By Heather Monahan
Features Editor
After watching last season from the sidelines, redshirt senior forward Chelsea Bowker is ready to step back on the Reilly Center court and make a big impact on the women’s basketball team.
“I’ve been looking forward to it for a year and a half now,” Bowker said. “I’m really excited to come out, especially with a new group of girls I’ve never played with before.”
In her first three years as a Bonnie, Bowker totaled 100 games played, starting 33 and averaging 18.8 minutes per game. She has 657 career points, averaging 6.6 per game.
Bowker said she’s excited to see what the future holds for the team this year after playing a major role during the whirlwind 2011-’12 season.
“My last season was the NCAA Sweet Sixteen run, so I’m excited to get back on the floor and see what this new team brings,” she said.
In that season, Bowker averaged 7.1 points per game and boasted a 72.7 free throw percentage. She made 38.5 percent of her field goals and shot 38.3 percent for three-pointers.
The Salem, Ohio native holds seventh place on the program’s all-time three-pointers made list with 146 (39.7 percent). She also sits at eighth in all-time free-throw percentage with 78.4.
Though Bowker hasn’t played an official game with the freshmen and sophomore Bonnies, she said playing with the girls over the summer was good preparation for their current preseason practices.
“I had a feel for all of them, and they had a feel for me,” she said. “But practices have been going really well. Every practice isn’t perfect, but everyone’s playing hard and it’s looking good.”
With the only other returning senior, Ashley Zahn, sitting the season out with a shoulder injury, Bowker knows she’ll carry the weight of being a leader on the court.
“I’m just looking forward to bringing some leadership back,” Bowker said. “(I’ll be) doing what I can for my teammates. (I can help with) whatever they need from me because obviously, we’re not going to win any games if we’re not a team.”
While she still was a key component for support on the team last year, Bowker said this year will still bring new challenges with her active, on-court leadership role.
“Last year, I was on the sidelines pretty much the whole time,” she said. “It’s definitely a change for me, but I’m trying to do the best I can and take every day as it comes.”
