WB2K22: Players 11

College basketball is in off-season mode but that doesn't mean we can't look back at the talent that made the 2021-22 season a success. Let's check out some of the women that you may or may not know but should on the hardcourt.

Madison Bartley - Belmont

Forward Madison Bartley, a native of Kettering, Ohio, improved in her first year as a full-time starter and sophomore at Belmont. She averaged 11.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.7 blocked shots per game for a tough and successful Belmont team that made it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Bartley had a big-time performance in her team's narrow 70-67 second round loss to basketball power Tennessee. She scored 16 points with six rebounds and two blocked shots in her final game of the season. Bartley's best performance of the season was a 29-point explosion in a regular season win over Murray State, where she drained 12 of 16 shots. Bartley also had eight rebounds and two blocks in that contest. She had to double-doubles during the year including one that came in a win over Eastern Illinois where she scored 21 points and hauled in 14 rebounds to go with three blocks and two steals. During the Ohio Valley Conference tournament semifinal, Bartley helped Belmont eliminate Austin Peay with 20 points on 9-13 shooting. The tough front-court player proved to be a reliable three-point shooter, knocking down 38 percent of her attempts from three. That was a big improvement from the 27.3 percent that she made as a freshman.

Andra Espinoza-Hunter - Seton Hall

A native of Ossining, New York, Andra Espinoza-Hunter finished her collegiate career at Seton Hall after stops at UConn and Mississippi State. The 5-11 guard averaged 15 points per game in her final season after posting a career best average of 18.6 points per game the previous year. Espinoza-Hunter canned a career high 80 three-pointers last season and knocked down 224 triples over her career with a percentage of 37 percent. Her best performance from long range was on a 7-9 three-point showing in a win over Georgetown, where she scored 25 points. Her season high of 35 points came against Creighton. In that game she shot 6-8 from three. Espinoza Hunter helped her team get to the Women's National Invitational Tournament Championship game. In 127 career games she scored 1,331 points.

Samantha Michel - Anderson

Samantha Michel had a solid two seasons at Anderson, a Division-II school in South Carolina. She averaged 9.5 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots over 48 games during the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. Michel, a 6-1 forward from Apex, North Carolina previously competed at Northeastern University. Last season she led Anderson to a late season win over Tusculum with 26 points with two blocked shots off of the bench. Michel shot 11-17 from the field and a perfect 4-4 from the free-throw line. A little over a month before she scored 21 points against Tusculum where she shot 7-8 off of the bench. Michel blocked a season's high seven shots in a blowout win over Mars Hill. She also had 15 points and 14 rebounds in that game which she started. In a victory over Newberry, Michel blocked five shots while snagging 10 rebounds with nine points. Her final collegiate game was a 10-point, seven-rebound effort against Carson-Newman in the South Atlantic Conference championship game.

Jewel Watkins - Coppin State

Coppin State's Jewel Watkins helped her team improve drastically. Prior to her arrival, Coppin State finished 2-13, last season the Eagles were 15-13 in Watkins' freshman season. Her first big contribution came when she helped Coppin State stop a three-game losing streak after a victory over Saint Francis. Watkins scored 16 points with seven rebounds, making 63.6 percent of her shots. Her top scoring performance was when she scored 18 points against Maryland Eastern Shore late in the season. She followed that game with a double-double in a win over Delaware State posting 10 points and 10 rebounds. That was Watkins' third and final game of the season with 10 or more rebounds. The 5-11 guard from Whitehall, Ohio averaged 6.9 points and 5.1 rebounds as a reserve.