By Rob Potter
April 13, 2004 – LIVINGSTON MANOR
LADY WILDCATS

Overall Record: 13-8

League Record: 4-4 OCIAA Division VI

Team Leaders: Sophomore guard Heather Sherwood was the Lady Wildcats’ leading scorer, averaging 11 points a game. Jennifer Taggart and Charlene Vail each averaged eight point per contest.
Senior center Mary Mills was the squad’s leading rebounder. She averaged 11 boards a game. Taggart grabbed 10 rebounds per game.
Taggart led Manor in assists and blocked shots. She averaged seven assists and three blocks per contest.
“There were three games this season where she was only one or two assists from recording a triple-double,” Manor Coach Kevin Clifford said of Taggart. “At times, she was like a coach out on the floor.”
Clifford also noted that Vail was “a versatile post player.”
Both Taggart and Vail played the various forward and guard positions this season.

Season Highlight(s): “It was coming back to defeat Eldred here at home,” Clifford said. “We had a big comeback in the second half, we were down by nine at halftime.”
That Lady Wildcats’ comeback against the Lady Yellowjackets was in a quarterfinal game of the Section IX Class D tournament. In that March 3 contest, Manor rallied to defeat Eldred, 57-46.
“Getting to West Point was a highlight as well,” said Clifford, referring to the fact that the Lady Wildcats reached the Class D championship game at West Point’s Christl Arena.
Clifford also noted that a 47-46 victory over The Family School in the regular season finale propelled the Lady Wildcats to the number three seed the Class D tournament.

Season Lowlight(s): “Not getting to double figures in our game against Sullivan West,” Clifford said.
In the second game of the season, Manor lost to SW, a Class B team, by the final score of 31-9 in the championship game of the SW Tournament.
However, Clifford noted that the defeat served “as a little bit of a reality check” for his squad. In the team’s first game following that lopsided loss to the Lady Bulldogs, Manor defeated Tri-Valley, a Class C team, by 13 points in a non-league contest.
The coach noted that another disappointing moment was losing at Eldred in a January 21 game after leading by 10 points with four minutes left in the contest. The Lady Yellowjackets scored the winning basket with eight seconds remaining in the contest to record a 50-48 win.

Other: Manor will lose five players to graduation: Tegan Kern, Mills, Taggart, Liz Weickum and Vail.
But Clifford noted that he has several good players returning for next season. They include Sherwood, Carrie Lewis, Ashley Mann, Nicole Miller and Katie Portz
Mann played the point guard position for the Lady Wildcats this season and Clifford noted that Portz “really played great at the end of the year.”
The coach is also pleased that 20 girls recently signed up for a Manor AAU team that will compete in the spring and summer. He noted that the AAU team only had nine players last year.