NU Women's basketball team gets awarded for great season

By Marshall Lee
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

After a wonderful season of basketball, the Norwich Cadets women's basketball team season is finally over. They finished the season with a record of 21-7.

Overseas talent Shevon Gibbons was named New England Women's Basketball Association (NEWBA) Rookie of the Year and was also selected a second-team member for the 2001-2002 season.

The Norwich Cadets women's basketball team has been in the GNAC Championship game three years in a row.

The Lady Cadets qualified for and competed in the NCAA Tournament in 2000. In 2002, they competed in the ECAC Tournament for the first time in program history.

Freshman forward Shevon Gibbons (Fayetteville, N.C.) scored 21 of her 31 points in the first half to lead second-seeded Norwich University to a 42-15 halftime lead en route to a 73-65 victory over seventh-seeded Wellesley College in the quarterfinal round of the ECAC women's basketball tournament

With the win, Norwich advanced to the semifinal match of the ECAC Tournament, held at top-seeded Plymouth State College. Norwich played third-seeded Babson College, who defeated Western New England College 64-56.

On March 2, 2002, the Cadets lost to Babson in the ECAC semifinals at Plymouth State College. The final score was 66-59. The loss ended the Cadets' season. Their final record was 21-7.

Gibbons led a Norwich team that advanced to the conference championship for the third straight season. She led the Great Northeast Athletic Conference in scoring, averaging 19.8 points per game.

She is among national leaders in field goal percentage (.611), which ranks her seventh in the nation, and her points per game (19.8) puts her at 15th in the nation. She led the GNAC conference in scoring this season, and the Cadets in blocks (37) and rebounds per game (7.4). The team leading scorers were Shevon Gibbons at 19.8 ppg. and Lisa Belmonte at 10.5 ppg.

Norwich University's women's basketball team received several conference awards for the 2001-02 season.

The Women's Basketball head coach Mark Swasey was named GNAC Coach of the Year. In the three seasons he has coached at Norwich, he has taken the Cadets to the GNAC championship, including a trip to the NCAA tournament in 2000.

Shevon Gibbons was also GNAC Player and Rookie of the Year. Sophomore guard Lisa Belmonte from Levittown, N.Y., was named to the All-Conference Second Team, and sophomore guard Erin Bresette from Montpelier, Vt., took Third Team honors.

Belmonte was named to the GNAC Second Team for the second consecutive season. She was second on the team in points per game (10.5) and three-point baskets (40). She led the team in assists per game (3.5).

Bresette played her first season for the Cadets, leading the team in steals (57) and was second on the team in assists per game (3.5) and third in points per game (9.2).

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