The SXU Cougars women's basketball team completed their memorable 2009-2010 campaign with a tough loss, a 73-69 loss to seventh ranked and second seeded Azusa Pacific. Widely picked as either the favorite or co-favorite to win this year's national championship, this loss stings more than any in the program's 10-year history. Only the 2007 second round loss to Lambuth could even compare.
The Cougars have been a solid program since they began play in 2000 thanks to the expert coaching and recruiting by Bob Hallberg and his staff. The team has won either the CCAC regular season or tournament championship in nine of the ten seasons. They have beaten the number one team in the country twice, qualified for the nationals eight years in a row and produced numerous All-Americans.
But not until this year did the Cougars reach the Elite Eight. Out of all of the great Cougar teams in the past decade, this year's squad was the best. The personnel, as well as the record, proved that. SXU had an impressive 27-1 regular season mark and finished the season with a 31-2 overall record. No other Cougar team had an experienced trio of Erin Hannemann, Kathlyn McClain and Alex Barone coupled with a tough Sholanda Young and an emerging Marissa Young.
This team could have gone all the way. No doubt they had the talent to. But for the fourth year in a row, SXU was eliminated by a team seeded lower than them. They didn't play horrible against Azusa, only losing by four points. But at the NAIA Tournament level, you have to playt your best every game. They didn't have their best game Saturday night and that is what did them in.
Because of the graduation of Hannemann and McClain, 2010 will always be a "what could have been" year. But I am fully confident SXU will contend for a national title in the near future. I wouldn't even count them out next year.
Barone returns as the team's glue at point guard. Marquita Smith improved all year and was outstanding in Jackson last week. As long as the Cougars have a good rebuilding class, as they always do, they will be fine. They will win the CCAC easily again. But the only thing left for them to accomplish is a national championship or at least a title game appearance.
Hallberg believes his team will be back too. "We are not interested in rebuilding, we are interested in reloading," he told the WXAV radio crew following Saturday's loss.
The Cougars will reload and they will still be a fun crew to watch despite the losses of Hannemann and McClain.
The loss of Hannemann will be extremely tough to combat. She is one of the three best players in SXU history and arguably better than SXU Hall of Famer Mary Cain and soon to be hall of famer Candis Jackson, who I would rank as the two best prior to Hannemann.
Despite the frustrating end, SXU had a banner year. 31-2 is an incredible mark put forth by an incredible team.
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