Dec. 20, 2000

By Renee Carlson
The Coloradoan

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - It's a fact of life for college basketball players that they don't get many vacations. They play through Thankgsiving, Christmas and spring breaks.

But the Colorado State University women's basketball team gets an unprecedented five days this year because of the way the schedule happened to work out.

"This is the longest Christmas break we've ever had," said CSU coach Tom Collen, whose team beat Northern Arizona 77-54 on Tuesday night.

The Rams will practice today, then won't return until they gather Dec. 26 for an evening practice. Two days later, the Rams leave for a nine-day road trip, their longest of the season. Their first game back in Moby Arena is Jan. 25 against Air Force.

Collen and the players say they can use the break. They have been practicing, either in individual workouts or as a team, since the second week of school in early September.

"Yeah, we're all getting kind of tired," Farah McDill said.

HAMMON HOME - Former CSU All-American Becky Hammon was at the game and was the halftime guest for the radio broadcast on KCOL. Hammon, who plays for the WNBA's New York Liberty, went to Israel earlier this fall to play but returned the United States when the political tension heated up. Her former CSU teammate, Katie Cronin, also was playing in Israel but returned as well and is an assistant coach at Seton Hall.

DOWN ON DEFENSE - CSU was the first team to shoot better than 40 percent against Northern Arizona in the past seven games. The Lumberjacks were keeping opponents to a 35.7 percent average and 57.7 points a game. CSU shot 44.4 percent and scored 77 points.

On the other hand, CSU held Northern Arizona's two leading scorers to nine combined points. Kara Kleinhenz and Bridjette Wickham entered the game combining for 22 points a game.

BY THE NUMBERS - McDill tied a season high with six rebounds. . . . Sophomore Elizabeth English scored her 300th career point with nine total Tuesday. . . . Northern Arizona is averaging 5.0 blocks a game in its past six games, and Tuesday was no different. The Lumberjacks blocked the Rams five times, while CSU had three blocks.

NEXT UP - CSU has 10 days before its next game, Dec. 29 at Washington. It's the first of six straight road games for the Rams.