Four months of work, triumphs and pitfalls. Four months of practice, of games, of long bus trips all over the Southeast.
Four months of Elon University women’s basketball comes down to this weekend in Asheville. The Phoenix starts the Southern Conference Tournament as the No. 5 seed with a game against fourth-seeded Samford University March 3.
“Whole season, preseason, all the years I’ve been here,” said senior point guard Aiesha Harper. “It all leads up to the SoCon Tournament.”
Elon enters the postseason sizzling. The Phoenix has outscored each of its last four opponents by double digits and has held each of those teams under 40 percent from the field.
“We just have the momentum in our hands right now,” Harper said. “Our words of affirmation, I know, for me is we can control our destiny. That’s exactly what we can do at this point.”
Elon (16-13, 12-8 Southern Conference) closed out the regular season with a 73-46 thumping of Western Carolina University. For senior guard Kallie Hovatter, things couldn’t have ended any better. After starting her college career at St. Joseph’s, leaving, and having to sit out two years because of transfer rules and injury, Hovatter finished her career at Alumni Gym with a career-high 14 points.
“I couldn’t be any more happy for her,” said junior guard Ali Ford. “She deserves everything, all the credit and her career. Never giving up. She’s sitting on the sidelines with an injury and never once does the long face come on.”
The two games in the season series against the Bulldogs couldn’t be any more opposite from one another. After the Phoenix pummeled Samford 69-44 early in the year, Samford (17-12, 12-8) rebounded — big time — with a 63-57 home victory Jan. 28. Elon goes into the matchup hoping for a repeat of the former and a total avoidance of the latter.
“I am demanding because I feel there’s so much more in (our team),” said head coach Charlotte Smith. “I think there’s been times where they couldn’t see it, but I could see it. I know what it’s like to be a championship team because I’ve been there. I just know what it takes. I demand it out of them.”
For Harper, it’s do or die time. One loss would be her last — each win extends her career for at least one more game.
“I’m not necessarily expecting anything,” Harper said. “I’m just expecting for us to play absolutely as hard as we can and I think the rest will show.”
Elon enters conference tournament play as the proverbial underdog. A team just below the leaders of the pack not expected to make a serious championship run. None of this puts a damper in the spirit of the Phoenix, a team destined to prove it belongs by winning — one game at a time.
“I don’t think anybody expects us to win,” Ford said. “Except for us.”
That's just fine for the Elon women's basketball team.