Women’s basketball is 100 > Smith College to re-enact 1893’s first game on March 22

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Women’s College Basketball

In the midst of February Fever, otherwise known as Tourney Time in Eastern Maine, it is fitting that we pause to reflect upon the past: specifically, to celebrate the centennial of women’s basketball.

For those who might not be aware of it, 1993 officially marks the 100th anniversary of women’s basketball in the United States.

Sendra Berenson, a physical education instructor at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., introduced the sport to her classes that year, with the first formal game in women’s collegiate basketball history being played on March 22, 1893.

This weekend, Smith hosts the New England Women’s 8 Basketball Tournament semifinals and finals, and a re-enactment of an 1893 game will be featured between the semifinals on Saturday.

The game will be played by two teams of 22 student volunteers, said Carole Grillscq, Smith’s sports information director, who is acting as coach for the event.

“Ten years ago, we had a 90-year celebration of women’s basketball and basically did the same thing we are doing this year,” she said of putting together the team.

Duplicate uniforms (of the middies and bloomer variety) were made then, and the 1893 “teams” will wear them this weekend.

Asked how the teams were coached and what the practices were like, Grills said the effort was more like following a script rather than a game plan.

“I taught it to them,” she said.

“I had a copy of the original script we used 10 years ago. It’s more like a choreographed theatrical skit. They rehearsed and rehearsed, and have performed for a youth tournament here at the college, and at a high school in Worcester.”

The new-old Smith Pioneers also have the honor of performing their game in April at the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association convention in Atlantic City, N.J., which coincides with the NCAA Women’s Final Four.

Berenson followed James Naismith’s 13 original rules to create the women’s game.

She divided the court in three sections, and players, who shot at peach baskets with a soccer ball, had to stay in those sections.

Players could not hold the ball more than three seconds, and were limited to three-bounce dribbles.

Following the semifinals, Smith will host a centennial banquet featuring Judith M. Sweet and Cheryl Miller.

Sweet, athletic director at the University of California-San Diego, completes her term this month as the first woman president of the NCAA. She will serve as mistress of ceremonies.

Miller is the banquet’s featured speaker.

An All-American from the University of Southern California, Miller led the United States Olympic women’s basketball team to its first gold medal in the sport in the 1984 Summer Games when her team went undefeated at 6-0.

Smith kicked off its month-long centennial celebration Feb. 3 in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and closes out the celebration with a campuswide birthday party on March 22, the date of the first game.

For the first time this season, St. Joseph’s College of Standish earned the No. 1 spot in the weekly Maine Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women basketball poll.

With nine of the 12 member coaches voting, the Lady Monks, 22-3, received four first-place votes.

Former leader Husson College of Bangor, 23-2, was second, followed by the University Southern Maine, 21-3; the University of New England of Biddeford, 14-6; and the University Maine-Presque Isle, 14-5.

Not surprisingly, NAIA Division II National Player of the Week Sharon Rines of Levant was named MAIAW Player of the Week.

A junior for the Lady Monks, Rines averaged 29.5 points and 13 rebounds in two games, and went 23 for 28 from the free throw line for .821 percent.

Veronica Scott of Westbrook College scored 64 points, had 52 rebounds and 11 blocked shots in three games to earn Rookie of the Week honors. The freshman center from Sabattus had five blocked shots against Johnson (Vt.) State.

Rines is the state scoring leader, averaging 18.6 points per game, and another national leader, Becky Moholland of the University of Maine-Machias, is the rebound leader, averaging 19 per game.

Sarah Fenderson of Thomas College in Waterville is tops in assists with eight per game, and Heather Brewer of UMPI leads in steals with 3.8 per game.

Candy Berger of the University of Maine-Farmingon is tops in free-throw percentage at .846; Katariina Pulkkinen is the best from the floor at .590 percent; and teammate Lori Towle leads the 3-point shooters at .509 percent.