With injured Blass still on sideline, Stratton picking up scoring load at perfect time for QU women

ST. CHARLES, Mo. — Karsyn Stratton hasn’t been much of a scorer for much of her college basketball career, so it would be considered surprising to many who are seeing her carrying so much of the scoring load lately for the Quincy University women’s basketball team.

Hawks coach Courtney Boyd thinks she has an answer why.

“She’s a winner. I don’t know how else to explain it,” Boyd said after Saturday night’s 86-74 victory over Drury in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament at Hyland Arena. 

Stratton, a 5-foot-8 senior, averaged 9.5 points per game with a team-high 92 assists through the first 28 games this season for the Hawks. She averaged 5.6 points per game as a junior, starting all 28 games.

However, since sophomore guard Mariann Blass — QU’s second-leading scorer at 11.3 points per game — has missed the last three games with a foot injury, Stratton has become the type of scorer she hasn’t been since her days at Clear Creek-Amana High School in Tiffin, Iowa.

Stratton has scored 50 points in her last three games, with 19-point outbursts against Indianapolis and Missouri S&T her highest scoring totals of her QU career. 

Boyd said Stratton’s offensive uptick started when QU recognized its seniors on March 1 during its last home game.

“Ever since senior day, she said, ‘I’m gonna have a little bit more fun, Coach,’” Boyd remembered. “I said, ‘As long as fun to you means the same thing it does to me, then let’s go have some fun.’”

Stratton has made 21 of 36 field goals (58.3 percent) during her recent hot stretch, while she only shot 42.7 percent during the first 28 games.

“Karsyn knows when to go get a bucket, and we trust her when that ball leaves her hand. Period,” senior Cymirah Williams said.

Asked for why her scoring and shooting numbers have increased so dramatically late in the season, Stratton said, “I don’t actually have an honest answer. I just see the shots, and I feel pretty loose and calm right now. I don’t know what’s coming over me, but I just calmed down and decided to have fun.”

She had plenty of fun and won plenty of games, but didn’t score many points, during her career at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She averaged 4.2 points in 2020-21, 5 points in 2021-22 and 2.2 points in 2022-23. Kirkwood went 24-2 during a COVID-shortened season in 2020-21, went 36-1 and won the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II championship in 2021-22, and went 32-3 and took third place in the nation in 2022-23.

Stratton’s recent numbers are more like when she played at Clear Creek-Amana, where she averaged 19.6 points as a junior and was a second-team all-stater and averaged 20.7 points as a senior and was a first-team all-state pick. She led the Clippers to the Class 4A state tournament for the first time in school history in 2020.

“We do miss Mariann out there and her 3-point abilities,” Stratton said. “We just knew the other shooting guards were going to have to step up a little bit more (when Blass was injured). Nicole McDermott (the team’s leading scorer at 15.7 points per game) could shoot the ball from outside, but she just didn’t have to do it as much. We all can.”

Stratton also has been on the floor more with Blass out. She’s played an average of 32.7 minutes in her last three games, compared to 28.8 during the first 28 games.

“I will tell you that she is locked into the team more than anyone on any given night,” Boyd said after Saturday’s victory.

After missing out on the postseason last year when the Hawks were 10-18, Stratton appreciates this final ride.

“It’s awesome. We just want to make some noise,” she said after the victory over Drury. “We want to prove who we are. You want to get to the championship game and see what we can do. It’s never like, ‘We’re done.’ We’re going to keep going now, and we’re just building more confidence game by game.”