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Tigers' Lehman hard to get past
1/27/2012
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
At Newton High School, Kate Lehman could often use her height and wingspan to block shots at a high rate. In her final three seasons, Lehman blocked 4.5, 5.5 and 6.1 shots a contest. In the summer before her junior year, Lehman often worked with Erin Barocio, an assistant at Tabor College and a friend of Newton girls' basketball coach Randy Jordan. Barocio taught Lehman an important skill.
Many times, when a defender makes a block, the offense still retains possession because the ball goes out-of-bounds or to an offensive player.
Barocio showed Lehman how to block a shot - and collect the ball.
"She would throw a ball up, I would block it and grab it, all summer long. I owe a lot to her for being able to do that," Lehman said. "Since my junior year, I have been able to do that."
This year, the 6-foot-4 Lehman has used her intelligence and height to block shots at a school-record rate for the Fort Hays State University women's basketball team. Just as important, Lehman and the Tigers often recover her blocks, an aspect that has helped FHSU's defense and rebounding.
"Kate Lehman is changing a lot of shots and taking care of business in there," fourth-year coach Tony Hobson said.
On Saturday, Fort Hays (14-5, 6-5 MIAA) will look to end a three-game losing streak when it travels to Northwest Missouri State University (4-15, 2-10), also on a three-game skid. Game time is 1 p.m. from Maryville, Mo. The contest is the MIAA TV Game of the Week.
On Monday, the Tigers will travel to Missouri Western State University.
During the road trip, Lehman, with 56 blocks, could break the school record of 64 set by Erica Biel in 2008-09 (block records have been kept by FHSU since '84-85).
Lehman stands first in the conference and eighth in NCAA Division II in blocks per contest and has blocked more shots than four other MIAA teams.
As a team, Fort Hays has blocked 105 shots this season, on pace to break the team record of 113 set in '08-09.
Lehman has blocked at least one shot in all but three games this winter, but never blocked more than four until FHSU's last three contests. Then, she has seven, seven and eight blocks in those games and has played well against three of the conference's top post players in Pittsburg State University's Larissa Richards, Emporia State University's Merissa Quick and Lincoln (Mo.) University's Vivian Essuon.
"I feel like we have got an all-conference post player in Larissa Richards, and boy, she made it tough on her all night long," Pittsburg State coach Lane Lord said. "We saw (Lehman) earlier in the year in San Antonio in the South Central Challenge (in November) and she has gotten so much better in the last 15 games, it's unbelievable."
Two of Lehman's strengths are her height and limiting fouls. The top-five players in the MIAA in blocked shots per game are at least 6-foot-2. Lehman is the second-tallest player in the conference, only behind Pittsburg State's 6-6 Lauren Brown, a Gorilla reserve.
Lehman, though, fouls at a very low rate. She averages 17.3 minutes a game and averages just 3.80 fouls per 40 minutes. It's the lowest foul rate among Brown, Essuon and the MIAA's top-5 players in blocks, a group that includes Quick, Richards and Washburn University's Cassie Lombardino. Only Richards is under 4.2 fouls per 40 minutes; Brown averages 7.95 fouls per 40 minutes.
"She is really, really timing it right," Hobson said. "She is keeping her feet until the other person commits to a shot and kind of getting a knack for it."
Even when she has been in foul trouble, Lehman hasn't fouled out of a game. Even with her minutes significantly increasing in January, she hasn't picked up more than three fouls in a contest since Dec. 17.
Against Emporia State University on Jan. 18, Lehman collected two fouls by the 15:08 mark in the first half and exited the contest. Still, she finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, seven blocks and just three fouls in 26 minutes.
"Kate is a real smart player, and she kept out of foul trouble," Hobson said.
On defense, Lehman follows an offensive player's feet. Sometimes, such as the matchup against Quick, Lehman was playing Quick's hands and not her feet early in the game.
"At first, that's why I struggled," Lehman said.
"The big thing about blocking is, you have got to follow their feet and not their hands."
Lehman's blocking has helped Fort Hays allow teams to shoot 38 percent on two-point shots; the previous two years opponents shot 41.8 and 42.2 percent from inside. As well, Fort Hays has outrebounded opponents by plus-9.6, 14th best in NCAA Division II.
The rebounding is partly because of the Tigers' ability to take possession after a Lehman block, known as the "block recovery rate." Lehman's block recovery rate is 60.7 percent (34-of-56). She has recovered her own block 14 times.
Block recovery rates are incomplete at the Division II level, but Lehman's rate stacks up well against other level. Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn recently reported that Kentucky's Anthony Davis and Kansas' Jeff Withey -- two of the nation's top shot blockers -- have block recovery rates of 55.6 and 58 percent, respectively. The NBA average is 57 percent, according to basketballreference.com.
"We have tried to make sure she doesn't swing at the ball, and if you don't swing at the ball to block it, most of them stay in play," Hobson said. "A lot of them just end up in her hands."
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| 2/18 | SW Baptist | L 66-53 | |
| 12/1 | Oklahoma - Panhandle | L 66-60 (OT) | |