Oct. 26, 2009
UCF Women's Basketball You Tube channel
By Andrew Gavin
UCFAthletics.com
ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFAthletics.com) - Through the first 10 games of the 2008-09 season, head coach Joi Williams tried numerous different lineups trying to get the Knights some consistency, including three different players at point guard. On Dec. 19, with her team sitting at 2-8 and facing an undefeated Wake Forest team, Williams started Angelica Mealing at point guard along with Chelsie Wiley, Aisha Patrick, Amber Kirkpatrick and Emma Cannon.
What followed was an 82-75 overtime loss, but the Knights played well against the ACC foe. Playing 33 minutes, Mealing had 19 points, including a three in the waning seconds of regulation to send the game into overtime. Williams saw something she liked, and started the same lineup in 24 of the final 25 contests as UCF finished second in Conference USA and won the C-USA Tournament.
Williams points to Mealing as a key in the Knights' success, especially as the Knights won 15 of its final 21 games. The point guard finished the season with averages of 7.6 points and 3.4 assists per game while also leading C-USA in free-throw percentage.
"I think she emerged last year as a player we could depend on," Williams said. "We wanted the ball in her hands, and she did a great job down the stretch of being a floor general and at doing the things we needed her to do."
With last season in the rearview mirror and practice already in full swing for 2009-10, Mealing says the team is drawing on its success but looking forward to bigger and better things. She says the team's mindset has not changed, but they know they need to work even harder to reach their goals.
"We are just trying to build off of it and not look back," Mealing said. "Last year is last year, and we are taking that and feeding off of it. We know we have to work 10 times harder this season. It will be interesting to see how we are going to respond to having a target on our back this year instead of being the team that everyone thought they would beat."
Mealing and her teammates get the 2009-10 season underway on the road, playing at Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 15. The Knights will play six of their nine non-conference games at the UCF Arena, including the home opener on Nov. 20 against Bethune-Cookman.