George Fox athletics photo Kristen Shielee is a disruptive force in the middle, as George Fox opponents will attest to.

Go figure that George Fox is not only leading the Northwest Conference, but is one of two unbeaten remaining in Division III women’s basketball, joining Illinois Wesleyan.

The Bruins, picked to finish fifth in the league’s preseason poll, are 19-0, 10-0 in the NWC, and ranked No. 6 nationally heading into a weekend in which they host Lewis & Clark, than have a big rivalry game with 14-6, 8-3 Puget Sound.

George Fox graduated seven seniors from a team that won a school-record 25 games, lost to Hope on a neutral floor in the 2008 Sweet 16 and was starting over with only four returning players, no returning starters, and 10 freshmen. Things seem to operate in cycles for the Bruins. In 2005, they started anew with 10 freshmen, and that team went to the Sweet 16 before losing to Randolph-Macon. That class just graduated. The new one has been very impressive.

Rueck figured out that he had a good team just after the New Year, when it returned from a pair of tough matchups with Bridgewater and Virginia Wesleyan over Christmas Break in Las Vegas, to win at Whitman and Whitworth, who were projected in preseason to be 1-2 in the league.

“This team has been so much about the learning,” said George Fox coach Scott Rueck. “We were hoping to just be competitive and were excited about our incoming class. I knew we could be good, but I didn’t know when. It’s a surprise run that has definitely been very enjoyable.”

One of the luxuries that George Fox has that has made the learning curve a little easier is 6-4 center Kristen Shielee, the only senior on the roster. After playing behind smaller centers and not seeing a lot of playing time in her previous three seasons, Shielee has emerged as a huge success. She’s averaging 11.2 points, 10.0 rebounds, and 4.0 blocks per game. Earlier this season, she had the second triple-double in school history.

“To see the smile on her face this season, that’s been most enjoyable for me,” Rueck said. “She really enjoys the defensive end of the floor, and her offense has gotten better as the team has learned how to get her the ball. She bought us some time earlier this season to allow us to figure things out on the offensive end. Our defense has been solid all year. We’re good on the ball (led by B.B. Gardner, whom Rueck said was his best on-ball defender in 13 years coaching there) and we’re good protecting the basket, and that’s been a key for us.”

Shielee acknowledges that she never really thought of herself as intimidating, since she has two older brothers who are as tall as she is. But she has put a bit of a scare into the opposition, and her own team has been able to play with fearlessness.

“One of my teammates is friends with the players on another team,” Shielee said. “She was talking to them before the game. They looked at how many blocks one of their kids had. She had 16 in 12 games. Then they looked at how many I had. They saw that and said there was no way that they were going to pass the ball in the middle.”

“I’ve had a lot of pressure put on myself, but I’ve learned to step up and be a leader on the team. My teammates get excited when I do well, and I feed off everything from that.“

The team’s two leading scorers are freshmen wings Sage Indendi and Keisha Gordon, who pace four players averaging double figures in points.

“It’s surprising how mature these freshmen have been playing,” Rueck said. “Against Whitman earlier this season (a game that George Fox rallied from six points down at halftime to win), we closed them out with three freshmen guards on the floor. In our home game with Puget Sound, Sage hit a 3-pointer (with 45 seconds left), with us down one. They’ve played like veterans and made veteran decisions. They relaxed and executed down the stretch.”

Now the season is entering the stretch run and there haven’t been any indications that fatigue or the pressure of being unbeaten has fazed them in any way.

“One thing I really like is that they’ve been able to learn, and to stay hungry through winning,“ Rueck said. “This group has continued to look at itself and say we’re not quite good enough in this area, that we need a little more, and we need to get better.”

DEEP IN THE HEART OF MAINE: Just two seasons ago, the University of New England men’s basketball team posted a 5-20 record. Today, the Nor’easters have one of the longest winning streaks in the nation and sit atop the Commonwealth Coast Conference standings with an 8-0 mark. Winners of 16 in a row, the Nor’easters take a 17-3 record into Saturday’s home game with Roger Williams.

Featuring a balanced offensive attack, the Nor’easters lead the conference in scoring offense at 81.4 points a game. Seniors Johnnie Jefferson (16.0 points per game) and Jaykyri Simpson (12.1) are returning all-conference players who are augmented by a strong recruiting class.

Texas natives Quentin Thompson and Anthony Johnson have provided solid play at both ends of the court, part of a large pipeline of Texas players to Biddeford, Maine. Thompson is averaging 11.2 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds, while Johnson has accounted for 9.3 points per game on 55.0 percent shooting.

Defensively, the Nor’easters have utilized fullcourt defensive pressure to make things tough on their opponents, who are committing an average of 21.4 turnovers per game.

