COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WEEKLY NOTES #12

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Colorado School of Mines at Fort Hays State
Friday, February 13, 2004
6:00 pm • Hays, Kansas

Colorado School of Mines at Nebraska-Kearney
Saturday, February 14, 2004
6:00 pm • Kearney, Nebraska

No. Probable Starters Ht. Yr. Hometown PPG RPG APG
20 Kristin Horkey 6-0 Jr. Fort Collins, Colo. 5.6 3.1 1.8
22 Kim Kilmer 5-9 Jr. Stoneham, Colo. 7.1 4.4 2.6
30 Heather Hoops 5-8 Jr. Golden, Colo. 5.1 2.0 2.1
32 Heather Angel 5-11 So. Littleton, Colo. 9.9 6.0 1.4
44 Ashley Gronewoller 6-3 So. Pagosa Springs, Colo. 14.4 8.8 0.5

No. Off the Bench Ht. Yr. Hometown PPG RPG APG
14 Lindsay Orchard 5-8 Fr. Salt Lake City, Utah 0.9 0.5 0.6
15 Jessica Neumiller 5-5 Sr. Casper, Wyo. 4.9 1.8 0.9
25 Bara Zahnasova 6-0 Sr. Boulder, Colo. 1.4 1.7 0.2
40 Shannon Griep 5-10 Fr. Longmont, Colo. 0.3 0.5 0.4
42 Gina Cornelio 5-10 Jr. Tucson, Ariz. 4.5 4.0 1.4
45 Katie Cunio 6-0 Sr. Canyon City, Colo. 3.3 3.2 0.2
55 Angela Pearson 6-0 Fr. Arvada, Colo. 3.0 2.5 0.1

THE HEAD COACH: Paula Krueger was named the head women’s basketball coach at Colorado Mines on July 7 after serving a six-year stint at Northern State as an assistant coach.
A graduate of Northern State, Krueger was a standout on the basketball court as she earned national tournament MVP honors as a senior during Northern’s national championship campaign in 1993-94. Krueger was also a team captain and all-district performer on NSU’s softball team. She earned NSU’s prestigious Hildred Wolfe Student Athlete of the Year award as a senior.
Following her successful athletic career, Krueger served as a graduate assistant at Northern from 1995-96 for women’s basketball and softball while finishing up her studies. She received her bachelor’s in education from Northern in 1995 and her master’s in teaching in 1996.
After graduation, Krueger moved to Nevada where she taught and coached at Pahrump Valley High School for one year before returning to Northern State in 1997 to serve as the assistant women’s basketball coach and head softball coach. During her six years as an assistant at NSU, Krueger helped guide the squad to a 114-59 mark.

MINES PICKED SIXTH IN PRESEASON RMAC POLL: The Colorado Mines women’s basketball team was picked sixth out of seven teams in the Preseason RMAC East Division Poll. Nebraska-Kearney was picked to win the division as it received 13 first place votes and 13 points. Fort Hays State was picked second with 34 points, while Regis was third with one first place vote and 36 points. Metro State (45 points), Chadron State (59), Mines (71) and Colorado Christian (85) rounded out the poll.

UP NEXT: CSM will return home to host Chadron State and Metro State on Feb. 20-21 in Volk Gymnasium.

LAST TIME OUT (2/7/04): Metro State outscored Colorado Mines, 36-19, in the second half en route to a 59-53 victory at the Auraria Events Center. Mines was led by sophomore center Ashley Gronewoller who tallied her eighth double-double of the season with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Natasha Molock produced 15 points, six steals, five rebounds and four assists for the Roadrunners.

ABOUT FORT HAYS STATE: The Tigers begin the week at 13-8 overall and 8-5 in RMAC play. Cassie Cordell leads the team in scoring (16.0 ppg) and rebounding (7.7 rpg) this season. Shanell Watson posts 15.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game and leads the team with 52 steals, while Ashlee Gustin averages 8.5 points and 6.8 boards per night and leads the team with 37 blocked shots.

LAST TIME vs. FORT HAYS STATE (1/30/04): The Colorado Mines women’s basketball team used a 34-22 second half to knock off visiting Fort Hays State in Volk Gymnasium. It was the Orediggers first win over FHSU since Feb. 1, 2001, a 73-71 win in Golden. Mines claimed a slim two-point lead at halftime (28-26), but used a 10-4 run to open the first five minutes of the second half and gain a 38-30 lead. The Tigers would cut their deficit to four points on two occasions, the last time coming with 10:53 left in the game on a pair of free throws by Shanell Watson to make the score 42-38. From there, Mines would score six straight points to gain a 10 point lead (48-38) with eight minutes remaining. The Tigers would not threaten the rest of the game as Mines knocked down 13-of-16 free throws in the final five minutes. CSM hit 33-of-43 from the charity stripe for the game. Mines was led by senior center Katie Cunio who posted 14 points and four rebounds off the bench, while the Tigers were paced by Watson’s game-high 16 points.

ABOUT NEBRASKA-KEARNEY: The Lopers are 16-5 overall and in first place in the RMAC East with a 10-3 mark. However, the team has dropped two straight games. Kalee Modlin leads the team in scoring (15.8 ppg) and rebounding (7.4 rpg). Allison Krueger posts 13.7 points and 7.3 boards per night and Anne Manning (12.9 ppg) and Taryn Ninemire (10.8 ppg) also score in double figures for the Lopers.

