DRC Womens BB highly motivated

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Women's basketball: Highly motivated

Move to bench has caused UNT’s Armstrong to step up her game

08:48 AM CST on Thursday, February 26, 2004

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

North Texas women’s basketball coach Tina Slinker tried every trick she could think of to help Jamie Armstrong meet her potential this season.

Slinker encouraged and lectured the sophomore forward before finally pulling her from the starting lineup three weeks ago.

The change seemed to spark Armstrong, who enters the Lady Eagles’ game against New Orleans tonight at the Super Pit coming off of one of the best games of her career.

DRC/Hiroyuki Komae

North Texas forward Jamie Armstrong, left, goes up for a shot against Denver guard Tasha Jones in the first half of the Lady Eagles’ 67-58 loss at the Super Pit Thursday. Armstrong has scored in double figures in three of the four games since moving to the bench.

Armstrong came off the bench to score 17 points and pull down a career-high 13 rebounds in a 74-70 win over Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday.

"Jamie definitely has the talent to be a top player but has not fulfilled it yet," Slinker said. "If she focuses on playing good defense and rebounding, her offense will come."

Armstrong finally took Slinker’s message to heart when she was removed from the starting lineup for a game against New Mexico State on Feb. 7. Armstrong played sparingly against the Aggies and finished with two points.

Armstrong has scored in double figures in three of four games since and ranks third on the team with an average of 10.2 points a game.

"I am coming off the bench right now because coach wants to motivate me to come in and work really hard," Armstrong said. "When I was starting, coach didn’t feel like I was working as hard as I should."

Armstrong’s inconsistent effort resulted in an up-and-down campaign. The 5-11 forward opened the season with an 11-point game against Indiana State, but scored just two points against Indiana the next day.

Armstrong posted another two-point performance in a loss to Denver on Feb. 19 before she bounced back with her breakout game against Louisiana-Lafayette. UNT seems to follow Armstrong’s lead. The Lady Eagles are 8-8 when Armstrong scores in double figures, but are just 2-7 when Armstrong fails to score 10 points.

Slinker is hoping Armstrong’s performance against Lafayette is a sign that she will play well in the final week of the regular season, which will be critical to the Lady Eagles’ hopes of advancing to the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

UNT enters its game against New Orleans in third place in the Sun Belt Conference’s West Division standings. A win over the Privateers would all but ensure UNT of advancing to the Sun Belt’s eight-team postseason tournament March 6-9 in Bowling Green, Ky.

"Jamie is a great player," UNT senior forward Kim Blanton said. "When she is penetrating no one can stop her. She takes a lot of pressure off of our post players."

The challenge of meeting her potential is one Armstrong says she is ready to for after adapting to her new role as a reserve.

"I just decided that it is time to really play hard," Armstrong said. "It’s crunch time. We need to get to the tournament and every team we are going to face is good. We have to come with our A-game."

BRETT VITO can be reached at 940-566-6870.