Despite their current win streak and impressive overall record, things started slowly for the Nor’easters. UNE lost three of its first four.

“Adding so many new and talented players to our returning core was a difficult thing,” said second-year coach Jason Mulligan.” “In the beginning of the season, guys were all trying to figure out their roles and each others’ game. Once we as individuals became a team and found our identity, we have started to grow as a team. We are now at a point where everyone knows what is expected of them and what we want to accomplish offensively and defensively.”

In order to keep their streak alive and lock up homecourt advantage through the conference tournament, the Nor’easters will have to overcome some traditionally strong conference opponents on the road, where UNE has a 7-1 record. Three of their final six games -- Gordon, Endicott and Colby-Sawyer -- will come vs. perennial conference powers.

How will his team react if they come out on the wrong side of the scoreboard?

“Any time you get hot as a team and put together a winning streak, you obviously want to keep it going,” said Mulligan. “I have told the guys that they are a part of the longest win streak in school history, and that with each win they are cementing our legacy. We do have to focus on the end goal and realize that if we lose it is not the end of the world. It has been two months since we have lost, so I am not sure how we will handle it.”

STILL SALTY: Seven days!

After losing 74-64 at Mississippi College last weekend, seven days are all the University of Texas-Dallas Comets had to wait for a rematch with the 22nd ranked Choctaws.

Unlike the first time around, the 25th ranked Comets will be the host school, meaning no six-hour-plus bus ride for the game.

"Obviously, we'd like to get a little bit more ground between the two teams, but they're so familiar that we don't have to go over a scouting report as much as we would three weeks from now," said UT-Dallas coach Polly Thomason. "The loss is fresh on our minds.

"Like Mississippi, we're undefeated at home," Thomason added. "It's a little bit [more of] a comfort for us. We haven't traveled on a bus. We've been home all week, in our own rooms and our own gym. Hopefully, we won't be as tight. That's what you hope for out of home games. We've got the comfort level going our way."

"It would be a disadvantage had we not beaten them at home," Mississippi College coach Paul Allen Duke said. "It's a very important ballgame for us because they are on our side in the Eastern Division of the ASC. We have confidence since we did beat them at home and we feel that we've got a great chance to beat Dallas there."

For Mississippi College (18-2, 13-2 American Southwest Conference), the road trip to UT-Dallas (17-3, 14-1 ASC) comes on the heels of a 77-61 victory over the University of the Ozarks in Arkansas Thursday night.

In the victory, Choctaws senior forward Rosemary Green had an almost perfect night from the floor. Green went eight of ten from the field and scored a game-high 18 points. She also handed out three assists, collected three rebounds and one steal in only 16 minutes on the floor.

"We're trying to get ahead in the ASC tournament," said Green. "We have a goal and we're going out trying to play our game, not trying to think about anything else."

"We've got a lot of depth this year and Rosemary's one of our best players," Duke said. "Last night, we got to play 15 players around the ten-minute mark. That gave a lot of our ten players that log a lot of minutes rest. That's very important, especially on these bus drives. Arkansas and [we] have to travel farther than anybody in this conference. Anytime you get on a bus, if you can give your starters some rest time, that will benefit us Saturday."

Conversely, the Comets needed a little bit more of their star player, freshman guard Lyndsey Smith, in a 63-55 victory over Louisiana College Thursday. Smith scored 19 points and corralled seven rebounds while playing 32 of a possible 40 minutes. Smith helped UT-Dallas win its 17th game of the year, which is the first time the program has reached that plateau.

Smith also hit three free throws in the last 21 seconds to extend the lead to eight points.

"We have great leaders on the team," Smith said. "Coach Polly puts a lot of trust in me and our point guard Chelsea [Edwards] puts a lot of trust in me. Without their leadership and trust, I don't think I would be able to do anything that I'm able to do. The leaders of the team allow me to play my game."

While Smith looks at her teammates and coaches as leaders, she gets their admiration for what she brings to the program.

"Lyndsey's just a special person," said Thomason. "She's really unique in who she is. The team really follows her on and off the court and you really don't see that out of a freshman. Usually, they're really intimidated or don't feel comfortable taking that role. She has that personality where she doesn't care who you are, she's going to tell you how it is.

"She understands what we need from her and she's been able to do some things that we've been lacking for the last couple years," Thomason added. "She's a good all-around person. She's been tremendous for us and a nice addition as a freshman."

When UT-Dallas and Mississippi College met last weekend, four Choctaws finished in double figures. Green led all scorers with 21 points, while Brittany Dukes, a transfer from Robert Morris University, had a double-double from the point guard spot. Dukes scored 13 points, grabbed ten rebounds and collected four assists.

Spreading the ball around and getting offensive production from multiple sources has been a big key to Mississippi College's success in and out of league play.

