The Central Penn Lady Knights are finding out that replacing a 2000point scorer and dynamic ball handler isn't going to be easy as the team opens the season 0-4. After the graduation of leading scorer Jasmine Robinson and point guard Desiree Lawrence, only two players from last year's team returned. The team will look to improve each game with their group of young ladies.
The Lady Knights kicked off the season with a thrilling overtime loss to Penn State Wilkes-Barre, 52-47. Foul trouble caused both teams to adjust their offense and defenses and play more conservative. Sophomore Nicole Schmidhamer (Cedar Cliff High School) dominated the boards with 25 while adding 10 points, including the game tying basket at the end of regulation. Freshman guard, Marlin Sanchez (Steelton-Highspire High School) led the scoring with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Central Penn dropped the next three games to Penn State York (60-45), NCAA D2 opponent Mansfield University (106-43), and Penn State Lehigh Valley (92-53). In the midst of the slow start, the Lady Knights have some bright spots with the play of Nicole Schmidhamer who is 3rd in the USCAA in rebounding with 15 per game and has four consecutive double-doubles. And also the play of freshman guard Marlin Sanchez who is averaging 14.2 points and 6.5 rebounds per game to start the season.
The Lady Knights travel to Penn State Worthington-Scranton (1-1) on Thursday.