Women's Game Notes | Men's Game Notes

CLARION, Pa. – The Clarion University men's and women's basketball teams tip-off their 2013-14 seasons this weekend with a slate of home games.
 
The women's team is hosting the Clarion Classic Friday and Saturday, while the men's team hosts a single game with Penn State-DuBois Saturday.
 
The schedule for the weekend sees Millersville facing West Liberty in the women's Clarion Classic at 4 p.m. Friday followed by Clarion hosting Charleston (W. Va.). Then Saturday, the men start the day off by hosting PSU-DuBois at 1 p.m. Charleston then takes on Millersville in a women's game at 4 p.m. followed by Clarion's women facing West Liberty at 6 p.m.
 
The women's team is coming off a 13-16 overall record and a 9-13 PSAC West mark last season that saw the Golden Eagles advance to the PSAC Playoffs for the first time since 2009.
 
"We are looking forward to getting on the court and starting the season," Clarion's 25^th year head coach Gie Parsons.
 
Clarion will be a little shorthanded over the weekend, as the Golden Eagles top player, junior forward Hannah Heeter, a first-team All-PSAC West and second-team Daktronics All-Region selection a year ago when she averaged 14.4 ppg and 13.3 rpg, her second straight season double-double, is still playing volleyball.
 
Without Heeter, Clarion will turn to its experienced guards to lead the way. Three guards with plenty of starting experience are back in seniors Raven Jones and Emma Fickel and sophomore Tania Holmes.
 
Fickel, who ranks fifth in school history with 177 made 3-pointers while ranking eighth at Clarion in 3-point shooting percentage (34.2 percent), has earned her way back into the starting lineup after losing her starting spot last year when she averaged 4.7 points per game while hitting 23 3-pointers. She enters her senior season with 768 career points.
 
Jones, who spent two seasons as Clarion's starting point guard before moving to the two last season, made the transition well averaging 9.1 points per game while handing out 84 assists. She has 725 career points and 332 career assists, the fourth most helpers in school history.
 
Holmes, the starting point guard a year ago, averaged 7.6 points per game while dishing out 61 assists as a true freshman.
 
Another player who gained valuable experience last year who is expected to help out is sophomore swingwomen Jasmine Boyd (2.7 ppg, 1.9 rpg), while a pair of red-shirt freshman – point guard Kelly Johnson and forward Jen Straw – are also expected to contribute heavily.  
 
Clarion's men's team is looking to rebound from an uncharteristic down season that saw the Golden Eagles go 6-20, just the fourth losing season under 26^th year head coach Ron Righter.
 
"We are looking forward to turning it around," the long-time bench boss, who also has 397 wins at Clarion and 421 in his career, said. "We had a rough year last season. Now it's time to get to work and do the things we've done in the past and try to do them a little bit better, a little bit harder. We've got a lot of work to do, but we are going to do what we can to get back in the playoff picture."
 
Senior Mike Kromka (12.5 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game) is a preseason All-PSAC West selection and the leader of the team. He is joined in the starting lineup by junior point guard Marcus Jones (10.3 ppg, 58 assists), who is in his second season with Clarion after transferring from Division I New Jersey Institute of Technology prior to last season.
 
Three newcomers will also be expected to carry a heavy load with guards BJ Andrews and DeMarius Miller and forward Darius Stevens all expected to play key roles this season.
 
An athletic inside player, Stevens averaged 11.1 points and 5.5 rebounds per game at Oakland Community College in 2013 while shooting 54.2 percent from the field. He comes from a basketball family. His late father, Barry Stevens, is the second all-time leading scorer at Iowa State and played two games in the NBA, while his uncle, Jeff Grayer, is the all-time leading scorer in Iowa State history and played nine seasons in the NBA with five different teams scoring over 3,000 career professional points.
 
Miller had a fantastic two-year career at Morton College finishing as the school's fourth all-time leading scorer with 1,208 points. As a freshman, he led NJCAA in scoring with 27.6 points per game, and averaged 15.9 points per game while shooting 54 percent from the field on a more balanced team last season.
 
Andrews was a highly-sought after recruit out of the Baltimore area who averaged 21 point2 and eight assists per game as a senior while scoring 1,500 career points, the eighth most all-time at the McDonogh School.