In eight games this season for the Elon University women’s basketball team, turnovers and rebounding have been a problem.
Four times on the young season, the Phoenix has turned the ball over at least 20 times. Of those four games, two came in conference play against the College of Charleston and Western Carolina University. Elon came out with an even 1-1 record in those two games.
In those same eight games, Elon, overall, has also been outrebounded, including being dominated on the glass by the University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston.
According to freshman guard Jessica Farmer, rebounding has become a focus in practice for the Phoenix. It showed on Thursday, Dec. 13 in Elon’s 74-54 win over Morgan State University, especially for Farmer.
Though the Phoenix only won the rebounding battle by two, Elon dominated on the defensive side, pulling down 28 rebounds and not allowing the Lady Bears second chances.
“Rebounding is what we’ve been working on most,” Farmer said. “That’s something coach (Charlotte Smith) has been focusing on in practice is boxing out and getting to the boards.”
Standing at six feet even, which puts her just two inches shorter than senior forward Kelsey Evans, Farmer, along with Evans, stared on the boards against Morgan State. On her way to her first career double-double at Elon, Farmer pulled down 10 rebounds with seven of them coming on the offensive end. Evans finished with nine of her own, six on the defensive end.
“It’s a breath of fresh air just from all of the hard practices that we’ve been having,” Farmer said. “It was nice for it to pay off and have in impact.”
While Farmer finally saw the hard work pay off, others like Evans have seen it coming for a while now.
“It’s indicative of how hard she works,” Evans said of Farmer. “She’s all over the place. She just goes so hard and I think that’s something that is really innate in her and I’m really proud of her and the way she just goes hard all the time. She makes me want to be better.”
Even Smith saw it coming thanks to the intangibles she possesses both on the floor in practice and in games.
“She’s the Energizer Bunny,” Smith said. “She has energy for days and I just love her energy and her effort and passion for the game. She loves to play and she wants to win.”
In the second half against the Morgan State, the turnovers subsided briefly, showing improvement as Smith though it was the team’s most complete half to date. Still, the Phoenix finished with 23 in the game, but the small sample could lead to smaller turnover numbers in the future for Elon.
“At one point I was just thinking to myself in regards to the turnovers, ‘What are we doing?’” Smith said of the first half turnovers against Morgan State. “I think a lot of times we try to get that outlet pass off too quickly and we’re not reading where the defense was so I thought we were a lot more poised and settled in terms of taking care of the ball and getting the opportunities and the looks that we wanted out of the offense.”
The Phoenix will look to continue the second half successes they had against Morgan State in which they scored 48 points against Campbell University on Thursday, Dec. 20.
In 28 games against the Fighting Camels, Elon is 10-18 overall. Most recently, the Phoenix topped Campbell inside Alumni Gym on Dec. 14, 2011 by taking a one-point decision, 89-88.
Game time between Elon and Campbell is set for 7 p.m. in Buies Creek, N.C.