Lady Busters still at 7-player rotation for game at Cloud

1/18/2013

By ADAM HOLT

aholt@gctelegram.com

The Garden City Community College women’s basketball team still will have just a seven-player rotation for its 6 p.m. Saturday game at Cloud County.

GCCC head coach Alaura Sharp sent home four Lady Broncbusters last weekend, including starters Shicole Watts and Jessica Goble, citing internal reasons, and stating no team or school rules were violated.

On Wednesday night, at the end of a radio/webcast interview with the Western Kansas Broadcast Center that did not sound like it was supposed to be on air but could be heard on the live stream broadcast, Sharp said Watts was supposed to fly back to Garden City today. Thursday in a phone interview, she said that situation is still “up in the air.”

“As of right now, the focus is on Cloud County, and getting our seven players ready to go,” Sharp said. “We’re looking forward to the trip. We had a really good practice today. As of right now, there aren’t going to be any more changes as of right now.”

Sharp did not dismiss the possibility of Watts returning, or any of the other three players — Goble, backup forward Nicole Young and Tracey Scott, who was redshirting — doing so, either. But she emphasized that there are no changes to the situation right now.

Sharp said that the issue arose in practice late last week and came as a surprise to the coaching staff.

“It was very sudden. It was very, very sudden,” she said. “Our team was in a very good place (last) Wednesday. By the time we got to practice (last) Friday, there were some things going on obviously, that the coaches were not aware of. We just had a situation in practice, and we just felt we had to make a decision. We still have, obviously, a lot to play for, and a lot to work for. As of right now, we’re just taking it one day at a time and getting our team ready to go, and trying to move forward the best that we can.”

She added that they felt a tough decision had to be made quickly for the good of the team overall.

“Some of the decisions were the coaches, some of the decisions were the players. Obviously, we’ve got to protect the program. And, you know, there’s no decisions that are easy, that have no regrets. The players that we recruited and the players that we brought in, our team was close. Our team played really hard. It’s really, the whole situation, it’s just been unfortunate, to be really honest with you. The things that transpired, there had to be some decisions made.”

Garden City is ranked No. 10 in the nation and is 18-1 overall and 4-1 in the Jayhawk West. Cloud County is 14-1, 4-0 in conference play.

Garden City has won both its games since sending the four players home, beating Colby 68-47 on Sunday, and Pratt 67-57 on Wednesday. The short bench could become an issue, though, as two Busters fouled out against the Beavers, and Garden City had no subs for the final four minutes of the game.