But some dog tales don’t translate, so the Flyers — who lost to George Mason, 74-50, Sunday afternoon at UD Arena — are now 10-14 on the season and tied for 11th place in the conference at 4-9.
Even though the Flyers suffered their third loss in the past four games, there were some glimmers Sunday that hinted at better times ahead.
While two veteran players led the way on the stat sheet — Destiny Bohanon had 15 points and Mariah Perez had 12 points and 10 rebounds — the diamonds in the rough in this defeat were the few shining moments by some of the team’s freshmen:
- Eve Fiala – the gangly 6-foot-4 center who is just learning the game — ended the affair with two blocked shots in a row against the 19-4 Patriots.
- Denika Lightbourne, the 5-9 guard from Nassau, Bahamas, came off the bench, promptly made her first two shots and finished with six points, her third best offensive outing of the season.
- Riley Rismiller — the 6-4 forward from Coldwater who has been hampered by injury and missed seven of 10 games since the end of December — came off the bench very briefly and buried the first three pointer she took. She did the same against St Louis last month and before she got hurt, she was 5 for 10 from beyond the arc.
The most intriguing of the young players (and that includes 5-9 guard Lauren Pallotta, who is sidelined by injury and uses a knee scooter to get around) is Fiala, who can “do it all” Williams Jeter said with a grin.
The coach, though, was talking about off the court.
She recounted how the team was visiting someone’s house and “Eve sits down at the piano and plays, like Mozart or something.
“Last night at 10 I get a message from her saying, ‘Coach, you up?’
“Then she sends me this hoodie she’s drawn with her dog on it. It has his face, his name, all kinds of stuff on it.
“She’s super creative, talented and artistic…And she loves her dog.”
When Fiala came here from Indiana, Pennsylvania, she brought along her American Bully puppy she’d named Kilo. It’s her comfort dog and would be in the campus apartment she shares with the other three freshmen.
Initially, that presented a problem.
“I was very scared of dogs,” Lightbourne grinned. “When Kilo first came up to me and started sniffing me, I like tightened up and was going ‘Eve!…Eve!… Help me.’”
Eve laughed: “And now he comes and sits down next to her, and she pets him and feeds him mini cupcakes.”
In turn, Kilo amazes her, Denika said:
“He can speak, roll over, give you his paw, do High 5s, a lot of things. He’s super smart and apparently, he can whisper, too.”
Since when is a dog whisperer actually the dog?
“Well, he doesn’t quite whisper,” Eve said as she leaned over and pretended to be Kilo. “But it’s not a bark either. He just gets close and kind of clucks.”
Denika has changed her tune so much that she defended Kilo when some university representative insinuated, he had taken a bathroom break in a communal shower.
Eve swore it wasn’t him and Denika agreed:
“It was too much. No way it was Kilo.”
Add Williams-Jeter to his fan club:
“Kilo came to my house and he just sat. Meanwhile, my dog was acting crazy. Eve tells him to ‘go poop’ and he walks outside, poops, and comes back in in two seconds. It’s the same when she tells him to go pee or to sit or walk around or roll over or eat …or stop eating.
“She’s got a clicker and it’s just click, click, click and he does everything he’s supposed to.”
The UD coach was teased that she needs one of those clickers for her team.
“I’d be clicking all game,” she grinned. “I probably need one of those shock collars because I’m saying, ‘No!…No!...No!’”
She said that a lot Sunday.
The Flyers had 24 turnovers.
But some of the things that buoyed her Sunday — as has been the case other times this season, too — were those instances when her young players showed they were catching on to the college game.
Before she got hurt, Rismiller came off the bench against Ohio Dominican and scored 13 points in just 11 minutes. Lightbourne had 4-for-6 shooting efforts early in the year against Ohio University and Wichita State.
And Fiala won A-10 Rookie of the Week honors two weeks ago when she scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds against Saint Louis.
“The four freshman are really tight,” Williams-Jeter said. “They do everything together and if one is down. the other three lift them up.
“They remind me a lot of when I was with Swin, Asjha and Sue.”
Swin Cash, Asjha Jones, Sue Bird, and Tamika Williams were the Fab Four who made up one of college basketball’s greatest teams. They went 32-0 as seniors and won the 2002 NCAA Tournament. They were all among the top six picks in the WNBA draft, had great pro careers and remain close friends today.
And, at UConn, they had one other thing going for them.
They all were Huskies.
Sometimes every dog does have her day.
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