Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Ten Days of A-Sun Basketball continues with an inside look at the Campbell Lady Camels. Year 26 of the Wanda Watkins regime begins in Buies Creek this season for the Lady Camel basketball program. Campbell returns four starters from last year's squad which finished fifth in the Atlantic Sun and posted the most overall (11) and conference (10) victories since the 2001-02 season. The Lady Camels return Adrienne Rieley who was named to the A-Sun All-Conference Second Team last season and is a Preseason All-Conference selection this season after leading Campbell in scoring (11.1) and was second on the team in rebounding (6.5) last season.

Coach Wanda Watkins on the Camels

Team Page

Roster

Schedule

Statistics

SEASON PREVIEW - (Courtesy Campbell Media Relations)

Joining Rieley as returning starters will be the other senior on the team Octavia Blackwell and a pair of juniors, Letitia Dickson and Marlena Murphy. Campbell also returns seven other players, four of which saw significant minutes last season.

"We have a great group of returning players that have helped mold this program and turn in back in the right direction," Watkins said. "We had a great deal of momentum at the end of last season with a chance to finish third in the league and a large portion of that success was because of the players that we have coming back this season."

Joining the 11 returning players from the 2005-06 season will be four newcomers, all incoming freshmen.

"We are really excited to see our incoming freshmen out on the floor," Watkins said. "Coming in there are one of the most talented groups we have had in awhile and all bring a different strength to our team."

The 2006-07 season opens just up the road at Elon when the Lady Camels take on the Phoenix on November 11. Campbell then sees six of its next eight games at home including the A-Sun opener against last year's tournament runner-up Gardner-Webb on December 2.

"Our schedule is a little more favorable this year than it was last season," Watkins said. "We traveled a lot last year during the non-conference part of our schedule and it is going to be nice to have some more home games this year. However, just because they are at home does not mean we are going to have an easier task than what we faced last year. You can't look at any of our games and say, 'here is a win and here is a win', but you also can't look at it and say, 'here is a loss and here is a loss.'"

FRONT COURT

The Lady Camels return 75 percent of their low-post scoring from last season with senior Adrienne Rieley and junior Marlena Murphy. The duo also accounted for 35 percent of Campbell's rebounds last season and 39 percent of its offensive rebounds. Murphy led the team on the glass with 7.7 boards a game, despite not seeing significant minutes until the ninth game of the season. The Fayetteville, N.C. native also netted 7.0 points a game over the course of the season and averaged 8.8 points and 9.9 rebounds a game over the final 21 games of the season.

"Adrienne and Marlena are truly going to be a force down on the block for us this season," Watkins said. "Adrienne is as pure of a shooter as you are going to find facing up to the basket and Marlena can take it with her back to the basket with the best of them. They are going to be huge assets for us inside and should be among the best in the conference."

Read the full season preview

10 Days of A-Sun Basketball Schedule
Oct. 16 - Belmont
Oct. 17 - Campbell
Oct. 18 - ETSU
Oct. 19 - Gardner-Webb
Oct. 20 - Jacksonville
Oct. 23 - Kennesaw State
Oct. 24 - Lipscomb
Oct. 25 - Mercer
Oct. 26 - UNF
Oct. 27 - Stetson