"We're very fortunate this year," Duke said. "We've got a lot of balance. If you look at our first team and second team, you'd say, ‘Coach, there's not that much difference.' Offense is not your most consistent phase. Our defensive end of the floor has been our most consistent phase."

"We always need our point guard Chelsea Edwards to bring her ‘A' game," Thomason said. "We need her to distribute the ball well and hit her lay-ups when she gets them. Our interior players really need to step up their defense. Louisiana is the same way, so we started preparing for it this week. They both have great inside players. We're trying to get tougher and more physical with our post players."

Although they want a victory to prevent losing the season series to Mississippi College, the Comets are quick to say the game is about pride more than anything else.

"We're not going to let it happen again," Smith said of the loss. "We're not trying to get back at them. We're just trying to play our game. None of us think we really had our best game. We're focusing on post defense. It's not so much revenge. It's what we think we're capable of.

"The salt's still in the wound," added Smith. "We still know exactly how we lost. We still know how everyone acted. We're ready to play them again. We'll be more ready for it this time. We didn't expect them to be that good of a team. Now, we know what they're capable of."

STREAKS: Did you see the streaker?

In any sport, getting on a roll is important. It could be during a game, a tournament, or for a season, whatever the situation, getting on the right side of the momentum swing can do wonders for a team.

In basketball, getting on a roll during the season can take a team that may just contend and create a team to beat.

Take for example the John Carroll men's basketball team: The Blue Streaks started the season 1-2 and by the holiday break were 4-4. Maybe not the way coach Mike Moran expected the season to start, especially since the team was 2-2 in the OAC and already had lost to Capital and Ohio Northern in conference play. But on Dec. 29, the team started a run that is now living up to its nickname.

It started with winning a holiday tournament at Hampden-Sydney and the Blue Streaks haven't lost since. Eleven consecutive wins, a perfect January, and a win against Capital has put John Carroll's record at 15-4 and 11-2 in the OAC -- tied for first place in the OAC and sitting at third in the first regional rankings. Five more wins and the 4-4 start will certainly be forgotten with a 19-4 overall record and a 16-2 OAC mark and most likely an NCAA bid awaiting them.

Of course, some teams just seem to start on a roll. No. 1 St. Thomas is the lone undefeated team on the men's side of Division III basketball. Twenty straight victories have them essentially in the NCAA tournament with at least six games to go. Should the Tommies actually enter the NCAA tournament at 27-0 they are probably the overall favorite to win the title, right?! Ah, don't start sewing that banner just yet! Does anyone remember the 2004-05 St. John Fisher team? They entered the tourney 26-0 and some predicted they were at least a shoo-in to make it to Salem. But they only made it to the Sweet 16 before getting crushed by Potsdam State. Maybe it isn't a good thing to be undefeated and playing in the NCAA Tournament – unless you are UW-Platteville which has done it twice.

Now as good as a streak is for many, when it comes to an end, it could cause a team to unravel. Remember Rochester last season? The Yellow Jackets were 14-0 before losing in overtime on the road against Emory. They got wins in the next two games, but lost four of the next five to go 3-5 in a span of eight games. It didn't seem like the Yellow Jackets could find that mojo they had before traveling to Atlanta and they never looked the same again. Three straight wins to end the season and two in the NCAA Tournament got them into the Sweet 16 where they ended their season with a disappointing loss against Coast Guard.

Then there are the teams who seem allergic to any signs of a significant streak. Take this year's Brandeis men's team for example. The Judges started on the wrong kind of streak, losing their first three, including the opener against Lasell. But just when many people were starting to scratch their heads, the Judges turned it around and won five straight ... but that is apparently where their allergy kicks in. That five game winning streak was followed by losing two out of three and the team was 6-5 on the season. But once again the Judges got back on track and rattled five more straight wins. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, they lost, though against the defending champs -- Wash U. But here is the deal: the Judges need to find a way to win more than five in a row if they want any hope of making the NCAA Tournament in March. The Judges aren't even ranked in the Top 10 in the Northeast Regional Rankings and pretty much have to win the UAA to get that opportunity. That means a seven-game winning streak including a win on the road at Wash U.

So, streaks can be fun and incredible to watch, but they can also be a curse for some teams. Not many teams have streaked their way through a season to win an NCAA Tournament like St. Thomas is looking to do -- so maybe they need to lose one in the near future to help rekindle the fire the team will need to get to Salem. Of course some teams can't afford to lose a game because it could cause not only the stream to come to an end, but maybe any momentum the team enjoyed. And for others, getting on a winning streak can be the toughest thing to do, especially when expectations are high. But whatever the case, the team that wins the national championship has to be on a streak and it has to last at least five or more games or there won't be a title.

If you have a tip or note, send it to atn@d3hoops.com.