UNE starts season on right track

BIDDEFORD — Life is good for UNE women’s basketball coach Anthony Ewing.

For the 2010-2011 season, he gets all but one player back from a team that won the TCCC Championship a season ago, plus three new players.

On top of that, the Nor’easters have jumped out of the gates with wins over the University of Southern Maine, and plowed over fellow local competition St. Joseph’s College 72-51 on Wednesday night.

But Ewing will not let the Nor’easters rest on their previous success, or their current success. Even with a 21-point victory, there were aspects of the win over the Monks that Ewing said can be worked on before the team heads down to Massachusetts for the Emerson Tournament this weekend.

“We had some individuals play well, but I don’t think we played well as a team,” Ewing said. “We rebounded terribly, and our defense wasn’t good. We were fortunate [St. Joe’s] didn’t shoot the ball better because they had some good looks. They broke us down in penetration. We have to do better at playing perimeter defense and rebounding.”

After finishing 23-6 during the regular season last year, the Nor’easters defeated Regis 75-62 for the TCCC Championship, the team’s first since 2001, and a berth in the NCAA playoffs. Western Connecticut knocked UNE out in the first round.

UNE forward and senior captain Katie Diggins was the lone player to graduate from that team, and amongst the returnees, the Nor’easters have their top three scorers back in Kelley Paradis (13 ppg last season), Margo Russell (12 ppg) and Carrie Bunnell (10 ppg). Paradis made a splash in the first contest of the season against USM on Monday, scoring 30 points, and has averaged 22 points in the first two contests.

Russell lead the Nor’easters in scoring on Wednesday night against the Monks with 22 points, shooting 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Paradis finished Wednesday’s contest with 14 points.

Ewing said having most of the roster come back this season makes teaching the system easier.

“There’s a comfort level to what we’re doing, we haven’t changed a ton of stuff,” Ewing said. “That makes it easier, because I don’t have to re-teach everything. But it does raise a confidence level, a mutual confidence level. They have confidence in me, and I kind of know what I’m going to get from them on a day-to-day basis, and that’s what I’ve been striving for is consistency, to be consistently good. We’re not quite there yet, but it makes it a heck of a lot easier to have 11 back and know what we’re doing.”

The Nor’easters jumped out to a 12-point lead in the first half, with Russell leading the way with 14 points and Paradis adding nine points. UNE shot an 53-percent from the field. Though the Nor’easters struggled with shooting in the second half, they upped the lead on the Monks to 21 points and never looked back.

St. Joe’s center Ashley Geel led the Monks with 12 points in the contest.

After the Emerson Tournament, the Nor’easters return home on Nov. 23 to face their toughest opponent all season in Bowdoin College. The Polar Bears are nationally ranked amongst Division III schools, currently ranked 23rd in the USA Today/ESPN/WBCA Division III coaches poll.

Ewing said he doesn’t consider the game a measuring stick contest to see where his team stacks up against a team like the Polar Bears.

“We try to hold ourselves to a certain standard, no matter who we’re playing,” Ewing said. “That’s our measuring stick. But it is certainly a hump that we haven’t gone over. We haven’t beat Bowdoin, I don’t know if ever, certainly as long as I’ve been here, so it’s a hurdle we haven’t jumped yet and it’s one the kids are anxious to do. They’re a well coached, talented team. It’s going to be a tough one.”