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Brittany Snyder was deadly from the floor as she nailed three of her six three pointers and scored 16 points during the recent game win over Bridgewater.

Ideally, Brittany Snyder would be 草莓社区’s featured scoring threat.

The petite shooting guard has a quick release and lots of touch, especially from 3-point range. But Snyder has a thyroid condition that can instantly sap her energy, making her a game-time decision every time the Lady Royals play – or practice – since it was diagnosed in December 2008.

"It’s really tough," said Snyder, a Riverheads High School graduate. "Some days, I come in here and I’m feeling good, and then I get going and then I just crash at practice, and it’s just no good. Sometimes, I’m hovering over the trash can."

Tuesday night was not one of those nights.

Snyder leads in scoring

Snyder – a 5-foot-6 junior who missed EMU’s Jan. 2 win over Hollins with one of her "bad days" – came off the bench to score a game-high 16 points and lead the Royals to a 68-55 win over Bridgewater College in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference women’s basketball game at Yoder Arena marred by 43 turnovers and 35 fouls.

"Brittany, who didn’t play on Saturday, came out and hit some big shots tonight," EMU coach Kevin Griffin. "This a kid who sometimes can play, sometimes she can’t. Tonight was her night and she buried some shots."

Danielle Rittenhouse during a 12/5 game against Virginia Wesleyan.

Eastern Mennonite – 9-0 overall, 5-0 in the ODAC and off to its best start ever – also got contributions from Melissa Lewis and Danielle Rittenhouse.

Lewis, a nimble senior point guard and Stuarts Draft grad, added 15 points, and Rittenhouse, a freshman guard, added 11.

Lewis also made eight of nine free throws – including 4-for-4 in the final 1:03 – to help the Royals secure the win. Snyder went 5-of-6 from the line and made three of six from 3-point range.

"We say go get to the free-throw line," Griffin said. "That gives us a chance to rest, gives us a chance to set our defense, and it gets the other team in foul trouble."

All of those things were true Tuesday.

Fouls make trouble for BC

Melissa Lewis during the EMU Tip-Off Classic in late November 2009.

After having just three fouls in the first half, Bridgewater (3-4, 1-3) picked up 16 in the second, including one behind the 3-point line on Snyder with 10:09 to play.

Snyder, a 73-percent free-throw shooter, made all three to push the Royals’ lead back to double digits.

"We started getting out of position," said 6-1 BC freshman forward Jackie Buckley, who led the Eagles with 14 points and 11 rebounds. "In the beginning, we were playing really good defense. We were cutting them off, and in the second half, we didn’t give them that step, and they got around us and we lost position."

EMU extended its lead to a game-high 16 twice with under a minute to go after Bridgewater kept it within 10 for most of the game.

"I still have good days and bad days," said Snyder, who also is nursing a sore thumb and wrist – both of which are discolored and swollen. "But right now, I’m having more good than bad, so I’m thankful for that."

Learn more about the 2009 Lady Royals:

• Women’s basketball home
• Season schedule
• Head coach Kevin Griffin
  

]]> /now/news/2009/lady-royals-control-second-half-to-equal-programs-best-start/ Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:00:00 +0000 http://www.emu.edu/blog/news/?p=2112 Read more…

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Danielle Rittenhouse, who helped Lampeter-Strasburg High School reach the PIAA Triple-A girls’ basketball state championship game this past winter, has committed to EMU.

The Royals, who compete in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, are a Division III program, and are coached by former Lancaster Mennonite assistant coach Kevin Griffin, who led EMU to a 13-13 overall record in his fourth season on the bench this past season.

(Photo courtesy of lancasteronline.com)

The Royals went 8-12 in conference games and lost in the conference quarterfinals.

Rittenhouse, a 5-7 guard, overcame some nagging injuries to have a standout senior season for L-S. She averaged 13.7 points a game (second-best on the team), hit 14 3-pointers and was a solid rebounder and defender for the Pioneers, who went 29-4 overall after winning the Section 3 title, reaching the L-L League semifinals, advancing to the District 3 Triple-A championship game for the first time in school history, and then reaching the state title game, where L-S dropped a 68-45 decision to Archbishop Carroll.

EMU competes in the ODAC along with Roanoke, Virginia Wesleyan, Bridgewater, Washington & Lee, Guilford, Lynchburg, Emory & Henry, Randolph, Hollins and Randolph-Macon, which eliminated the Royals in the playoffs last season.

Sophomore Forward Danielle Scott

Kevin Griffin sat in the 草莓社区 athletic office’s equivalent of a breakfast nook. It’s off in a corner with a window, a coffee table covered in a messy assortment of waiting-room literature and some cushiony furniture.

Whenever Griffin – the Royals’ fourth-year women’s basketball coach – saw one of his players walk by, it was the same routine. It’s like he’s the mayor of the EMU athletic office’s fake breakfast nook. Griffin says, “Hey, girl,” and they respond with a smile, a wave or some friendly small talk.

Cohesion is important to Griffin, who seeks out the right fits for his team rather than pursuing one or two stud athletes.

It’s for that reason, Griffin and players said, that EMU is 10-2 overall and 5-2 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference – despite losing four starters from last year and two post players to knee injuries this season, plus dealing with its leading scorer’s mysterious thyroid disease.

“Is this about you or is it about the team?” said Griffin, boiling down his coaching/recruiting philosophy.

So far, it has been the latter.

“Our team is so close and so talented, if one player gets sick or injured, we’re good enough where someone will step up,” said sophomore forward Danielle Scott, who transferred to Division III EMU from low-level D-I Morgan State this season and is averaging 11.8 points and 6.5 rebounds. “All and all, we’re just talented, and we complement each other really well.”

