Determination.
Graduate student guard Daniella Turner is making her way back to the basketball court after sitting out a majority of the season due to an injury.
Turner has been a leader throughout her time at Colorado Mesa University (CMU) ever since she stepped foot in Brownson Arena in the 2017-2018 season.
“Dani has grown in all aspects of her game since she arrived on our campus from Florida. She has always given good effort, but this year I sense she is really focused on,” Head Coach Taylor Wagner said.
Turner is not the only returning Maverick that has picked up good leadership skills on the court. Graduate students forward Kelsey Siemons and guard Sophie Anderson have been there to lead the team as well.
“Our leadership definitely has picked up from last year to this year and with being such a young team they look up to us and we have to be the people that are always on top of things and helping them out. So, we can’t miss a beat any day of the week it is definitely nice us being back because of that whole young to old ratio,” Turner said.
Turner was able to get some time on the court last season while dealing with her injury. She played in 13 games for the Mavericks this past season and throughout those games she was able to record good numbers.
She had 61 rebounds, averaged 12.5 points throughout the season and she made 14 out of her 15 attempted free throws.
After having limited minutes last season, Turner is ready to get back to that primary scoring role that she has been used to over her time at CMU.
“ I like it, I like being back in the swing of things. It reminds me of my junior year coming off of the bench like I know where my shots are going to come from so that is what I prepare for every week and it is the role that I wanted,” Turner said.
Having the normal off season and going back to a normal game schedule this season after the abbreviated COVID season, Turner talked about how it has helped her a lot being able to rehab her body and take that breather during the off season after a season that took more of a toll on her body.
“ It definitely helped a lot just having that off season. It helps just rehab your body, take some time off and just let your body recuperate all the stress that it has been under during the season. So it was very useful and just the fact that we are having a full preseason this season and not just straight into everything so your body is just not getting hit with the stress out of nowhere and you are not used to it yet. So, having an actual preseason has helped just because it has helped me adjust getting into the things again,” Turner said.
The Mavericks only had two weeks of practice before their first game last season to COVID making it harder on the athletes bodies.
Turner is one of the few returning to CMU’s back court as former Mavericks’ Kylyn Rigsby and Natalie Bartle are not with the program anymore but she will be joined by redshirt freshmen guard Sophie Hadad and forward Sara Geddes.
A big addition to the Mavericks roster is graduate student guard Mariah Martin, a Westminster College transfer.Turner has turned into a bigger leader on this team during the preseason as she has helped teach the systems to the new and younger players on the team.
“It has definitely been a learning curve for Sophie who is still rehabbing her knee injury and Sara getting back into the swing of things but I mean having 11 freshmen and two transfers it really is a learning curve getting the chemistry together and even them learning the plays. It has been nice, it has been refreshing just being able to be the go to person when they have questions,” Turner said.
Turner is not the only returning Maverick that has picked up good leadership skills on the court Siemons and Anderson have been there to lead the team as well.
“Our leadership definitely has picked up from last year to this year and with being such a young team they look up to us and we have to be the people that are always on top of things and helping them out. So, it is like we can’t miss a beat any day of the week. It is definitely nice us being back because of that whole young to old ratio,” Turner said.
With Martin transferring over, her and Turner have created a solid chemistry on the court and in knowing how to feed off of one another off the court.
“We played off of each other very well in our scrimmage. We had a few times where she would know exactly where I was at on the court and I would know exactly where she was at on the court. I would drive in and I just kick out and she would be wide open because people would just collapse on me or vice versa,” Turner said. “So, I feel like that is definitely what is going to happen come game time for the RMAC is they are going to have two people they are going to have to worry about because we can just go off any time. It is nice seeing that she can go off and score and facility because it opens up the floor so much more and she has that court vision and IQ. It is a game changer.”
Turner has started strong in CMU’s first two games of the season. In the game against Texas Permian Basin to open the weekend, Turner put up 18 points. In a big team win Saturday against West Texas A&M Turner put up a double-double where she scored 15 points and had 10 rebounds as well.
The Mavericks will return to Brownson Arena in Grand Junction, Colo. on Nov.26 as they take on SAGU AIC at 5 p.m.
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