— CMCC women’s team aiming for another national title in Virginia

Auburn – Emily Strachan and teammate Elisa Brault agreed that the Central Maine Community College women’s basketball team is a young and inexperienced team this season.

But the Mustang managed to put together a winning season and is now in the hunt for another national title.

The second-seeded CMCC will travel to Richmond, Va., to compete in the USCAA Division II Women’s Basketball Tournament at 8 p.m. Tuesday. seventh place from the University of Maine at Augusta and tenth under State Fayette.

Strachan, a Lewiston native, is making his first trip to the nationals, but Brault, the team’s only returning veteran, joined in a big dance – in 2020 when CMCC finished second.

It’s really exciting,” Strachan said. “I mean, we only have one comeback and we’re all new, so it’s really a huge achievement for us.”

The Mustang won the national championship in 2017 and 2019.

CMCC women’s basketball coach Andrew Morong said Strachan was one of the reasons for the Mustang’s success.

It’s always great to have a local award on your team,” Murong said. “Emily came on and we needed her right away as one of the best guys. It was a job ad and that’s exactly what happened.

“I have made real progress. I scored more than 30 goals in one game this year. She is our top scorer, but she has become a versatile player. She’s one of our best peripheral defenders. She’s also our best rebounding goalkeeper.

Strachan said “holding on” to CMCC’s tradition of playing fast and furious basketball gave the Mustangs a shot at national championships.

“I like the fact that we all come from different places,” says Strachan, who takes general courses before committing to a major. “So I have a lot of new friends that I feel at the beginning of the year, we got closer and overcame some obstacles.

“My favorite thing about the team is all the friendships I’ve made. They are now like my family.

Strachan, who averaged 13.5 points per game and shot 61.3 percent fouls, knows the young Mustangs will play a role in his team’s progression to the national team.

“Again, we are very young,” she said. She said: “Sometimes we don’t come out strong and we make stupid mistakes, but I think if we stick together and play like we played against[South Maine Community College]… we will be really good. “I’m proud of us and happy where things are going.”

Brault, a sophomore from New Hampshire, was instrumental in Mustang’s 57-50 victory over Southern Maine to give CMCC its fifth straight Yankee Small College Conference championship.

She fell in two late Mustangs and two free throws. Brault averaged 7.6 points per game and hit 60% of fouls. She plans to play in a four-year college for the next two years.

“It stopped the (last) game for us on Saturday night,” Murong said of the conference championship game. “She made it 2-3 in the second half and we really relied on her experience. She had two interceptions and two big hits. .. I’m just excited because I hope it’s also a stepping stone for her to a big national championship.

“((Brault) was a second-year freshman American player,” Morong added. “She had a mixed year. She was playing great and disappearing on us and playing great and disappearing. She was very patient with her. -even and somewhat familiar in the process.”

Braultt said the CMCC season once again depends on each other.

“It was a young team,” she said. “We had to find our way of being together, especially with the coaches, which was a bit difficult I think. We all hold each other accountable. †

“I love this team because they all look like my little sisters. We became a family so quickly. We have girls from the Netherlands, New Zealand and Florida. …Strange to think that we let them get together and become so close. If I could stay here every four years, I would.”

Brault is very confident in the Mustang, even though they started out as a group of rookies.

“Ik heb veel vertrouwen in mijn team omdat ik het gevoel heb dat, ondanks onze jonge leeftijd, veel mensen niet van ons verwachten dat we iets doen, en dat zou waarschijnlijk onder onze kont in brand steken als: ‘Laten we bewijzen dat ze ongelijk to have’. ” she says.

But she stressed that the CMCC should look no further than the next game.

“I would say we’re going to win it all, but we have to focus on it at the right time,” she said. “That’s what the coach likes to say. We talked about it a lot. We don’t want to be caught up in the noise of citizens. We are there doing business.

Brault is also looking forward to another mentor – graduating with his mother, Andrea, who is taking online classes at CMCC.

“She moved away from her middle finger,” Braultt said. “I know she worked hard on it. No one in my family goes to college – and we’re graduating at the same time. So that would be really cool.

Coach’s point of view

Harvesting a new generation of athletes takes patience, Murong said.

“We have a very young team – 16 newcomers and one who returned,” he said. “(There is) a lot of talent, maybe more than we’ve ever had, but the least experience we’ve ever had. So as a coach and coaching staff, we have to be very patient – and I’m the least patient I know.

“So it was a big challenge for all of us and the kids had to be patient too. We see it coming. We see it developing and we take 10 steps forward and 20 steps back.

Patience and the learning process eventually brought Mustangs to Citizens.

“That’s the expectation every year,” Murong said. “We have won eight of the last ten conference championships, five of the last conference championships and played in our last four national championships.

“The minimum expectation is to win the conference and go to the nationals. Even with a young team, we kept telling them that was the expectation, guys.

Morong also saw something different in Mustangs.

“I would say childish ignorance,” Murong said. “Because they’re so young, they don’t know they’re there. I think our diversity has a lot to do with it.

“We have players from three countries, seven states and a group of Mainers from different backgrounds – and I think we’ve done a great job training together and learning from each other. I know (comradeship) is good on the pitch, but it also allowed us to succeed on the pitch.

Looking back on the regular season, Morong wasn’t sure there would be a turning point in the Mustangs.

“I always tell our teams: ‘A good CM becomes a great CM when the players can take the keys from the coaches – (and) that hasn’t happened yet,'” he said. “It happens every year at different times for each team and hopefully it will come later.

“They had times where they fought through adversity…but they didn’t come forward and said, ‘We have this now. “And hopefully that will happen in the next 48 to 72 hours. So there’s no better time than the present.

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