Holley grad is part of a special victory
Contributed Story
When Holley High School and North Country Community College graduate Nicole Blackburn chose to finish her collegiate basketball career at Mary Baldwin University she knew there was one large elephant in the room.
The MBU Fighting Squirrels hadn’t won a basketball game in over 4 years. 0 for the last 103 to be exact. The last Fighting Squirrel came on February 11th, 2012. Until yesterday afternoon in Macon GA. when the MBU ladies topped Wesleyan College 43-42 and broke the history making losing streak that had grown to 106 games.
Blackburn played 39 minutes scoring a pair of points but added to the victory with 9 boards and 2 steals.
After the game, Head Coach Andrew Stephens said, “Today is a great day for our basketball program. We showed some toughness at a challenging place to play. This is a sign of progress. We just have to keep working hard to get where we want to be.”
Blackburn is not only a co-captain for the Fighting Squirrels, but is also their only upper-classman. The 8 player team consists of 4 Freshman and 3 sophomores along with Nicole , a junior, who leads her team in rebounding. She is also ranked 7th in the USA South Conference Div. III in rebounds/game and 25th in Division III nationally in defensive rebounds/game.
Blackburn was the leading scorer and MVP at Holley her senior year as well as a 2 year captain. At NCCC she was captain her sophomore year and was named Defensive Player of the Year by her team.