Jared Schmeltzer
Reporter
2018 Merrill High School graduate and second year guard for the UWSP-Wausau Campus girls basektball team, Patience Pyan has been on what seems to be a year-long hot streak. Pyan and the Huskies won the Wisconsin Collegiate Conference (WCC) last year and continued to win the state title as well, with Pyan garnering Wisconsin Collegiate Conference’s Player of the Year.
After earning the Wisconsin Collegiate Conference’s Player of the Week award four times this season, Pyan was recently announced as the WCC Player of the Year in her second straight season. Despite the great individual effort, it’s the state title that her and her teammates are striving for.
“At the beginning of the year we had a lot of team goals but the main goal was to win state,” said Pyan. “Personally I set goals for myself of improving my free throw percentage, which I have done this year and to win Player of the Year again this year.”
Pyan has led the Huskies to a 10-1 record so far this season, while averaging per-game numbers of 29.3 points, 10 rebounds and 6.5 steals. Patience has had many big games this year, however none were as big as her first career triple-double which came on Monday, Feb. 3 against Washington, where Pyan put up 36 points, 16 rebounds, 10 steals and 6 assists in a 69-32 win. In her most recent game on Sunday, Feb. 9, Pyan was three steals shy of another triple-double, with 40 points, 16 rebounds and 7 steals.
With the state tournament coming up on Feb. 22-23, Pyan will look to continue leading the Huskies to their second title in a row. According to Pyan team ball is the key to the Huskies success going forward.
“We really have to give it our all,” Pyan added. “We also need to stay together and play as a team, we always do much better when we play team basketball, but most importantly we need to have fun.”
According to Pyan, the Huskies will now have to play the waiting game. Due to their stellar 10-1 performance on the year, the ladies have earned a bye for the playoff s and a guaranteed ticket to the state tournament.