At the beginning of the semester, I boldly predicted that Highlands graduate and senior center Angela Healy, would have a great impact on the NKU women’s squad. Turns out I was right. Not only is she arguably the most instrumental part of the team (although, the team is equally balanced this year as it was last) she is wreaking havoc on the entire Great Lakes Valley Conference.

After yet another double-double on Groundhog Day, Healy is now averaging double digits in points and rebounds for the year and has reached the double-double mark in a dozen games. She also surpassed the 1,000 point milestone for her career a couple weeks back.

By the way, Healy, who has been a great post player in my three years at this school, can also step out and hit the three-ball. Healy deflected the credit for her 3-point shooting recently, telling Sports Information, that the shot clock was running down when she went 2-3 from beyond the arc last Saturday.

Coach Nancy Winstel has also lauded Healy’s play. Because of her constantly being double-teamed, NKU opponents are leaving open looks for everyone else. One of those benefiting from the double-teams is junior forward Cassie Brannen.

Brannen is shooting a shade under 60 percent from the floor and leads the team in free throw attempts and trails only Healy for the team lead in scoring. Jessie Slack has also benefited with Healy dishing to the perimeter from the low post to the perimeter, knocking down 32 treys on the year.

No Dominant Team in GLVC so far

If the GLVC has proven anything so far in the 2007-08 campaign, I guess wide-open and balanced are the themes. Drury is easily the hottest team in the conference, having not lost a game since Jan. 3. Missouri S ‘ T is tied with Drury at 9-2 in the conference, while the Lady Norse are just a game-and-a-half out of first place for overall conference supremacy..

Northern Kentucky is sharing second place in the East with their upcoming opponent Bellarmine.

It’s a key home game for the Lady Norse heading into the GLVC tournament, which when this piece is published, will commence in less than one month.

Do the Lady Norse have what it takes to get a solid conference tournament seed? Probably. Can they make it to the Division II Tournament? It’s a definite possibility given the post presence they’ve been blessed with this year.

But the GLVC is a gauntlet. And while they are sitting pretty at 15-5, there’s a long way between now and the second week of March.

Let the madness begin.