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Women’s Basketball: Turnaround win – Record crowd sees UL women’s home opener
Eric Narcisse, The Advertiser, November 14, 2012 UL Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball coach Garry Brodhead is naturally an upbeat, high-spirited and high-energy person, but at Tuesday’s media luncheon he had an extra bounce in his step. That’s likely the result of his club being one day removed from their most impressive outing of the young season, an 83-42 rout of LSU-Shreveport. The game set a new attendance record at Earl K. Long Gym with 1,007 people, shattering the previous best of 703. "It was really exciting to see the crowd come out and support us the way they did," said Brodhead, as his Cajuns prepared for a two-game road trip Brodhead was pleased with his team’s defensive performance, which forced 24 turnovers, including 17 steals. Freshman guards Kia Wilridge and Keke Veal tied for the team lead with five steals each. "Kia is so athletic that she doesn’t need to be in position to make plays on defense," Brodhead said. "But she’s going to become really good when she is in position on defense. Keke played extremely well also and the great thing about her is that she is a terrific rebounder. Keke and Kia both played extremely well." Another player that really stood out was junior forward Ashley Benjamin, who originally was recruited because of her athleticism and ability to defend, but has caught the coaching staff’s attention with her ability to score. Benjamin is averaging 14.5 points per game en route to leading the Cajuns to a 2-0 start. "When we recruited Ashley, we wanted her for her defense," Brodhead said. "She’s not much of a scorer, so that’s been surprising to us. She is mainly there for defense, to steal the ball and rebound. She’s extremely athletic and against Southern she was guarding a 6-3 girl and shut her down. I’ve been very pleased with the way she’s played, so I hope she keeps scoring." Brodhead has enjoyed what he’s seen from his Cajuns early on, especially the individual performances, but he’s more excited about the overall effort they’ve played with so far. "Our kids played hard and there is not going to be a team in America that will play harder than us," Brodhead said. "It’s a joy to coach a team that goes so hard. We still have to work harder at getting into the gaps, but I’m pleased with where we’re at. We’re still not good at it, but when you play with the effort we’re playing with you can make up for mistakes." At one point in their game Monday, the Cajuns had all freshmen on the floor at once. "I saw a lot of good effort," Brodhead said. "That’s what we rate our players on. The freshmen work hard and they play hard. Do they mistakes? Sure. Do they turnover the ball? Yeah. But they are buying into the defense. We have some basketball players and not just athletes. My expectations for them are really high. Seeing them play excites me." Follow assistant sports editor
Eric Narcisse on Twitter@tdanarcisse
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