11/6/2024 2:39:00 PM – By: Antonio Arredondo (Click here for the original article)

NEWBERG, Ore. — It’s year two for coach Lauren Howard and the George Fox women’s basketball staff, and the outlook could not be brighter for the program.

A casual glance at the Bruins’ 6-17 record in the 2023-24 season did not show the improvement the team put together over the year; battling through the ups and downs of having a new coaching staff, injuries to various starters, and a tough schedule to boot, Fox rattled off four victories in their final seven games — including a three-game win streak — to end the season strong.

“I think the end of the season gave these returners confidence to understand that they are capable of doing what we’re asking them to do,” Howard said, “It helped with team morale and figuring out that there’s a lot we can do. We just have to continue to push ourselves.”

Healthy competition has been a theme for the Bruins as a heap of new players enter the new year.

And “heap” of new players isn’t an understatement — after just one transfer player over the past five seasons, the Bruins have four players on the roster who have transferred from other schools: Hanne Hopkins, Sophia Hardy, Mary Corbett, and Laney Snelling.

Snelling — a former player for Howard at Sherwood High School — and Corbett both come to the program from junior colleges. Corbett scored 15.8 points per game at Los Angeles Valley, while Snelling scored 4.2 at Linn-Benton CC. Hardy is the lone D-III transfer, returning to her home state of Oregon after one year in Illinois at Benedictine, where she started 24 games with 7.9 points and 5.2 rebounds.

Hopkins comes to the team from a familiar foe in Division II Western Oregon. The sophomore guard played one season for the Wolves, appearing in all 23 games and starting 10. One of those 23 games was against the Bruins, where Hopkins scored four points and totaled two steals in 20 minutes. A former All-State player for Gladstone High School, Hopkins’ impact has been immediate for Howard, but others have challenged her to get better as well.

“[Hannah’s] going to go hard all the time,” Howard said. “and I feel like we have brought in other players that are able to compete with her and make her better. With her being a very talented athlete too, it’s forced a lot of our players to have to be better too and compete with her.”

It’s not just the transfers that have made this a new-look roster: Freshman Paige Macduff, Isabella Arrisgado, and Laelie Rassmussen have all entered to make an impact. While the dual-sport athlete Rasmussen will soon work on transitioning from volleyball season to basketball, both Macduff and Arrisgado saw time in the Bruins’ season-opening exhibition game against Walla Walla.

“I think they’ve both grown in the last couple of weeks of practices,” Howard said of Macduff and Arrisgado, “and proven themselves to be able to compete at a high level with even some of our returners, which is really promising.”

While much may be noted about the new additions to the squad in 2024, the returning athletes bring a lot of firepower. The senior class features experienced veterans ready to build off of a growing year in Alyssa Wells, Alexa Borter, and Claire Hinds.

Wells enters her s after a massive third-year leap; the guard started her junior season on the bench and blossomed from a sixth-man scoring option to a key piece of the starting lineup. The senior saw her stats balloon — with her points per game increasing from 5.2 to a team-high 11.7, assists moving from 1.2 to 2.1, and three-point percentage growing from 30% to 38%.

Borter missed all of the 2023-24 season, with Hinds stepping in to fill her place in the paint. A true post that Fox missed in the past season — graduating senior and All-NWC Second Teamer Ella Roberts transitioned from wing to center to end 2024 — Borter averaged 4.1 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in 2022-23. Hinds, meanwhile, carved a solid supporting role for the Bruins, averaging 18.1 minutes per game.

“[The seniors’] leadership is going to go a long way, “Howard said, “their demand for accountability and excellence has been a lot better than it was for them last year.”

For the juniors, four players — three excluding Snelling — will look to continue their growth after what Howard considers a successful sophomore campaign.

“Coming into their sophomore year last year and having a new coach, it kind of felt like another freshman year for them,” Howard said, “Their confidence is through the roof now as they go into being an upperclassman and into the second year with the new coach.”

While two of the three captains on the team are seniors, Kylie Ritter will serve as the third caption for the second straight season. A player Howard hails as a leader on and off the court, Ritter bounced back from an early injury to finish second on the team in rebounds (4.9) and first in free-throw percentage (92%).

Mia Skoro returned from an injury of her own in 2023-24 after missing her entire freshman campaign, starting 11 games for Fox and averaging 5.3 points per game — none bigger than a game clinching shot for the Bruins in a win over Pacific Lutheran. Madeline Schumacher rounds out the junior class eager to play but also on theme, herself having dealt with offseason injuries the past two years.

For the sophomore class, Tara Ushiro will be a big piece of what the Bruins have in the new season; the guard started her first career game as a freshman, scoring nine points and hitting three treys before an injury midway through the third quarter knocked her out for the season. After an offseason of work and rehab, Ushiro is ready to build off of her strong start.

Emma Boehm and Trinity Barker finish off the sophomore roster. Boehm played in 14 games for the Bruins in spot minutes, while Barker was a valued member of the practice team who has been elevated to the gameday roster — in their scrimmage against Walla Walla, she received her first collegiate minutes.

While the roster is chocked full of talent, if you’ve paid attention thus far into the preview you’ve noticed one problem — injuries. Fox was decimated by the injury bug in 2023-24, losing Borter and Ushiro to season-ending injuries before conference play even started and dealing with several other weeklong recoveries. Thankfully for Howard, the depth Fox has for this season is not a concern but a bright spot — especially when it comes to defensive effort.

“Defensively, we just have to be more active,” Howard said, “and what will help with that is having a deeper bench than the numbers we had last year.”

The Bruins’s 2024-25 schedule features numerous changes; after a year that saw the Bruins face two Division II teams, Fox will play six Division III teams and three NAIA teams with a challenging but well-matched list of opponents as they adjust to new systems and a new roster. The schedule will feature two trips — one to Boston and one to California — with the premier home matchup against No. 24 Hardin-Simmons.

“The hope is that our preseason is intermixed with teams at similar levels, with some teams at a little higher level, ” Howard said, “[The schedule] will provide confidence and allow us to figure out where we’re at before we start conference play.”

The Bruins, who have been on the outside looking in of the conference tournament the past two seasons, are projected to finish fifth in the preseason coaches poll. But with changes to conference play — most teams outside of preseason favorite Whitman have lost key players — and shifts in the conference schedule — all games will be played in the 2025 calendar year, with the women’s conference games shifting to the later 6/8 p.m. start times — the NWC Tournament spots are up for grabs.

But with so much new for the Bruins, from players to schemes to the schedule, there’s one thing that will make Fox a contender: old-school toughness.

“[Last year], sometimes we were okay with just maybe being mediocre,” Howard said, “Whereas we have a group this year that’s not okay with that. We want to compete. We want to be better.”

Fox’s 71-50 exhibition win over Walla Walla showed that the competitiveness is there. Now they just have to apply it for one full season.