It’s not what a basketball player expects to hear from her coaches, but Bella Swan’s offensive timidity needed to be addressed.
The forward had displayed enough athletic gifts to be rewarded with a starting spot in her first year at Maine last season, showing tenacity in rebounding and defense. But she attempted no more than five shots in any regular-season game.
“They really just told me that I need to be more selfish,” Swan recalled her coaches telling her. “I need to look to score. Once I recognized that, it changed my approach.”
Swan scored 15 points in a victory over Binghamton in the America East Conference tournament opener. She followed with nine more in a loss to Hartford. They were her biggest offensive showings of the season, which ended with her averaging 3.3 points and 3.1 rebounds while playing 16.6 minutes per game.
The Black Bears finished 23-9 last winter and return nearly their entire roster as the 2015-16 season begins Friday at Harvard. There are eight seniors and two juniors competing to gobble up the minutes for a team expected to challenge again for the conference title and that coveted spot in the NCAA tournament that eluded them last year.
Senior forward Liz Wood and junior guard Sigi Koizar, both all-conference picks a year ago, are the undisputed stars. Seniors Sophie Weckstrom, Lauren Bodine and Milica Mitrovic are the top 3-point threats. Seniors Mikaela Gustafsson and Anna Heise are dependable post players.
Swan and Chantel Charles are two seniors who could be the wild cards, if they can consistently provide the production they showed only in glimpses a year ago.
Swan, at 5-foot-11, started 25 games last year but was slow to find her niche in the offense. The transfer from Salt Lake Community College in Utah is a superior athlete, however, and can score from inside 15 feet.
“She’s a little springier, she’s long,” said Coach Richard Barron. “She’s still got enormous potential she hasn’t quite tapped into. We’d probably like her to be a little bit more aggressive on the offensive end at times.”
The 5-10 Charles came to Maine four years ago from London, where she was a point guard. She’s had to adjust to life as a small forward. Charles was slowed at the beginning of last season to let a fractured foot heal, and was held scoreless in eight of her first 14 contests.
Her breakout moment came in a 52-44 win on Super Bowl Sunday at rival Albany. Charles scored 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting to topple the team with which Maine eventually shared the conference regular-season title.
She scored 19 points in the next two outings, part of a 14-game winning streak for Maine, and finished the season averaging 3.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 17.4 minutes per game.
“I think I had a mental fight at the beginning of the year,” Charles said. “I had a couple of talks with the coaches, who told me, ‘You have a shot, you’ve been working on it, be confident.’ I tried to repeat it in my head.
“In the Albany game, I was presented with a lot of shots that I should have taken, whereas in my freshman year I wouldn’t have taken them because I was so conscious if my shot was good enough.”
Charles started each of Maine’s two preseason victories and totaled 17 points. Swan came off the bench and provided eight points in Sunday’s win over Stonehill.
Both figure to get plenty of playing time at forward, depending on the matchups Barron wants to exploit. When Charles is in the lineup, the 5-10 Wood becomes more of a post player; with Swan in, Wood moves to the wing. Swan is the better rebounder, Charles the better passer.
“I’m going to play with heart whether I’m starting or not,” Swan said. “Those last four or five games, that should have been how I looked the whole season. That’s how I need to play.”
Barron surveyed his players in the offseason, and they told him to load up the non-conference schedule with high-level opposition. They want to be tested, early and often.
So Maine will play at Boston College, Minnesota, Purdue and North Carolina before conference play begins Jan. 6. That’s in addition to the Gulf Coast Showcase in Estero, Florida, on Thanksgiving weekend. There the Black Bears will open against a Dayton team that reached the Elite Eight last year. Possible opponents in the next two games include Louisville, LSU and Stanford.
Charles can’t wait for the challenge.
“It’s something that should motivate us, not discourage us,” she said. “We think we worked hard to have the chance to compete against these top teams. We set our standard, but we want to rise above it by working harder.”
Maine lost three of its final four games a year ago, a promising season ending abruptly with a loss at Villanova in the opening round of the WNIT. That’s motivation, but Barron said his senior-laden team is really focusing on continual improvement, not a certain number of victories.
“Sometime in March, hopefully even in late March, when we finish our last game, we want to feel like that’s the best game we played,” Barron said.
If Charles and Swan have their way, they won’t be saving their best for last this season.
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