The 2019-20 season clearly was much different for the Clarks Summit women’s basketball team than recent seasons.
Just how much different it was became more evident when the National Collegiate Athletic Association completed its statistical work for the season.
Clarks Summit’s net 17-game improvement was the most in NCAA basketball this season across all three divisions of men’s and women’s basketball. It stands as the second-biggest improvement in the history of NCAA Division III women’s basketball.
The Lady Defenders improved by 18 wins and improved 16 games in the loss column when they went from a winless team in 24 games in 2018-19 to a Colonial States Athletic Conference playoff qualifier with an 18-8 record.
The only larger improvement ever in small college women’s basketball came two years earlier when East Texas Baptist moved up 18½ games. It went from 3-22 in 2016-17 to 25-7 in 2017-18.
The recent history of the Clarks Summit program had been filled with struggles.
Clarks Summit was a combined 1-71 in the past three seasons and had not won a game in Rick Harrison’s first year as head coach.
The Lady Defenders began the season on a 32-game losing streak which reached 33 with an opening loss.
The changes started in the second game, a Nov. 14 trip to upstate New York for a 71-64 win at SUNY Delhi with the help of 22 points by Allison Aten.
Less than a month later, the Lady Defenders were off and running on a 10-game winning streak that lasted more than six weeks from Dec. 10-Jan. 25.
Clarks Summit was not just winning. It was winning decisively. The Lady Defenders hit 90 points twice early during a streak in which they won by an average margin of more than 18 points.
After cooling off a bit, Clarks Summit finished 13-5 for a third-place tie in the 10-team Colonial States Athletic Conference.
Elizabeth Singleton was named first-team CSAC all-star. The sophomore guard from Schenectady, N.Y. averaged 19.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.1 steals. She shot 54.6 percent from the floor.
“Just wait, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Singleton said in a story on the school’s website. “That’s a promise.”
With nine of 13 players underclassmen, including the top three scorers and the most frequently used starting five, there is reason for optimism about the future. Aten and Randie Traxler each averaged more than 12 points per game. They joined Singleton, Michaela McLeod and Selena DiNovo in making at least 16 starts each.
For now, the Lady Defenders have reason to be proud of the way they put the program’s struggles in the past.
“They love the Lord, the game and each other,” coach Harrison said, according to the website. “It was a lot of fun, and I am humbled to be a part of this turnaround.”
That turnaround left a different feeling around Clarks Summit basketball.
“For me, it helped me regain the love of basketball I lost after the previous season,” Traxler said.