Most of the players Griffin has recruited – such as leading scorer Brittany Snyder, whose thyroid problem has limited her to one practice since Dec. 3 – didn’t stir much interest from anyone besides EMU.

Most, though, had postseason experience in high school.

“A lot of teams have one good player or two good players,” said EMU junior point guard Melissa Lewis, a Stuarts Draft High School graduate who is averaging 8.2 points and 4.2 assists per game. “We don’t have that. Here, everyone contributes.”

EMU’s style has made that easier. The roster is composed of moving parts that fit into a relentless, transition-based system, where no one player can shoot too much. The system relies on motion more than set plays. It also uses EMU’s team speed, led by Lewis and junior guard Ebony Dennis, who Griffin tabbed as the Royals’ fastest players.

That allows Eastern Mennonite more flexibility with its personnel. So when senior swingman Kathleen Kitchen (9.3 points and 5.3 rebounds) and freshman forward Breanna Derstine (poised to get significant minutes) went down with ligament injuries, it wasn’t a huge problem.

“We talked about it,” Griffin said. “Do we want to change or do we want to keep doing what we do and plug players in and hope it works? That’s what we’ve done. … This is who we are. We’ve practiced it for two months. It’s what we believe, it’s what we’ve preached; it’s what we’ve been successful with in the past.”

The Royals have excelled even with Snyder’s diminished presence. She has played in 11 of 12 games but can’t go more than two to three minutes at a time because of the thyroid condition, which comes with headaches, loss of appetite and severe fatigue. Still, the Riverheads grad is averaging 14.7 points per game. Before the illness, she was over 17.

“You try to go into the game knowing she can’t do a lot more than stand there and shoot it – if she can do that. It’s been tough,” Griffin said of Snyder’s loss.

But EMU has persevered. After losing to ODAC rival Bridgewater on Tuesday, the Royals have won two straight, beating Emory & Henry and Guilford, putting them in a three-way tie for second place in the conference.

They also have the best overall record in the ODAC, while going for their seventh straight winning season.

“We all play the same role, which is run up and down the floor and shoot layups,” Lewis said. “We can all do that.”

Sophomore guard Brittany Snyder

Brittany Snyder has unusually small feet. They are so small that at 19 years old, she still wears a size 6 – a children’s size 6. And that’s too large. The sophomore guard on the 草莓社区 women’s basketball team said she’s actually more comfortable in a 5 1/2, but wears two pairs of socks to keep the 6s from sliding.

The rest of Snyder is equally miniature. She has hands that barely stretch across two laces on a basketball and match her slight build – and if EMU coach Kevin Griffin has complaints about Snyder, it’s that she hasn’t sculpted more muscle onto her sylph-like frame.

As for those hands and feet, he’ll leave those alone.

“The thing I noticed about her in high school,” Griffin said, “is she’s one of the few kids who can shoot the ball off a screen and off the dribble. Very few kids can do that. She gets it away in a hurry. She’s got such a quick release.”

The little feet are what Snyder uses to get open and the little hands – which have tremendous touch – are what have led the Riverheads High School graduate to the top of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

On Monday, Snyder scored a team-high 15 points as EMU improved to 6-0 overall and 2-0 in the ODAC with a 63-50 victory over Randolph College in Park View.

Going into Monday’s game, Snyder was third in the league, averaging 17.8 points per game and was first with 16 3-pointers. Her touch is so good that she hadn’t missed a free throw all season, going 13-for-13. It’s also earned her a fire-at-will policy from her coach.

“I have given her the green light,” Griffin said. “I’ve told her, ‘If you’re open and feel good, let it fly.'”

So far this season, the strategy has not only worked for Snyder but also the Royals, who are off to their best start since 2003-04 when they won their last ODAC championship. It’s also the best start in Griffin’s four-year tenure and includes an upset win over conference rival Lynchburg.

“We came out with a chip on our shoulder,” junior guard Ebony Dennis said. “People around the league picked us eighth. We just go into every game with nothing to lose.”

The Royals have three players averaging 10 points per game or better and have created problems with a run-and-gun style of play, which emphasizes transition baskets and tenacious man-to-man defense. That’s led to the second-best scoring defense in the ODAC (60.4 points per game) and has generated a league-best 62 steals (12.4 a game).

“Hard work pays off,” Snyder said of EMU’s success. “We’ve left it all on the court.”

Snyder is still trying to adjust to her continuous green light. She said in high school, she didn’t shoot much at all – a reason, Griffin hypothesized, that Eastern Mennonite was her only college suitor.

“I was shocked that more people didn’t want her,” he said.

But for Snyder, the major hurdle in adjusting to her shoot-at-your-leisure pass has been confidence and not understanding of how green that green light really was.

“He wanted me to shoot a lot more than I have,” said Snyder, who averaged 5.8 points in 15.7 minutes per game as a freshman. “… That was tough for me at first because coach has so much confidence in me – probably more than I have in myself. I just couldn’t believe it. How can he have so much confidence in me?”

The answer is straight forward.

“She’s the best shooter I’ve coached – boy or girl,” Griffin said. “Her form is perfect.”

The message, however, is sinking in.

“If I’m open, I try to take it,” Snyder said. “Because if I don’t, coach will roll me.”

Strangely, though, Snyder doesn’t have a reputation as a gunner – a player who shoots all the time, usually to the detriment of her team. Griffin said this is because of Snyder’s shot selection. He said she rarely forces shots and is aware of her limitations. And her teammates don’t see her as a black hole, either.

“She’s consistent,” Dennis said. “They always say good shooters keep shooting, even when they’re missing. … It seems like every game she’s hot.”

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