When Ginny Boggess left Monmouth University to become the Toledo women\u2019s basketball coach in April 2024, Evalyse Cole elected to switch her college commitment and follow Boggess to Ohio.<\/p>\n
A season and a half into her college career, Cole has developed into a rock in Boggess\u2019 rotation.<\/p>\n
Cole, an Easton High School graduate, went into Tuesday\u2019s matchup against Eastern Michigan having started every game for Toledo (8-7, 3-2 Mid-American Conference). The sophomore forward was averaging 8.4 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 26.4 minutes per game.<\/p>\n
Cole\u2019s jump in production and playing time have come after she backed up one of the best players in Toledo history, Sammi Mikonowicz, last season. Mikonowicz was part of a senior class that won three straight MAC regular-season championships and at least 24 games in four straight seasons.<\/p>\n
The departure of Mikonowicz and five other seniors left Toledo\u2019s current roster feeling its way through the season\u2019s early stages. The Rockets have played better over the last month, going 5-2 in their last seven games.<\/p>\n
\u201cComing back with kind of a younger team, the start of our season was a little rough,\u201d Cole said by phone Monday. \u201cWe were trying to find our roles and how we play together. But I think as each game goes on, we\u2019re getting a lot better and playing much more together and being more connected and confident on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cole\u2019s personal confidence has grown between her freshman and sophomore seasons, allowing her to become a rotation mainstay. She focused her offseason training on becoming stronger and improving as a rebounder. Her 4.9 boards per game rank second on the Rockets.<\/p>\n
Cole has found a good balance between a demanding major \u2014 she is enrolled in Toledo\u2019s nursing program \u2014 and the demands of Division I basketball. Boggess sees Cole as a player capable of consistently scoring and rebounding in double figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s made great strides,\u201d Boggess said. \u201cShe\u2019s in the best shape of her life. She\u2019s getting in a ton of extra work. She\u2019s got a nice little rhythm with her process as far as coming in in the morning two days a week and getting extra shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s just operating like a Division I college basketball player in Year 2, and it\u2019s so fun to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Year 3 of college promises change for Cole. She will jump into her clinical work with Toledo\u2019s nursing program next fall. She said she will need to find a new balance then, though she\u2019s looking forward to the challenge.<\/p>\n
For now, she wants to help Toledo continue the program\u2019s recent run of success. The Rockets were picked to finish second in the MAC in the league\u2019s preseason poll. They began the week in sixth place but still have 11 conference games left.<\/p>\n
How high can the Rockets rise? Cole said it depends on whether they can follow Boggess\u2019 mantra of focusing on the next play and one minute 40 times in a game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like it\u2019s true, because you can only do so much in that one minute, but you can give your all for one minute 40 times or however much you\u2019re on the court,\u201d Cole said. \u201cBut it\u2019s definitely about being connected, competitive, and confident with ourselves on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Challenges ahead: The Moravian men (11-4 overall, 5-3 Landmark Conference) carry a three-game winning streak into this week after beating Juniata on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The next three weeks are critical for the Greyhounds as they look to qualify for the six-team Landmark Conference tournament next month.<\/p>\n
Moravian sits in fourth place in the conference standings, one game behind Drew and one game ahead of Wilkes, Elizabethtown and Susquehanna. Those are the next four teams on the Greyhounds\u2019 schedule.<\/p>\n
Moravian follows that stretch by visiting the Landmark Conference\u2019s co-leaders, Scranton and Catholic, to start February. The Greyhounds lost to Scranton by 16 points and Catholic by 10 in the first half of conference play.<\/p>\n
Moravian needs to improve its defense to make a run at the conference title. The Greyhounds have allowed opponents to shoot 49.1 percent during conference play, which ranks last in the 10-team Landmark.<\/p>\n
Tip-ins: The Kutztown women (10-6 overall, 6-3 PSAC) have won three straight games to move into a tie with Lock Haven atop the PSAC East. East Stroudsburg (11-6, 6-4) is a half-game back. \u2026 The Moravian women have also won three straight. The Greyhounds (6-9 overall, 4-4 Landmark Conference) have moved into a fifth-place tie in the Landmark Conference. The top six teams qualify for the conference tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Ginny Boggess left Monmouth University to become the Toledo women\u2019s basketball coach in April 2024, Evalyse Cole…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549734,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,325,231,772,1544,66,7464],"class_list":{"0":"post-549733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-basketball","13":"tag-ncaab","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115929840604977638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}