On a young team with only three active upperclassmen to look to for leadership, women’s basketball benefited greatly this weekend from the clutch 3-point shooting of first year Selena Lorrey, the leading scorer in the team’s upset victory against the NESCAC’s top-seeded Tufts.
After taking some time to adjust to the speed of the college game, her 11 points against Tufts bookended a hot streak that started against the Jumbos on January 11, where she scored three 3-pointers. Lorrey scored a 3-pointer in all but two of the next 13 games, including eight straight. She has also made at least three per game in her last three games and has grown into the team’s sixth player role.
“She’s just deadly,” Head Coach Adrienne Shibles said. “She’s very consistent in her form and very confident. There are a few shots she takes where you think, ‘There’s no way she can make this shot’—but it goes in.”
Still, the team was not exactly surprised to see her break out.
“We saw this right away from her,” captain Anna Prohl ’14 said. “We had pick-up in the fall and we were like ‘Wow, this girl can shoot the lights out.’”
Lorrey, a Maine native, appeared on the Bowdoin recruiting radar for her disciplined shooting mechanics and her pinpoint accuracy from long range. Coming to Bowdoin allowed her to play basketball in college while being close enough to home that her family can attend her home games.
Athletics play an important role in her family—her mother walked on to the basketball team at the University of Vermont and her youngest sister Amelia plays basketball as well. Her sister Jocelyn is an accomplished track star as a high school junior.
Lorrey is more aware of her sister’s stat lines than her own, recalling with ease her sister’s New England Championship jump, while oblivious to her own streak of 3-pointers. Lorrey said she had been too absorbed in the team’s play against Tufts to think about her own first-half performance.
Despite Bowdoin’s success this season, Lorrey said she is looking ahead to what some time away from the game will bring her. Preseason for the team starts with the beginning of the fall semester, and players find themselves inundated with constant training and preparation. The team lifts weights and plays pick-up games three times a week, while waking at 6:30 a.m. at least twice a week for more workouts. The month in between the season’s end and the team’s offseason workouts will give her the free time she has not really experienced since arriving at Bowdoin.
“Balancing labs and basketball has definitely been challenging,” Lorrey said. “I’ve had two labs both semesters here, as well as a language conversation group. Often I have to go right from lab to practice, especially if my labs run long. There’s not really much free time, but it’s definitely worth it.”
Though defensive assignments and shot selection were early difficulties for Lorrey, confidence was not. She has even developed a reputation for being vocal in the huddle.
“She’s very constructive,” captain Kaitlin Donahoe ’13 said. “She always has a lot to say but she frames it in a constructive way. I commend her for confidence in her own knowledge of the game.”
After the season, Lorrey says she looks forward to branching out. She loves singing and dabbled in theatre in high school, and expressed interest in pursuing those at Bowdoin. Academically, she is looking to further her interest in biology and German, and says she wants to conduct research on pathology.
Her teammates will undoubtedly look to her again Saturday as the team faces the second seed in the NESCAC tournament, Amherst. The team hopes she can match her career-high 15 points (5-of-6 from 3-point range) from the team’s loss to Amherst earlier this year.
“She’s going to help regardless,” Donahoe said. “Either they’ll let her shoot and she’ll hit, or they’ll have to play her and give other players opportunities. Either way, she’s going to have a lot of confidence.”
And according to those around her, they will continue to show their confidence in her.
“I’m excited that she’s just a first year,” Prohl said. “She has a lot more room to grow. I’m disappointed I’ll only get to play two years with her.”
“I know she’s going to have a great career,” Shibles said. “She will start next season even better than how she’ll leave [this one].”
The sports editor of the Orient chooses the Athlete of the Week based on exemplary performance.