While Griffins “Fought for their Lives,” Miller Proves to be a Hero
By: Jordie Clark ’19 Sports Editor
The Women’s Basketball team beat Concordia College 62–51 on Sunday, Jan. 27 for the ninth year in a row. Though expected to beat the Clippers, the Lady Griffins are coming off a record of 2–6 in conference and 4–12 overall.
Compared to the past two years, this is not historically their strongest record. However, this game revealed the talent that is slowly coming forth and keeping the women’s basketball team afloat amid their season.
With a rough start, this game against Concordia could potentially shift the chances of the Lady Griffins making it to the playoffs this year.
Star player of the game, Leah Miller ’22 from Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, helped lead the team to this win. With a 14-point, 17-rebound double-double from this young center, Miller gave a preview for future gameplay for the College’s Women’s Basketball.
This semi-high scoring, fast-paced game revealed just how Coach Mike West has been pushing his team to overcome the beginning of the season. The Griffins put the Clippers to bed and allowed this game to be the beginning of the team the College community is accustomed to seeing in the playoffs.
“The biggest thing is the pace,” Miller said. “We’re definitely a lot quicker here and that’s our whole game plan, even going into this game. We just wanted to run on them because we knew they had a short bench, and we just had to go, and that’s probably the biggest thing.”
West has seen his players make the playoffs for the past couple of years, and with previous success, this game showed that he and his team have not lost their touch.
“The biggest thing for us, is we’re talking about just fighting for our lives right now,” West said. “We set out in the beginning of the year with a very tough non-conference schedule on purpose. That was by design thinking we were going to challenge our team.”
“I think we’ve been playing better as the season goes along.” West said. “The young players are growing up quickly, as well as the older players are now recognizing that I don’t have to do as much, I’ve got support, and everybody is kind of relaxing and just doing what they’re good at, and no one’s forcing anything at the moment.”
The Griffins are made up of 10 underclassmen, and only three upperclassmen plus a transfer from Widener University. Through this tough season, the ladies are finding their footing, and Miller is finding her footing quite comfortably.
Jaeda Wildgoose ’19 has racked up a variety of accolades in her four years at the College, gathering 1,000 points by her junior year. Miller is rumored to be an up-and-coming mini “Wildgoose” to take over next year.
“If it’s Leah who gets the big game, Jaeda is not worried about it,” West said. “They just want to win; they don’t care who gets the credit.”
“I learn from Jaeda basically every single day in practice,” Miller said. “I try to pick up as much as I can from her just because she has really good footing and everything on the court.”
Though some may find having two strong centers would cause tension, the two have worked out a way to co-exist and provide success between one another.
“I think we’re definitely getting the hang of it to look for the high, lows, and it’s starting to flow a lot better,” Miller said. “It’s a hard life living behind Jaeda Wildgoose, but we’re really young right now, so if we keep pushing and keep continuing and learn to grow from this and next year, I think we have a really bright future.”
There is still 11 more games on the schedule for the Lady Griffins, and plenty of time for them to make a comeback.
“We have to play like our life depends on it,” West said.
The Lady Griffins will travel to Jefferson University on Feb. 25 to face Jefferson in a conference game for their second to last regular season game.
