Lady Twins sign eight players for upcoming season

Fresh off a trip to the Region III Championship, the Columbia-Greene Community College Lady Twins are ready to get back on the floor and prove that last season was not a fluke. Monday afternoon, the Lady Twins started that quest by introducing their incoming class of players for the 2018-2019 season with eight players signing their National Letter of Intent to play collegiately for Columbia-Greene in the fall.

“I’m excited for us to go back into the league with the opportunity to prove that this is program is going to continue to go in the same direction and that it wasn’t just a fluke and that these girls are here for the long haul,” said coach Jayme Bates.

Among the eight signees, Elisha Bowry, Kiearra Whaley, Chelsea Gibson, and Chayla Querrad were in attendance. Rounding out the class are Briana Morales, Latrice Dudley, Kamani Bryant, and Taaliyah Ware.

The eight new Lady Twins will be joining returning players Casiris Ruiz, Anyla Harper, Britney Brazela and Daniella Weinschreider.

Weinschreider is the key returning piece for the Lady Twins, the forward was named to the third-team All-Region III. As a freshman, Weinschreider averaged 11.3 points per game and shot the three-ball at a clip of 40 percent. She also averaged 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

In the backcourt, Columbia-Greene will be led by Ruiz, who will be taking over for the departed Tanisha Edge. Despite missing the first half of the season, Ruiz came into her own as a secondary scorer behind Edge, finishing the season averaging 15.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.6 assists per game.

With the eight signees, Bates has indicated that the strength of the unit is their size, which should help the team improve their rebounding.

“We have a lot of height, which in the last game that we lost last season, we were outrebounded by 30, so to bring in some height is something that will really help us, but we also have a lot of athleticism and we shoot the ball extremely well,” Bates said.

Columbia-Greene finished the 2017-2018 season 25-4 and 14-2 in Mountain Valley Conference play. As a team, they averaged 79.4 points per game and shot 43 percent from the floor.

Heading into the new season, with practices starting in October, Bates has big goals for his Lady Twins.

“We are looking to establish ourselves as a top-five in the nation, it was exciting to get there for a few weeks, but it is going to be our goal to let the whole entire nation know that that is our goal for the entire season,” he said.