Junior guard Becka McHenry isn't the most receptive to change. Before every game, she eats a single red apple. It's always one apple, and it's always red. Yet when she realized that she needed to alter her outside shot technique to excel at the collegiate level, McHenry didn't hesitate.
During her first two seasons as a Truman basketball player, the Bulldogs went a combined 23-31. McHenry said it was then that she told assistant coach Lora Westling she needed to change that unorthodox outside shot. Head coach Michael Smith said this lone change might have made all the difference in McHenry's game, transforming the thin, shy shooting guard from Fraser, Mich., into the confident player he thought she could become when he recruited her in 2009.
McHenry's statistics bear Smith's words out. She leads the Bulldogs this year in multiple categories, including points per game (13.2), minutes per game (31.5), assists per game (4.9), steals per game (1.5) and assist to turnover ratio (1.8). All those statistics are improvements on her performance last year, especially in points per game and minutes per game, in which McHenry averaged 8.4 and 25.7 respectively.
"I've put a lot of work in during the offseason to improve from last year, but I didn't do it alone," McHenry said. "I had lots of help from my coaches and teammates."
McHenry looks to finish her 2011-2012 campaign with the first winning record for Truman in the MIAA since a 12-6 record in 1999-2000, and to hoist the conference championship trophy for the first time in the program's history.
"She is a lot like me," Smith said. "When she arrived here she wasn't used to losing and I think that was hard on her during those years."
Junior forward Megan Sharpe said McHenry has grown not only physically, but mentally as well, becoming a confident leader on and off the court. Sharpe said the team needed a leader to step up this year with the graduation of Amy Galey, who returned as the assistant coach. Truman has 11 games left on the schedule–six of those against the top five teams in the MIAA — but Sharpe said McHenry and the Bulldogs can compete with anyone in the country.
Despite a 9-6 record, the Bulldogs are outscoring their opponents by 11.6 points per contest this season, the most since the 1998-1999 season when the ‘Dogs went 22-9 and were NCAA Tournament Regional Finalists. Moreover, five of Truman's losses this year have been by less than seven points, and three of those saw the 'Dogs lose by only one point.
McHenry has been both a big reason for those wins, as well as the narrow margins of the losses. She ranks second in the MIAA in assists, sixth in scoring and minutes played and possesses the fifth best assist/turnover ratio in the conference. Yet McHenry isn't one to rest. She said those fives losses are always on her mind now, and a lot of her focus this season has been on picking up her teammates and not being down on herself after a loss.
"We know that this game can come down to a single possession," McHenry said. "You can't take off a game, or even a single play in this league and we aren't going to forget that."
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