By Kelvin Butler
UNIVERSITY CENTER – After a slow-start season, the Delta women’s basketball team went 11-14.
The interim head coach Jessica Peatross set the team on a three game winning streak.
“I would say just the team, as a whole, came together as one and picked each other up as their sister [and] as their teammate, and chose to play basketball in that manner,” said Peatross.
Heading into the 2020 NJCAA Region XII Division II Women’s Basketball Great Lakes East District Tournament quarterfinals, the Pioneers upsetted the fourth seeded St. Clair County Community College in a 88-68 blowout win.
“They had a different level of confidence,” said Peatross. “They fought and grinded out the season when they could have just given up.”
Their promising playoff run ended in the semi-finals against the one seeded Macomb Community College in a 108-50 loss.
This 2019-2020 Lady Pioneers had three players receive All-Eastern Conference honors:
Katie Engelhardt
All-Eastern Conference Second team, averaging 11.9 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 4.9 APG and 1.8 BPG
Kennedi Maurer
All-Eastern Conference Third team, averaging 10.9 PPG, 6.3 RPG (shooting 42.2% from the field)
Ellie Klein
All-Eastern Conference Honorable Mention, averaging 10.1 PPG, 1.7 SPG and shot 81.3% from the free throw line.
“Nobody expected us to be in the semifinals in the Eastern Conference tournament,” said Peatross. “So for us to finish in the top four – and the girls going through all the adversity that they went through all season, and having a losing record and still making it to the semi finals – that’s a testament to the girls on this team that their attitude was different.”
The 2019-2020 Delta women’s basketball team had a successful season after the slow start, thanks to Peatross changing up the team approach to the sport. If Peatross is hired as head coach for the next season, the Lady Pioneers have a good chance at competing for national championships.
