Miami Middletown's Musselman provides spark

Mother of 3-year-old shines in ThunderHawks’ first win.

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By Rick Cassano, Staff Writer 9:42 PM Wednesday, November 25, 2009

MIDDLETOWN — Shandar Musselman is arguably the best basketball player in the Ohio Regional Campus Conference.

But the game is definitely not the biggest part of her life.

Musselman is 27, works full time at the Trenton Learning Center and has a 3-year-old daughter. Yet when she hits the court for the Miami University Middletown women’s squad, she has the energy of a high school senior.

“I’m looking forward to a few days off, but I love playing,” Musselman said Wednesday, Nov. 25, after collecting a career-high 30 points, 18 rebounds, eight assists and three steals in a 70-58 triumph over visiting Miami Hamilton. “We have a great time. This is my last year, so I just want to have a lot of fun.”

Musselman, who graduated from Edgewood High School in 2001 and spent two years in the Army, has 960 career points at MUM. She’s starting her third full season (fourth overall).

Musselman laughed at the thought of being the old lady of the squad. Married and now divorced, she said going to college and playing basketball will be things she discusses with her daughter down the road.

“I’m trying to be a role model for her,” Musselman said. “I want to show her that mom can do something other than work.”

The 5-foot-11 forward was clearly the best player on the floor Wednesday, hitting 13-of-17 field goals.

The ThunderHawks struggled with turnovers (29) and free-throw shooting (9-of-29), but they were still quite happy to taste their first victory after an 0-6 start this season.

“Maybe this will give them a little confidence and get us on a roll,” MUM coach Rick Burns said. “We played some better teams to get us ready for the league, and we feel like we’ve got some pretty good talent. But we’ve definitely got to get better with the turnovers and free throws.”

Miranda Alsept scored 15 points and Sara Rossi had 14 for MUM, which saw its 57-32 lead sliced to nine twice in the last five minutes.

Rachael Connaughton tallied 14 points to lead MUH, which didn’t have a team last year, in its season opener. LahQuindia Conerly added 10 points, eight boards and five steals.

“We found out a lot about ourselves tonight,” Harriers coach Brian Wooten said. “We had way too many fouls, but we showed some fight and fire. We all want to get this program back to where it used to be.”

View photo gallery, plus recap of MUH vs. MUM men’s hoops game. Journal-News.com/sports

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