On Quest University鈥檚 women鈥檚 championship basketball team last year, Miriam Baumann was fine with letting others lead the way.
Now, in her fourth year of play, Baumann has had to step forward as the Kermodes have added many new players and are in the midst of a rebuilding year.
Not that the things have been bad. At four wins and five losses, the team is in the middle of the pack, and Baumann herself has been dominant in key stat categories including points, rebounding and assists.
The first two have long represented part of the five-foot, 11-inch forward鈥檚 game, but this year, she has been distributing the ball more, enough to find herself among the assist leaders in the Pacific Western Athletic Association.
鈥淚鈥檝e always been up there for points and rebounds,鈥� she said.
By the Christmas break, Baumann was leading PacWest in rebounds, at 11.14 a game, almost two boards more per game than the next highest player. With 15.43 points per game, she was also tied for fourth in scoring, not far ahead of teammates Hunter Hopkins and Jordin Wilkinson. She was also averaging 5.14 assists per game, good enough for third in the league.
This weekend, she scored 12 and 18 points in games against Capilano and Douglas, adding eight and seven rebounds as well as eight assists in the Capilano game.
Distributing the ball became a bit of a necessity early on when guard Tessa Needham got hurt, so Baumann started alternating between playing front court and back court.
鈥淛ordin and I have been playing the point,鈥� she said.
Baumann has been handling the ball more at times, depending on what the team needs for a particular stretch of the game, although if she needs to play close to the hoop to provide size, she can revert to her usual forward position.
She is from Quebec and originally attended John Abbott College in Montreal, where she played for two years before transferring to Quest. Before she came to B.C., she had yet to hear of Quest, but when she was recruited by coach Dany Charlery, she decided to give it a try and come to 麻豆社国产after taking a year off between switching schools.
This year鈥檚 team is younger than last year鈥檚 championship squad, she said. 鈥淟ast year we had a lot of fourth years, and they had experience.鈥�
Baumann is now the veteran in terms of number of years played. The Kermodes have only three other players in their third year, while the rest are either in first or second year.
She has had to step forward as a leader with the team.
鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely a new role for me,鈥� she said.
It has been a bit of a challenge for Baumann. She had to become more vocal, but she has seen progress in the early weeks of the season. The biggest challenge for the Kermodes, she thinks, is finding more consistent drive and focus on the court.
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鈥淲e have skill as a team鈥�. I think the biggest problem we need to overcome is bringing that energy up,鈥� she said.
