Basketball (Women's) | 11/13/2014 4:40:00 PM

CLARION, Pa. – A new era in Clarion University women's basketball history tips off 7:30 p.m. Friday when the Golden Eagles take on Charleston (W. Va.) in the opening round of the MEC/PSAC Challenge at West Virginia St.
 
The Golden Eagles will then take on host West Virginia St. at 1 p.m. Saturday.    
 
"I'm excited about the buy in right now," Clarion's first-year head coach Jana Ashley said. "I think the players have really embraced the change. They've embraced the new system. They're excited to play a different way."
 
Ashley, who replaces the school's all-time winningest coach, Gie Parsons, comes to Clarion after serving 11 years as an assistant coach at the NCAA Division I level including last year at Iona.
 
"We want to play fast," Ashley said. "We want to press. We want to get up and down the court."
 
Leading the way for the Golden Eagles, who were 11-15 overall and 5-11 in the PSAC West last year, is one of the best players to ever put on a Clarion uniform, senior forward Hannah Heeter.
 
Heeter's accolades are too lengthy to detail in full but she is a two-time second-team Daktronics All-Region player, a three-time All-PSAC West performer including a first-team selection the last two years and a four-time Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American (twice in basketball and twice in volleyball). She enters her senior season, the first she has played without having had a volleyball season before hand, with 982 career points and 874 career rebounds and is averaging a career double-double with 13.9 ppg and 12.4. Last season she led the PSAC and finished second in the nation in rebound with 12.1 per game while completing her third straight season double-double with 13.7 ppg. She is just the fifth player in PSAC history to average a season double-double three times.
 
"We believe we have the best player in the conference," Ashley said. "We want other teams to have to figure out how to guard her."
 
Two additional starters return for the Golden Eagles in guard Tania Holmes and swing player Jasmine Boyd.
 
Holmes averaged 8.1 points, 3.5 assists and 2.1 steals per game last year, her second as a starter, and enters her junior season with 415 career points and 144 assists.
 
Boyd, in her first year in the starting lineup, added 6.7 ppg and 5.0 rpg as a year ago.
 
Also returning from last year are sophomore guard Cara Cook (2.9 ppg, 11 3-pointers), sophomore forward Maria Taylor (2.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg), sophomore guard Delrika Jones-Carey (2.3 ppg, 1.6 rpg) and sophomore forward Jen Straw (2.6 ppg, 3.0 rpg).
 
Key newcomers for the Golden Eagles are sophomore guard Miaja Coursey, a transfer from Coffeyville Community College who averaged 8.1 ppg and 5.0 rpg in her final season there in 2012-13 before sitting out last year with an injury, and freshman point guard Amesha Harden-Pullium from Erie, who averaged 10 ppg and 6 apg last season for traditional state powerhouse Villa Maria Academy.
 
NOTES – Clarion starts PSAC West play at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday when it travels to Pitt-Johnstown … The Golden Eagles home opener is set for 2 p.m. Sunday Nov. 23 against Ursuline.