By Glen Farley
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
EASTON — It is Stonehill College's junior achievement program.
Lacking a senior on its roster, the Stonehill College women's basketball program has been led to 23 wins this season and into Friday's (2:30 p.m.) quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division 2 East Regional against Franklin Pierce University at Bentley University's Dana Athletic Center by a couple of junior co-captains.
Mary Louise Dixon, a 5-foot-4 guard from Wellesley, leads the team in points, (13.4), assists (6.1) and minutes played (32.7) per game.
Asia Ewing, a 5-foot-10 forward from Westford, is averaging 12.4 points and 7.1 rebounds in 27.4 minutes per game.
According to 12th-year Stonehill head coach Trisha Brown, the 2012-2013 Skyhawks have played "Follow the Leader(s)."
"They have been fantastic captains and leaders," said Brown, whose roster consists of four juniors, four sophomores and three freshmen. "I think they balance each other well.
"Their work ethic is phenomenal. They communicate well with their teammates, and I think their game experience has really helped them establish that leadership role because they've been in games, played a lot of minutes and been very successful players for us even as freshmen and sophomores. I think that helped them as far as the team looking at them as good leaders."
Leadership was a dire need of the team in the wake of a 2011-2012 season, the first losing campaign (13-14) in the program's history.
At the end of that season, Dixon and Ewing were informed that this year's squad would be their team to lead.
"It was definitely a little nerve-racking knowing there was no one above us, but we were super excited," said Ewing. "M.L. and I have been together since Day One. We came in as freshmen. So we were excited that we would have the ability to really lead this team the way we've wanted to since we've been here, and I have to say the team makes it easy on us.
"We're the captains, but we have so many other leaders on this team. There's a good balance. We trust each other. (The other nine players on the team) really make it easy on us as junior captains, which isn't something you see every day. I'm just grateful we have the team that we do and have each other to lean on and help each other out."
Never was this team's exemplary attitude on display more, according to Dixon, than last week, an off week for the Skyhawks in the aftermath of their 77-72 upset loss to Merrimack College two Sundays ago in the quarterfinal round of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship.
"I think what we did last week was just a testament to who we are as a team," said Dixon. "A lot of people would go into that week (thinking), 'Oh, we still have 10 more days until our first game. We can rest this week. We can just go hard next week.' But we scrimmaged each other during the week and everyone played like it was a game setting.
"That's how motivated we are and how much we wanted to play even during the off week where we should have been playing games. We still stayed motivated and hungry for this Friday."
On the court as off it, time and time again this season the Skyhawks have fed off Dixon, a conference first-team selection, and Ewing, a dual threat from the paint to the perimeter and beyond.
"M.L. just makes us go," Brown said of Dixon, who on Feb. 13 registered just the third triple-double in program history and the first in 10 years when she scored 19 points, handed out a career-high 16 assists and and pulled down a career-high matching 13 rebounds in a 103-93 win over UMass-Lowell (she also set a school record by making all 17 of her free-throw attempts in the game) at Merkert Gymnasium. "She's our point guard. She's quick and fast. She likes to push the ball and has done a great job of creating shots for others this year. That's really enhanced our ability to score.
"Defensively, she'll work the point guard. She works hard there and sets a great tone for us on defense.
"Asia's game is so versatile. I think that's what's made her really hard to guard this year," said Brown. "She can go into the post (with her) back to the basket. She's a really strong, physical player. But she also has the ability to step out and her 3-point shooting (she's made 36, second most on the team) has really helped up score this year and made her hard to guard."
