Ccs Women Want Rivals To Button Their Lips Sasquatch Aim To Improve Standing In Poll

Things are heating up for the Community Colleges of Spokane women’s basketball team.

According to starting point guard Laura Fralich, CCS intends to send a message to visiting Blue Mountain (1-6 NWAACC, 5-13), when the teams meet tonight at 6 at Spokane Community College.

“You know how there are just some rivalries that are more intense than others? This is one of them. This Blue Mountain team is mostly freshmen,” Fralich said. “And for a freshman team, they talk a lot. We want to show them they made a mistake talking so much in our game earlier this season against them.”

Although CCS won the game, 59-51, Fralich said it took a while for CCS to get it going. She felt as though Blue Mountain really didn’t know who it was messing with.

“It’s been a real intense week of practice,” Fralich said. “We’re going to prove a point (tonight).”

And the point is that Spokane (6-1, 14-5) is ranked No. 6 in the NWAACC/Horizon Air Top 8 Coaches Poll and a game behind Columbia Basin (7-0, 14-2) in the Eastern Division.

Led by head coach Bruce Johnson, CCS is averaging 68 points and giving up 58 points a game. Defensively, the Sasquatch rank fifth in the league. CCS also has four players averaging in double figures.

Fralich (Central Valley, sophomore) is averaging 13 points, Missy Davies (Medical Lake, freshman) 11.7 points, Brandy Hurlbert (Omak, fr.) 11.4, Shelly Johnson (West Valley, so.) 11.4 and Kelly Gaines (Shadle Park, fr.) is averaging nine points a game.

“We don’t have any real big gun,” coach Bruce Johnson said. “It seems like every night someone else takes the lead.”

Fralich also paces the team with four assists a game and shoots a team-best 76 percent from the free-throw line.

“Laura’s a solid point guard,” coach Johnson said. “She’s been directing us well.”

CCS is a predominantly freshman team. Fralich and Shelly Johnson are the only sophomores.

Coach Johnson said the team’s inexperience often shows.

“Lately, we’ve been playing 30 minutes of solid basketball and then letting teams off the hook in the last 10 minutes,”he said.

And then sometimes just the opposite happens.

Fralich, quoting her coach, said the team sometimes has trouble “getting off the bus.”

“It’s so frustrating,” Fralich said. “Sometimes we don’t start playing until there are 5 minutes left in the first half before we get it going.”

Since a 67-47 road loss to Columbia Basin in midJanuary, CCS is on a three-game winning streak with two of the victories coming on the road.

“We want to win the league without having to go through the regional tournament,” Shelly Johnson said. “It’s been a fun season; we’ve improved so much since the start. It’s been good.”

After Blue Mountain, CCS hits the road Wednesday and Saturday against Yakima and Walla Walla. On Feb. 15, there will be the rematch against Columbia Basin.

“They’re bigger than us at every position; they’ve just been shutting people down,” Bruce Johnson said.

“Because of all the freshmen, it takes us a while to get feisty. We went down to CBC and were flat as a pancake and they just rolled us.”

As far as Blue Mountain is concerned, the Sasquatch should come out fluffy.