Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Expectations high for Golden Eagles
SILOAM SPRINGS — The John Brown women’s basketball team has been trending upward the last two seasons, and the Golden Eagles hope to continue in that direction in 2017-18.
Fresh off a 23-win season and a national tournament appearance, the Golden Eagles are among the favorites to finish in the top of the Sooner Athletic Conference this season.
There’s good reason why, too. The Golden Eagles only lose one player from last year’s team — although that one player was All-Conference point guard Kodee Powell, who averaged 11 points, four assists and shot 44 percent from behind the 3-point line.
“We’ve got a great core of people returning, only losing Kodee Powell,” said JBU coach Jeff Soderquist, who is entering his 21st year at the helm of the program.
John Brown was picked to finish second in the Sooner Athletic Conference by the league coaches after going 14-4 last season, tying with Wayland Baptist and finishing behind national champion Oklahoma City.
The Golden Eagles return junior All-American and first team All-SAC selection Baily Cameron at forward. Cameron led the Golden Eagles with 17.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per game last season.
“Baily is coming back and she had a great sophomore year,” Soderquist said. “Each year she has had a good year, and more and more people are going to be out to stop her.”
But the Golden Eagles are much more than just Cameron.
and Senior Kimmy guards Deines Jana Schammel (6.6 ppg, 4.1 (9.1 rpg), ppg) sophomore wing Jordan Martin (6.9 ppg) of Bentonville, junior forward Preslea Reece (7.8 ppg, 4.2 rpg) and senior posts Luize Skrastine (6.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg) and Rosa Orpo (5.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg) are all returning after playing big roles on last year’s team.
Sophomore guard Sara Williams and freshman Taylor Fergen will handle the point guard duties with the loss of Powell, and Soderquist believes Division I transfer Karina Chandra (5-10), who came to JBU from Eastern Illinois, will be a big addition to the team.
“I think she’s a perfect fit,” Soderquist said. “She’s really bought in our school and program. She’s a bigger guard. I think we can post her up some. She’s a great 3-point shooter, but she can also score around the basket.”
MEN
The men’s basketball team will feature a mixture of old and new faces for the 2017-18 season.
The Golden Eagles have eight new players on this year’s roster in addition to the seven returners from the 2016-17 season that saw JBU finish with a 15-15 record and finish 7-11 and seventh in the Sooner Athletic Conference.
The Golden Eagles were picked to finish seventh out of 12 teams in the league in vote of the conference coaches.
“When you look at where we’re picked — we’re picked seventh out of 12 — that’s where we should be,” said coach Jason Beschta, who is entering his fourth season at the helm of JBU basketball. “The six teams above us are all teams that have made the national tournament the last two years. … We need to be able to break into that and go show it.”
John Brown returns its leading scorer from a year ago in junior guard Jake Caudle, who averaged 12.3 points per game, along with junior Marquis Waller, who was JBU’s second-leading returning scorer from last year at 8.6 points per game.
Returning senior Josh Bowling, junior Benjamin Smith and sophomore Brenton Toussaint were all starters at one point last season while Joshua Rhodius and Dwayne Hart also played some at times.
Croatian transfers Kristijan Joksimovic and Mateo Habazin along with freshmen Deniser Carnes, Rokas Grabliauskas of Providence Academy, Nathan Corder of Alma, Darrell Jones and Jaylon Rucker
Adding these newcomers to the mix of returning players and the Golden Eagles are optimistic about their chances in 2017-18.
“We could have the look of some of Clark’s better teams,” Beschta said, referencing former coach Clark Sheehy. “We have a bunch of guys averaging between seven and 12 (points) — a lot of guys able to score. Our emphasis is we’ve got to defend. The turnover margin has to improve, rebounding has to improve, defensive field goal percentage has to improve. We scored well (last year). We scored at a high enough rate. We just have to take better care of the ball and win the turnover margin.”