What do you get when you mix women’s basketball player Courtney Hamilton, men’s basketball player Nate Appel and women’s softball player Sammi Ridgway?
Streaks of success, of course.
“It’s looking for that player who wants the ball in their hands at that time,” Hamilton said. “The game kind of flows and you have that good feeling with the ball in your hands.”
Hamilton, who averages 6.3 assists a game, channels the energy of the crowd.
“You’re just pumped because there’s so much energy and you feed off the crowd and your own teammates,” Hamilton said. “It gets everyone going and it puts them into that hot streak feeling.”
Hamilton recalls her best hot streak performance and credits momentum as the spark.
“Going back to last season, on our last game we played Monterey Bay and I scored 18 points,” Hamilton said. “I was able to get to the basket at will and I was making almost every layup.”
Consistency and hot streaks go hand in hand.
“If I’m scoring the ball or rebounding a bunch, it’s all about being consistent,” Appel said.
The pressures of performing on a hot streak can bring out the best in players.
“Rashad, Amir, Sean, Gio are always scoring the ball a lot,” Appel said. “When they are scoring, there is a little bit more pressure on them because not a lot of people may be scoring at that time.”
Appel remembers his own hot streak on the hardwood.
“It was in high school and I was playing against my now-teammate Jordan Barton,” Appel said. “I played him in a summer league the summer before my senior year and I scored 35 points.”
Hot streaks extend to the softball field too. For example, Ridgway had her own nine-game hitting streak earlier this season.
“Its just confidence and keeping the same mindset,” Ridgway said. “There’s sometimes pressure but you have to think about your team instead of being an individual.”
Ridgway’s best performance of her collegiate career was last year, when she was playing for her junior college team, she said.
“I hit for the cycle,” Ridgway said. “It was awesome, that was always one of my goals. Hopefully that comes for Chico this year.”
Ridgway puts it best for those that don’t know what a hot streak feels like.
“It feels like being on cloud nine.”
Angelo Boscacci can be reached at[email protected] or@Boscacci6 on Twitter.
