Rhoads provides answers
OWENSBORO, Ky. — Karly Rhoads is the Swiss Army Knife for the Kentucky Wesleyan women’s basketball team.
Need a clutch 3-pointer? Call on Rhoads. Need someone who can hand out assists without turning the ball over? Call on Rhoads. Need someone to put down two free throws late in a tight game? You got it. Call on Rhoads.
“The thing with Karly, she’s gone to work on every aspect of her game since her freshman year,” said Kentucky Wesleyan co-head coach Nicole Nieman. “She can do so many things. She has a great outside game, she can go to the hoop, she can handle the ball — she had a good assist-to-turnover ratio — she makes her free throws. She’s been a great all-around player for us.”
And this has been the senior point guard’s best all-around season.
Rhoads, a Slippery Rock High graduate, is leading Kentucky Wesleyan in just about every category. She paces the Panthers in scoring (13.7 points per game), minutes per game (28.9), 3-point shooting percentage (48.8), assists (55) steals (22) and even blocked shots (five).
Rhoads averaged 21 points, six steals and four rebounds in earning the Great Midwest Athletic Conference player of the week award last week.
While she enjoyed those high numbers, she mostly focused to keeping a pair of numbers low: team losses and her turnovers.
“If I’m turning the ball over, we’re not going to win,” Rhoads said. “It’s really important for me to take care of the ball. There’s a lot of demand on me as a point guard to do that.”
Rhoads is leading the G-MAC in turnover-to-assist ratio (1.88) and is also leading the conference in free throw shooting percentage (86.4). She’s also just one point shy of reaching 1,000 in her career with the Panthers.
When she and her twin sister, Kourtney, were seniors at Slippery Rock High, they were determined to find a basketball program that would take them as a package deal.
Kentucky Wesleyan was one of the few schools that showed a willingness to recruit both.
Kourtney is second on the team in scoring at 10.5 points per game.
Nieman said she was thrilled to be able to snag both.
“It was pretty easy for us,” Nieman said. “It’s hard to find 5-foot-10, 5-foot-11 guards who can move as well and shoot as well as they can,” Nieman said. “It’s going to be hard to replace them as well. The No. 1 thing about both of them is they are all about the team. They are all about being the best teammates they can be. Day in and day out they raise the level of the program.”
Both Karly and Kourtney have worked on becoming more physical — a much-needed asset at the Division II level.
Karly said that was one of the areas she has noticed vast improvement since her freshman season.
“I think I am a much better player,” she said. “My physicality is much better and I’m much smarter.”
And the team is playing well in their senior seasons.
Kentucky Wesleyan is 11-4 overall and 6-0 in the conference. The Panthers are also leading the conference in scoring at 79 points per game.
“Being a senior, it plays on your mind,” Karly said. “You know this is your last time to do this.
“It’s very exciting,” she added. “Our whole team is close and we’re always happy for each other. It doesn’t matter who scores the most points. We just want to win.”
