Pacific Index

Pacific’s women basketball team starts season with a tight 2-3 overall record

   No coach has ever started a pregame speech with “Hey guys, let’s just feel our way through this first quarter, maybe spot them a few points.” Whether a game or a season, the goal is always to come out guns blazing. 

   That being said, a few missteps in the early parts of a campaign don’t always signify the end of the world. Just ask the 2018 Houston Texans. It couldn’t get much worse than their 0-3 start to the season. They took a good hard look in the mirror, made some tweaks, and then rattled off 11 of their next 13 to finish 11-5 and win the AFC South. 

   The Pacific women’s basketball team isn’t the 2018 Houston Texans. First off, they don’t have JJ Watt on the roster. Secondly, they play a completely different sport. Lastly, they didn’t start off the season 0-3. The Boxers currently sit at 2-3, following the Ken Schumann Classic in Forest Grove and a tip-off classic in Colorado. Not a blistering start, but also not the easiest of circumstances. 

   The Boxers dropped games to Colorado College and Texas Lutheran; two teams that finished second and third in the very competitive Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference last year. And, both of their wins have come out in blowout fashion, albeit against lesser competition. Nebraska Wesleyan and Concordia (Texas) weren’t world beaters in 2023-24. Still, any game in which you put up 94 and 98 on the scoreboard is cause for celebration. 

   The locker room is optimistic about how the season has gone so far. Junior guard Lindsay Barden stated, “We are pretty new to playing together and there are a lot of pieces that work really well. I feel very optimistic about the way things are going as we get more into the season.”    

   Barden, one of the few returners from last season’s Northwest Conference runner-up group, is averaging 8.2 points per game and leading the Boxers in assists. She doubled down on her confidence for this team. “I’m impressed by the whole team, not just one person in particular,” she affirmed. “I’m proud of how this year is coming together so far and I see a lot of potential with what we have so far.”

   Another bright spot this season has been sophomore guard Brooke Burke. Burke is getting her first action on a college basketball court and making the most of it. She leads the Boxers with 12.4 points per game and with 12 three pointers. She knows that the more time this team gets together, the better they will be. “We just need to keep playing with each other and focusing on the little things,” she shared. Burke knows that this isn’t the final iteration of the 2024-25 Pacific Boxers. “We have things to work on, but we are also doing really good things,” she reasoned. “One day at a time, one game at a time.”

   The Boxers get a little bit of a breather following Thanksgiving. Heading into December they will meet a couple of tough opponents making the journey to Forest Grove. Washington and Lee University currently sits at number six in the country, and Vancouver Island is coming off a playoff appearance in 2023-24. The non-conference schedule is nothing to sneeze at.

   The NWC playoff begins on January 3 against the Wildcats of Linfield (yuck). The two months following that will reveal what kind of team this squad really is. Veterans Emily Holsan and Shaade Williams will lead the way. With these two, the Boxers are in good hands. Just ask Burke, “I’m impressed with Emily. She’s stepped up this year being our only true senior and she’s a good leader.” 

  The next time you can watch the Boxers at home is on December 15 against Washington and Lee at the Stoller Center.