LAST TIME vs. KEARNEY (1/31/04): Nebraska-Kearney’s Allison Krueger totaled 18 points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals to help lift the Lopers to a 62-58 victory over Colorado Mines in Volk Gymnasium. UNK raced out to a 23-15 lead with 6:31 to play in the first half, only to see the Orediggers use a 13-4 run to close the first half and take a one point (28-27) lead at the break. Mines opened its largest lead of the game (51-45) on a layup from senior guard Jessica Neumiller with 10:34 to play in the game. But UNK used a 9-2 run over the next five minutes of play to regain a 54-53 lead. The Lopers would lead the rest of the way. The Orediggers were led by sophomore center Ashley Gronewoller who tallied a game-high 19 points, eight boards and three blocked shots.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Oredigger sophomore center Ashley Gronewoller was named the RMAC East Division Player of the Week on Dec.16 after averaging 25.0 points and 15.5 rebounds in two road wins and shooting 76 percent from the floor (16-21). In addition, Gronewoller garnered the honor on Jan. 20 after leading the Orediggers to a 3-0 week by averaging 16.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots per game and recording two double doubles.

SUPER SOPH: Sophomore center Ashley Gronewoller is making a strong case for all-conference honors for the second straight season. The 6-foot-3 Preseason All-RMAC East Division selection is seventh in the league in scoring (14.4 ppg), second in rebounding (8.8 rpg) and second field goal percentage (.612), which is also 12th in the nation. She is also second in the RMAC with eight double-doubles.

A DURABLE ANGEL: Sophomore forward Heather Angel is building upon her strong rookie campaign in which she was an Honorable Mention All-East Division pick. Angel is second on the team in scoring (9.9 ppg) and rebounding (6.0 rpg) and is the only Oredigger player to start all 21 games this year.

HOOP IT UP: Junior guard Heather Hoops had a solid week in helping Mines to a 3-0 mark three weeks ago. The Golden native averaged 8.7 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists and scored 11 and 10 points in conference wins over Adams State and Fort Lewis, respectively. Hoops is now averaging 5.1 points per game and leads the team with 18 steals and is second in assists (43).

DOUBLE “K”: Junior guard Kim Kilmer has shown her all-around game this season. She is third on the team in sccoring (7.1 ppg) and rebounding (4.4 rpg) and leads the team with 54 assists. She grabbed a career-high 11 boards in a win over Colorado College on Jan. 13. In two games last week, Kilmer averaged 11.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

HORK OFF THE HOOK: Junior guard Kristin Horkey has had a nice stretch of five games. It started on Jan. 24 when she poured in a season-best 15 points in a loss at Regis and continued over to the Chadron State win on Feb. 5 when she tied her career-high with seven rebounds. She also dished out a career-best seven assists in Saturday’s loss at Metro State. Over that five game stretch, Horkey is averaging 7.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game and is shooting 43 percent (6-14) from three-point land during the streak.

THE DRIVE FOR FIVE: The win over Colorado College on Jan. 13 gave Mines five for the season, one more than all of last year. At 10-11, the Orediggers have reached double figure wins for the seventh time in program history and need six wins to match the all-time record of 16 wins in 2001-02. In addition, CSM stands at 8-4 in the RMAC and needs two more victories to tie the school record for most conference wins in a season.

ROAD WOES: CSM earned its first road win (65-48 at Western State on Dec. 12) since defeating Colorado Christian, 67-48, in Lakewood, Colo., on Feb. 16, 2002. Since that game, the Orediggers were 0-12 on the road, including 0-10 in 2002-03. This year, Mines is 3-5 away from Volk Gym.

LET’S GET 70: The number 70 appears to be the good luck charm for the women’s basketball team. Since the 2000-01 season, Mines is 16-2 when it scores at least 70 points, including 1-0 this season. The last time CSM lost when it scored at least 70 points was Mar. 1, 2003, a 76-71 ovetime loss at Regis.

WHAT ABOUT 60???: The number 60 could be this year’s lucky number for the Orediggers as the team is 9-1 when scoring at least 60 points. The only loss came to Northern Colorado (86-60) on Nov. 28 at the Colorado Christian Thanksgiving Tournament.

THREE STRAIGHT: Mines posted four straight wins (Jan. 13-20) for the first time since the 2001-02 season when the Orediggers opened that season with a school-record five straight wins.

AT THE LINE: What a difference a few months makes. In the season opening loss at Mesa State on Nov. 15, Mines connected on just 9-of-24 free throws in an eight point road loss. In a win over Fort Lewis on Jan. 17, the Orediggers calmly sank 22-of-24 tosses from the charity stripe, including 11-of-12 in the final two minutes to secure the 10 point win. In a win over Fort Hays on Jan. 30, the team nailed 33-of-43 free tosses in a 12 point victory. For the season, Mines is now shooting .682 from the free throw line.

STIFLING “D”: The Orediggers currently lead the RMAC and are ninth in Division II in field goal percentage defense as teams are shooting just .348 percent against Mines. CSM has held 17-of-21 opponents under 40 percent shooting this season. Nebraska-Kearney was the first team to shoot at least 50 percent from the floor against Mines this year as it hit 25-of-50 shots in their win on Jan. 31.

ON THE BOARDS: Mines has outrebounded its opposition in 17 games this season and ranks 10th in the NCAA with a 9.4 rebounding differential.