Calver Selected SCAC Women's Basketball Coach of the Year
LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – On Thursday, March 11 the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) announced its 2020-21 All-SCAC Women's Basketball voting. University of Dallas Head Coach Bri Calver was tabbed 2020-21 SCAC Coach-of-the-Year.
She is just the third coach at Dallas to receive the honor, and the first in the UD women's basketball program since the team joined the league in 2011-12.
Dallas also had a pair named All-SCAC Honorable Mention with Camille Fowler (Helotes, Texas) and Amber Turner (Rogers, Ark.) being selected.
Calver in her second season with the Crusaders showed she is making an impact with the program right away. Calver started on the recruiting trail during her first year with UD and was able to field a squad that featured nine freshmen. Six of them played all 10 games, while eight of them appeared in over half. The entire class did debut in a collegiate game at some point this winter.
In what was an abbreviated season due to COVID-19, Calver helped navigate the young team through a unique season that started with 12 scheduled conference-only games. The team also had to go through COVID-19 protocols, which presented many different challenges that a team would not face in a normal season.
Dallas posted a 4-6 record overall on the season and earned the number seven seed of the SCAC Tournament. COVID-19 regulations prevented the quarterfinal game at the number two seed Colorado College last weekend.
UD bounced back from a 0-4 start by winning four of the last six games. After picking up back-to-back conference victories for the first time since 2015-16 this year when they defeated Centenary to finish January, the Crusaders went on the road the next month and had wins against team's holding the top seed at the time. First was Schreiner University, where the Crusaders bounced back from a lopsided result to win a nail biter by two (54-52) the next day. On the last day of February, UD spoiled Colorado College's bid for the highest seed with an impressive 79-61 blowout, which also had come less than 24 hours prior to being on the other end of that type of game.
Calver achieved all this while also being a new mother to Brynlee, who was born in November, 2020.
Calver arrived at UD in March, 2019, where she accepted her first head coaching job after being an assistant at Hendrix College the previous three seasons.
Calver was assisted this year by second-year graduate assistant Kendra Wynn and student assistant Alexis Vera.
Fowler started all nine games she appeared in for the Crusaders. The point guard was the top scorer with 94 points and was the only one to average double-digits with 10.4 points. She also led the team with 33 assists and 20 steals.
Turner was the veteran on the squad, coming over as a graduate student after playing at Hendrix. She was one-of-two players to surpass 300 minutes and easily obtained the most with 351 (35.1 per game). Turner was a point shy of Fowler with 93. She drained the most three-pointers with 16, and was tough on the glass with 51 rebounds. That ranked second on the team along with 29 assists and 18 steals, which the duo were the only Crusaders in double-digits for that category.