enjoyed a turnover margin of +4.96 (2014-15), +6.75 (2015-16) and +6.52 (2016-17) in the last three seasons.

Key Stats for University of New England: Although the Nor'easters lost two significant scorers from last year's 23-6 team, senior Olivia Shaw already appears capable of picking up the slack. Shaw averaged 6.7 points and 4.8 rebounds per game last year, but scored 23 points with 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in New England's season-opening victory. Sam McDonald also looks to repeat or better her numbers from last year when she averaged 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game.

Key Stats for Plattsburgh State: The Cardinals welcome back seven letter winners from last year, but none of them are seniors as Plattsburgh will have a youthful team looking to better its 10-15 output from 2016-17. The Cardinals will look to get a full season out of sophomore Frannie Merkel, who missed most of January in her freshman year. The 5-11 forward averaged 11.8 points and 8.9 rebounds per game while shooting 50.3% from the floor. Junior Bella DePasquale did nearly all of her damage from beyond the 3-point arc with 63 3-pointers, accounting for 189 of her 210 points as a sophomore.

Key Stats for Plymouth State: Like Plattsburgh, the Panthers are without a senior member on the entire squad and lost a great deal of their scoring punch due to graduation. If the first game proves to be a season-long trend, the Panthers have already found the answer. Jess Conant scored 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting in the season-opener after averaging 2.2 points per game as a sophomore. Debra Morrill averaged 2.0 points per contest last year as well, and put together a 12 point, 7 rebound and 7 assist game in the opener.

Print Friendly Version