For four years, the last thing GW’s women’s basketball team had to worry about was the play of its point guard. After all, Kim Beck was one of the best in the country, doing everything for the Colonials as an extension of head coach Joe McKeown on the court.
But when Beck graduated last May, the team was left with a gaping hole at the point, one which it struggled to fill earlier this season. Enter transfer Yolanda Lavender, who has played more than 30 minutes a game since being allowed to play in December.
Before Wednesday’s game, the team’s assist-to-turnover ratio was at .7, compared with last year’s mark of 1.2. Similarly, the turnover margin, which was at +4.8 last season, has fallen to -5.4 this season. For Bozeman, reversing this new trend starts with Lavender.
“It’s great,” Bozeman said of the role of the point guard in his up-tempo offense. “And especially when you have someone of Yolanda’s caliber. I don’t know if people realize how hard it is to sit out a year and a half and come back. She’s still got some rust she’s getting off. She’s comfortable with the team, but when she gets fully back, which I think it’ll probably take her another three games maybe, it’s going be even more evident.”
Filling Beck’s shoes statistically has been difficult for the Colonials (8-8, 1-1 Atlantic 10). She started 33 games last season, led the team in minutes per game and assists, was second in three-point percentage and third in points per game. But perhaps even more significantly, the team has most sorely missed Beck’s leadership and floor presence from the position where it matters most. Bozeman attributed much of the team’s inability to win a game on the road this season to their lack of experience.
Before Lavender was cleared to play, Bozeman had used a point-guard-by-committee strategy, playing freshman Tiana Meyers and sophomore Erica Rivera. Though no one can totally replace Beck’s leadership on or off the court, Lavender has helped fill the gap, stepping up into a role she feels is unavoidable as she becomes more comfortable.
“That’s what the point guard is, no matter if you want it or not, and I’m welcoming the challenge,” Lavender said. “The team is helping me, that’s what they’re there for, and the coaching staff is also working with me. All I have to do is keep playing hard. It’ll come along.”
Still, Lavender has struggled scoring. She was shooting just 26.5 percent from the field before Wednesday’s game, in which she scored seven points and has seven assists.
As the season progresses and Lavender grows into her role as a team leader, guard play could become less of an issue for the Colonials. Yet the difficulty of playing the first half of the season without a leader in the backcourt was not lost on Bozeman.
“It’s a struggle. I’ll tell you the effect: eight and eight. That’s the effect.”
