ORUTerry Posted March 16, 2007 Share Posted March 16, 2007 Eagles' guard hits stride late in year Tulsa World Link by JOHN E. HOOVER World Sports Writer 3/16/2007 Rachel Watman becomes a threat in Mid-Con tournament. MINNEAPOLIS -- And just like that, Rachel Watman's name gets a star on the Purdue scouting report. In red ink. Watman, a sophomore guard on the Oral Roberts basketball team, was quietly having a nice season, averaging 7.2 points per game. Then, in the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament semifinals against No. 2 seed Valparaiso last week, she uncorked a career-high 19 points. The next night, with the Mid-Con's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament on the line, Watman went off for 18 against top-seeded Oakland. Watman made 11-of-26 field goals in those victories, including 6-of-15 from outside the 3-point arc. "In order for us to win the tournament, we had to have the guards step up and start hitting some shots, and she did that," Mid-Con player of the year Elisha Turek said. All things ORU go through Turek, but her work down low becomes a whole lot easier when Watman's hitting from outside. The Golden Eagles hope Watman's hot hand is still sizzling against the Boilermakers on Sat urday night (approximately 9:30) in a first-round Dallas Region contest at Williams Arena. "It just opens up our game," Watman said Thursday after practice at Augsburg College near downtown Minneapolis. "Instead of the defense just focusing on Elisha inside, they're going to have to mark outside as well. "It would open up inside more if I'm hitting my shots." And what better time? ORU (22-10) is the 15th seed in the region, while No. 12-ranked Purdue (28-5) is seeded second. For Turek and Jenny Hardin to have space to score down low, Watman (a 33 percent 3-point shooter), Katie Langford (35 percent) and Sarah Davidson (36 percent) must make perimeter shots. Is it too much to ask for Watman to knock down a handful of 3s against the Boilermakers and put up another career-high? "It's not, because we've seen a lot of this out of her in practice," said ORU coach Jerry Finkbeiner. "I talked to Rachel the other day and said, 'You're raising the bar. There are expectations from this point on. We know you can do it, but these are the expectations from this point on.' " Part of Watman's outside proficiency in the Mid-Con Tournament stems from the return of forward Jenny Hardin, who missed 10 games with injury but was a post presence in averaging 14 points in the three games. But another part of it is simply confidence on Watman's part. "It's just been, 'Let's see what Turek does,' " Finkbeiner said, adding that Watman and point guard Marianna Camargo "both stepped out of Turek's shadow last weekend and let us know who they are now." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John E. Hoover 581-8384 john.hoover@tulsaworld.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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