PEMBROKE — Nyla Allen doesn’t mind letting her voice be heard on the court.
A senior on The University of North Carolina at Pembroke women’s basketball team, Allen is ready to step into an increased leadership role for the Lady Braves this season.
“I have no problem being the loudest one on the court any day,” said Allen, who is the team’s top returning scorer and rebounder from last season with averages of 7.6 points and 6.1 rebounds per contest.
“That’s just the role I took on since playing ball. I kind of take advantage of that every day.”
Along with Allen, fellow senior Ebone Stevens hopes to help the Lady Braves forget about their 15-12 mark last year. It was a season that ended with four straight losses.
“We’ve just been trying to start a winning culture, changing some things so we can all be on the same page to get wins,” said Stevens, who shot nearly 40 percent from behind the arc last season, knocking down 41 three-pointers.
Picked by the league’s coaches to finish eighth this year, UNCP lost its top three scorers from last season in Jonissa Monley, Brianna Baham and Jasmine Huntley. Monley served as the team’s primary post player with 10.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per contest. Huntley was the team’s floor general, leading the squad with 76 assists and 40 steals.
But John Haskins, who enters his 14th season as head coach of the Lady Braves, sees some new strengths with his current squad.
“I think we’re longer, more athletic,” Haskins said. “We probably have a little more team speed at most positions. We might not have quite the post presence we had last year with Jonissa, but I think we’re going to be more mobile and a little bit longer.”
Allen and Haskins said the team will look to utilize that speed and athleticism to create more offense as a result of its pressure defense this season.
“We’re definitely a quicker team,” Allen said. “We see ourselves pressing and running the floor a lot more.”
Among the new faces is Kasey Drayton, a 6-foot redshirt senior who previously played at Armstrong State. Drayton is expected to bring versatility to the frontcourt with her size and athleticism.
“She’s got to be a little more assertive,” Haskins said of Drayton. “Alecia Hardy is another one that has a lot of versatility. I think we’ve got some depth.”
Stevens said “everyone brings something new to the team.”
“Kasey stretches out the floor, Tee (Graham) as the point guard sees the floor very well. Everybody has their own thing and it’s making us better as a team now,” she said.
Outside shooting also figures into the Lady Braves’ equation this season after finishing third in 3-pointers made last year.
“We have to take care of the ball. If we can shoot it like I think we capable of shooting, that’s the other thing I think we’ve got,” Haskins said. “We were really disappointed in how we ended the season. There were a couple of reasons for that. We were one of the better 3-point shooting teams in the league. We just struggled to put it in the hole (down the stretch) and then we had some injuries.”
While it may take some time for the new players to adjust, Haskins is pleased with the makeup of his roster.
“Right now we have eight new ones that are trying to figure it out,” he said. “They’ll figure it out as the year goes on. I’m excited, I really like this group. They’re a good bunch, they work hard. I think we’ll be fun to watch play.
“We just want to be a little more consistent night in and night out. I thought we had some really good nights, then we had some nights where we really played poorly. I think that consistency night in and night out has to be better.“
