Favorite Christmas Presents!

Written by Elon Phoenix on 5:46 PM

Kelsey Evans Blog - 'Tis The Season!

Written by Elon Phoenix on 11:35 AM

Happy Holidays basketball fans!

I hope everyone is getting in the holiday spirit and enjoying the chilly weather. Today marks the first day of our oh-so-generous five-day Christmas break! (Last year we only had 3). We were able to head home on a positive note after a thrilling victory over a talented Davidson team. When I say thrilling I mean up by one with 18 seconds left and they have the ball. Fortunately for us, they missed their final attempt and we went on to win our first conference game. Huge shout out to my teammate Shon Redmond for the biggest play I've seen since being at Elon. Let me set the scene for you. Down by two with less than 30 seconds to play. Shon attacks the basket, steps through two defenders and finishes the basket. But the best part? The whistle blows! AND ONE! Shon was able to finish the three-point play and put us up one point. We then had to play solid defense for 18 seconds to seal it, and we did. Merry Christmas to us! We could not have asked for a better Christmas present. I'm so proud of the way our team fought the entire game. There was a refuse to lose attitude that could be seen in every players demeanor. We're lucky to be able to play in such a competitive and talented conference.   I hope you all enjoyed that story as much as I did writing it, but outside of basketball we've had a great week.

Saturday afternoon we had our Christmas party at Coach Barefoot's house. This time of year is truly about family and friends, and we had a houseful of both! The climax of our holiday party was probably when we did the secret Santa. I'm sure you all know how secret Santa works, but if you don't, what we did was pick a name out of a hat and whomever you picked you would be a secret Santa to.

There were some funny gifts, but I must say I had the best Santa of all, freshman Candice Silas. For those of you who know me, you know I LOVE zebra print. My book bag, bed comforter, umbrella, rain boots, various articles of clothing are all zebra print. Well Candice being the genius she is, got me a zebra snuggie! I was instantly mesmerized.


Don't be surprised if you see me around town in that thing. I'm not kidding. We also presented our coaches with a book about the Butler men’s basketball team titled "Underdawgs". We saw a lot of the same qualities in our team and their team and thought it would make for a good Christmas present for all of their hard work.   Anyways, our party was obviously a success and everyone LOVED their gifts. So now we're all home to spend time with family for Christmas but we'll be back in action on Dec. 30 to take on Marshall in Huntington, W. Va. I also wanted to wish Coach Stockdale a happy birthday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday and we look forward to seeing everyone next year when we take on Georgia Southern at home on Jan. 3.

Happy holidays and New Year! May your days be merry and bright!


- Kelsey

A Thank You from Clint Irwin

Written by Elon Phoenix on 1:02 PM

November Performances of the Month

Written by Elon Phoenix on 4:45 PM

Kelsey Evans Blog - Road Trip!

Written by Elon Phoenix on 12:59 PM

Hello fans!

I'm so excited to write this week's blog after our first road victory over Morgan State! Since last week’s blog, we've played both No. 10 ranked West Virginia and Morgan State. West Virginia was a great game for our team, and it allowed us to compete against truly one of the best teams in the country. Let's just say BIG EAST really does mean BIG, it might as well just be called the BIG STRONG and AGGRESSIVE EAST. It was a great experience for us and we learned a thing or two along the way.

Today's win over Morgan State was a great game for us to get back to doing the things we're great at as a team. West Virginia, being so aggressive and out in the passing lanes, made it hard for us to execute and do what we wanted to do. With an eight-point win over Morgan State, we claimed our first road win of the year! I'm pretty sure we matched their fans as well, as we had an awesome fan section today.

Our trip to Baltimore was centered on visiting the hometown of our senior Julie Taylor. Julie's family had the team over for dinner Saturday night and we got to spend time with some of Julie's family, which was great. Julie's parents live right in the center of downtown and have an awesome view from the top of their deck where we got our team picture (below).

Coach Stockdale even made a new friend, Julie's brother's new puppy, Olive. I'm surprised Olive wasn't sitting with us on the bench today to be quite honest.


While on the road we try to keep it as interesting as possible. This week coach Stockdale transformed from assistant coach to professional beautician, waxing Ali's eyebrows! Don't worry, I snapped a picture for you!


Also, we got in the holiday spirit by singing Christmas carols on the bus, even if we didn't know the words and just repeated fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!!

Needless to say it was a very eventful week, and we had to do something to keep us occupied while we spent nearly 30 hours on the bus! We take some time off from games due to finals this week and next but we take the floor on December 18 for our first home conference game against Western Carolina. The game will be a White Out at Alumni Gym, and all Elon fans will get a white t-shirt at the door. Hope to see you all there!

- Big Kelsey

Kelsey Evans Blog - When You Get Knocked Down, What Are You Going To Do?

Written by Elon Phoenix on 10:36 AM

I'm trying to find the words to describe what took place an hour or so ago, but like a friend told me "Hey, you get knocked down, but what are you going to do now?" my response was simply, "Get up."

We dropped our conference opener tonight to Appalachian State after a sluggish first half. Speaking from within the team I can say that we did not look like ourselves tonight. We were not playing like ourselves, therefore we were not playing as a team. Appalachian capitalized on that. We were able to pick it up in the second half but by that time it was too late. I believe that there is a plan for all of us, and for some reason this was a part of our plan. I believe that this happened so we could see how we respond as a team. Will we stay down or will we get back up? Knowing my teammates, I know the answer to that. We are the Phoenix, and just like the Phoenix we will rise.

We had a moment of inspiration following this game. Our team morale was down, but one of our coaches did a great job of shedding light on our situation. She said we need to be servants to each other. Then we thought to ourselves, "well how many times have I asked my teammate what I need to do for her? What will help her play better?" Ask not what your teammates can do for you, ask what you can do for your teammates. The score of tonight's game did not resemble the team we are, nor how talented we are. We just lost touch, but I have faith that it won't take long for us to get it back. Lessons have been learned and we will move on and only use this to make us stronger. We will build on our mistakes and only improve, we must work every day to get better.

We have to give credit to a very good Appalachian team. They had some really respected wins prior to our game there. They are on a 10-game home winning streak and it brings a lot of recognition to our conference. It's good to know that we do play in a very competitive conference, and that our conference is really stepping up and getting better.

Well, since we've had our share of basketball talk, how was everyone's Thanksgiving? We had a great Thanksgiving here. Coach Barefoot invited us all over to her house for a Thanksgiving meal where we ate turkey, green bean casserole, corn casserole, pudding pie, pecan pie, and much more. I have to give a shout out to my teammate Jess for bringing an excellent pecan pie. It was a huge hit! We really enjoy doing team gatherings like that, and it was really great that coach Barefoot invited us into her house and prepared such a feast along with our assistant coaches (because we know they slaved for hours!)

We hit the road again on Wednesday to take on No. 10 West Virginia on Thursday night, and then head on up to Morgan State for a Sunday afternoon matchup. Three away games in one week, but we'll be back at home again following our exams to take on Western Carolina and Davidson right before Christmas! Thank you fans for all your support and we hope to see you in the stands again soon!

- Kelsey