NORMAL — A fixture at point guard for the Illinois State women’s basketball team the past three seasons, Maya Wong is moving. The shift is not a demotion; it’s a lateral move to off guard. “We’re pushing her off the point.
She’s not going to be our point guard,” ISU coach Kristen Gillespie said. “We’re asking Maya to look to score more.” Maya Wong points out something during Illinois State practice on Monday at CEFCU Arena.
A second team preseason all-conference selection, Wong scored a career-high 11.8 points per game last season along with career-best shooting marks of 47.5 percent from the field and 39.
3 percent from 3-point range. “It’s fun and exciting to be in a new spot,” said Wong, a 5-foot-8 Normal Community graduate. “It’s a bigger change than I thought.
I love to play the point guard. Learning how to move off the ball has been a little challenge. "Then it’s getting more shots off the move and learning I’m not going to have the ball, but I have to learn to be in position to get the ball.
” Gillespie would not be relocating Wong if she didn’t feel comfortable with her replacement. The ISU coach is quite comfortable with Millikin transfer Elyce Knudsen. “Elyce is the real deal.
She will be one of the best players in the Missouri Valley Conference,” Gillespie said. “There are a lot of things about her game that remind me of Paige (Robinson, former MVC Player of the Year). She’s a very different player, but I think she can ha.