Women's Basketball Preview Part 2: Wright State
Nov. 10, 2004
This is the second in a nine-part series on the 2004-05 Horizon League women's basketball season. Each weekday leading up to the season opener on Nov. 16, www.horizonleague.org will profile a League men's basketball team, beginning with the team picked ninth in the preseason poll on Wednesday, Nov. 10, and ending with the preseason favorite on Friday, Nov. 19. The regular season will tip off on Nov. 19, when five Horizon League teams kick-off the 2004-05 season. All stories are courtesy of their respective school's sports information office.
The Wright State women's basketball roster may just have 10 names on it and have only one senior, but the Raiders bring youthful experience to the 2004-05 campaign as Bridgett Williams begins her fourth season as head coach.
Leading the list of returnees for WSU is sophomore guard Brittney Whiteside, who was selected to both the Horizon League All-Newcomer and All-Defensive teams last season and is a Preseason Second Team All-League selection this year. Whiteside led the team in scoring (11.1), rebounds (4.7) and steals (60) as a freshman and was second in assists (74).
Another returning guard for the Raiders is sophomore Jeanette Woodberry, who was second on the team in scoring (9.8) and second in steals (47). Woodberry shot 46 percent from the field overall, including 40 percent from three-point range, and hit 75 percent of her foul shots.
Angie Ott, the lone senior on the team, is back after averaging 9.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game last season. The forward led the squad in blocked shots (22), free throw percentage (.814) and three-pointers (41).
Three juniors also return for the Raiders this season. Guard Rhea Mays was third on the team in assists (59) as she averaged just over five points a game, forward Tyanda Hammock scored nearly five points a contest a year ago and guard Kendra Agee shot 43 percent from the floor in averaging almost four points.
The final returnee is sophomore guard Steph Comisar, who played in 11 games with one start last season. Comisar is also the starting goalkeeper for the Raider women's soccer team and was a Second Team All-League performer in that sport this season. Three freshmen forwards round out the Wright State roster in Sierra Crayton, Danielle Duncan and Whitney Lewis. They will be counted upon to help pick up the 499 points and 324 rebounds lost from last season.
Along with the three new faces on the roster, WSU will also have a new face on the sidelines in assistant coach Nathan Bellman, who joins the Raiders after two years at Indiana Wesleyan.
The Raiders again face a challenging nonleague schedule which includes four Mid-American Conference foes and regional matchups with Dayton, Indiana State, IPFW and Morehead State.
WSU will also visit California for the first time in mid-December, taking on Cal State Northridge before competing in the Hilton Woodland Hills Beach Classic, the first in-season tournament for Wright State since the 2001-02 season. The Raiders take on host Pepperdine in the opener and then face either BYU or Vanderbilt the second night. The three games in California mark the first time that Wright State will play a game in the continental United States west of the Rocky Mountains.
The rest of the schedule consists of the 16 League contests, highlighted by a visit from preseason favorite UW-Green Bay to the Nutter Center on February 5. Wright State has won each of the previous two meetings in Dayton, accounting for half of the Phoenix's total losses in the League the last two years. After hosting its first-ever postseason game last season, Wright State looks to add to that total this year as the Raiders will host the semifinals and finals of the League tournament should they advance to the semifinal round.
After losing 10 games by 10 or less points last season, including a four-point setback against eventual champion UW-Green Bay on the road in the Horizon League quarterfinals, Wright State hopes to turn the corner in 2004-05 and become a major factor in the League race.
