Elon Women’s Basketball Continues Prep For Final Season in Alumni Gym

ELON, N.C. – Elon University women’s basketball continued practice ahead of the 2017-18 season this week. On Thursday morning, Oct. 12, the Phoenix practiced for a little more than two hours in Alumni Gym with the team working toward perfecting its defensive game plan and its motion offense in the early-season workouts.

After practice, head coach Charlotte Smith and senior center Malaya Johnson provided their thoughts about the team’s progress thus far this preseason.

Head Coach Charlotte Smith on how the team’s first 10 practices have been:
“With six freshmen, it can be a little chaotic every now and then. I just told them today in practice in the huddle that we’re going to be a great team and we just have to stay focused on the positive things we’re doing. A lot of times you have freshmen that don’t understand the system and they get a little frustrated, so we’re trying to be patient and continue to encourage them because there are sparks of greatness that I see every day in practice so I’m just really excited about the potential this team has. We just have to keep working hard, keep defending (because) that’s what we preached last year was the importance of defense and we’ll be a great team.”

On what the team will focus on over the next few days:
“Really just locking in on defense and trying to be great defenders. Working hard and just simplifying the package. Offensively, we’ve been trying to do just a few things so that we can master those things. We don’t want to try and be the jack-of-all-trades and the master of none, so we’ve tried to simplify the package so that the freshmen can get the hang of our system and focusing in on our motion offense and hopefully we’ll get better at that in the next few days.”

Senior captain Malaya Johnson on the first 10 days of practice:
“Practice is going really well. We’re working hard, we’re getting used to things and the freshmen are learning new things. (They’re) learning plays and learning exactly how we work here so practices are going really well. We’re just excited to show what we have. Show that even though we lost people, we have a whole new group of freshmen and they’re ready to come and they’re ready to work and they’re ready to put forth the effort to be great so we’re super excited (for the season to start).”

Season tickets for the 2017-18 campaign, the final season in Alumni Gym, are on sale now through the Elon Ticket Office. Tickets can be purchased online, over the phone at 336-278-6750, or in person at the Elon Ticket Office located inside the Koury Athletic Center on Elon’s campus. For additional information, please contact the Elon Ticket Office at 336-278-6750 or email athtickets@elon.edu.