The last game the Whitman (Wash.) women’s basketball team played before Casey Poe arrived on campus was an eight-point loss in the NCAA Division III national championship game.
In the four years since, Poe has been to the NCAA tournament just once, losing in the regional final a year ago.
With only two players lost to graduation from that team, the Blues, ranked No. 4 in the nation, are in position to make a run at a national title with Poe a team captain and the leader on the floor as the starting point guard.
The 2014 Kamehameha-Hawaii alumna is putting together her best season yet, averaging a career-high 17.6 points per game for a 16-1 Whitman squad that is undefeated in the Northwest Conference.
“I kind of came into this year knowing that I don’t have another year to come back and do better,” said Poe, who surpassed 1,000 points scored in her career in a 68-49 win over Willamette (Ore.) on Saturday. “I don’t know if it’s just about growth or being a senior now, but I feel a lot more comfortable. I just feel a lot more confident in myself.”
As a 5-foot-8 athlete growing up in Hawaii, Poe was easy to spot standing among her Kamehameha-Hawaii teammates.
Her height was used down low in the paint, where she developed a post game playing forward and center.
On the mainland, that 5-foot-8 frame is considered average, and heading into her sophomore season Poe transitioned to the point guard position.
She increased her total assists by one per game from her sophomore to junior season, but has needed two years to fully understand everything the position entails.
“When I think about it, I played the four or five in high school, but as a senior I ended up helping bring the ball up the court, so it’s not like the point guard position was too foreign for me,” Poe said. “I don’t think I did awful (in the beginning), but I definitely had to work a long time to become confident in myself and have the confidence you need to be a point guard.”
Poe is on pace to finish with nearly the same number of assists as last year, but her efficiency is at another level this season.
She’s making a career-high 53.6 percent of her field-goal attempts, a significant jump from the 40.3 percent she shot as a junior.
Her turnovers are down and she’s already within two 3-point makes of tying her career high in a season despite playing in only 14 games.
On Jan. 16, Poe was named the NCAA Division III national player of the week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association after scoring a career-high 29 points and hitting 13 of 14 free throws, including four in the final 10 seconds, to beat No. 25 George Fox.
“We really mesh well together offensively and with each other,” Poe said. “I feel like we can only get better from here. I really do think we have the potential and the talent to go far and I’m really excited because I really want to get to the final four.”
Poe is one of two players from Hawaii on the team. Junior Maegen Martin is a 5-foot-10 forward from Maryknoll who is the top bench scorer on the team, averaging 8.6 points and 5.6 rebounds per game.
“She is our lefty,” Poe said. “She’s a great player — very smooth with her moves. Actually, she’s one of the only posts on the team that I’m really comfortable with helping to bring up the ball. She has a nice shot and brings a lot of things to our team, a lot of diversity.”
The Blues are halfway to matching the 31-2 record of the 2013-14 team that made it to the national title game.
Their only loss was in the season opener, a 73-64 defeat to Eastern Oregon in one of three games Poe has missed this season.
Whitman has only four home games left before the NWC tournament is held in late February.
The campus is located in Walla Walla, a town of roughly 30,000 people in Southeastern Washington.
“This community has really helped me along these last four years,” Poe said. “It’s like a family. Our basketball team is our family and the coaches are like my family and building that over the four years has really helped me get through the rough times, so I appreciate everyone for helping me get to this point.”
