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Flannery excited to cross an item off her bucket list this week

Lauren Flannery is excited to sit down with her family for Thanksgiving Dinner today.

The former River High standout, however, won’t be enjoying turkey and all the trimmings with her parents, Mike and Carolyn, or her brother, Joey, at their home in Hannibal.

Flannery, like so many collegiate athletes, will enjoy the feast with her second family … her Lake Erie College women’s basketball teammates.

The team, however, won’t be eating in the Lake Erie cafeteria, a restaurant or a coach’s home near their campus. The Storm will be eating at a “host family’s” home as they prepare to take part — Thanksgiving evening — in the opening round of the North Star Invitational in Fairbanks, Alaska.

“It’ll be weird not seeing my parents on Thanksgiving, but it’s a great opportunity for us as a team to take part in this event,” Flannery said during a phone interview Monday before the team departed. “This kind of trip will definitely be a team-bonding experience for us. We have so much potential and it’s just a matter of putting it all together.”

Lake Erie College will take on Converse at 5 p.m. eastern time, which is four hours ahead of Fairbanks.

The chance to visit Alaska was actually something that Flannery called a “bucket-list item.”

“When I was a litle girl, I came up with a list of places that I’d love to visit some day and Alaska was on the list,” Flannery revealed. “I had several family members who had been on Alaskan cruises and hearing them talk about it made me really want to see it.”

While the Storm, which is 0-7 on the young season, is approaching this as a business trip, Flannery indicated there will be opportunities to explore and be tourists.

“We’re going to the North Pole and we’re hopefully going to be able to see the Northern Lights,” Flannery said. “We’re going to a hockey game, exploring the land where we’ll get to see a lot of different animals and I even think we’re going to ride snowmobiles.”

Along with the game against Converse, the Storm will take on Chadron State on Friday and Alaska Fairbanks on Saturday before heading back to Ohio.

Unlike the major college programs, this type of experience only happens once every couple of seasons, if that, at the Division II level.

To help alleviate some of the expense of the trip, the basketball team has worked concessions at Cleveland Browns home games thus far. That process actually started last season when Flannery was still in high school.

The Lake Erie team departed for Alaska on Monday. It bussed from its campus to Columbus to fly out of John Glenn International Airport.

After a flight to Seattle, the team had a four-hour layover before boarding its next flight into Alaska. The squad arrived at 5 a.m. eastern time on Tuesday.

“I’ve never been on a plane this long, so that was different,” Flannery said.

Flannery actually looked at handling the lengthy travel as practice since she, her brother and mother are going to Tokyo for the Summer Olympics.

On the court, Flannery has been working to transition from the prep to Division II collegiate ranks. She’s started every game thus far and has a season-high scoring output of 23 points, which came in a loss to Gannon.

“College basketball is a completely different game (than high school),” Flannery said. “Every one is so much faster and more skilled. Everyone can dribble and shoot. Everyone can rebound and everyone is so strong. You really don’t fully realize that until you’re in it. I knew it was going to be different, but you really see it when you start playing games.”

Flannery earned her starting spot by simply putting her head down and going to work. She arrived at Lake Erie as one of the area’s most decorated prep players, earning first-team all-Ohio and scoring more than 1,500 points for the Pilots.

“Everyone on our team is really good, so I just came in with the attitude that I wanted to do whatever I could to help the team. If I wasn’t going to start, I needed to find some way to help the team.”

All told, Flannery is averaging just under five points a game. She’s playing almost 25 minutes a game.

Here’s a look at other Ohio Valley products:

DIVISION I

FBS

COLTON MCKIVITZ, West Virginia — Union Local grad and his Mountaineer classmates were celebrated at Senior Day last week in a loss to Oklahoma State. McKivitz has made 46 career starts for the Blue & Gold. He closes out his collegiate career Friday at TCU.

AUSTIN DORRIS, Bowling Green — Shadyside graduate wraps up his collegiate career on Friday when the Falcons close out the season at Buffalo.

CHUCKWUDI CHUCKWU, Ohio — Linsly product closed out his collegiate career by playing in Tuesday’s win over Akron.

MANDELLA LAWRENCE-BURKE, Kent — Steubenville grad put forth an impressive effort in last Saturday’s win over Ball State. He recorded a team-high 14 tackles.Included was a sack and a forced fumble. The Flashes will play at Eastern Michigan on Friday, needing a win to keep their bowl hopes alive.

TYLER KOMOROWSKI, Army — Speaking of area products who get to make a cool trip. The former Weir High standout will be with the Army Academy team this week when it plays at the University of Hawaii.

FCS

ELIJAH BELL, North Carolina A&T — Wheeling Park product caught 3 balls for 109 yards and two touchdowns in the Aggies’ win over North Carolina Central, which clinched a trip to the Celebration Bowl next month. Bell became just the sixth player in MEAC history to eclipse the 200-catch mark for a career. He was named second-team All-MEAC.

MAALIK RICHMOND, Youngstown State — Steubenville grad had two tackles in the Penguins win over Illinois State to cap a 6-6 season.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

CAITLYN KROLL, Ohio — Bridgeport product scored nine points and collected seven rebounds in 22 minutes in a win last Saturday. She and her teammates play Friday at Pitt.

JENSEN CARETTI, Ohio State — River High graduate didn’t dress in the Buckeyes loss to UConn on Sunday.

ANGELA STAFFILENO, Duquesne — Brooke product scored seven points in a 19-point win over city rival Pittsburgh.

LILLY RITZ, Wheeling — Cambridge product scored 19 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a loss to Notre Dame College last Saturday.

MORGAN BRUNNER, West Liberty — Linsly School product scored only three points, but had to leave the game after playing just 10 minutes with an injury.

MONICA BRAGG, West Liberty — Madonna product scored five points and had seven rebounds in a win over Urbana last weekend.

EMILY HOLZOPFEL, Wheeling — Buckeye Local graduate played in last weekend’s loss to Notre Dame.

KELSI CHAPMAN, Wheeling — Magnolia product appeared in last week’s loss to Notre Dame College and

VIVIAN ALLISON, Mercyhurst — Linsly School product scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds.

TAYLOR DUPLAGA, Fairmont State — Wheeling Central grad scored four points in a win over Davis & Elkins.

ANNA DEFILIPPO, Cedarville — St. Clairsville alumnus played 12 minutes and scored a bucket in a win over Salem.

ALLI DELANEY, Waynesburg — Union Local grad scored eight points and posted five rebounds as the Jackets secured their first win of the season.

KALLEE DOWLER, Westminster (Mo) — Barnesville grad led her team in scoring with 19 points last Saturday in a loss.

MEN’S BASKETBALL

CHASE HARLER, West Virginia — Wheeling Central grad scored five points in a win over Boston last Friday.

LOGAN ROUTT, West Virginia — Cameron product continues to play solid minutes off the bench and scored six points to go along with four rebounds.

PHIL BLEDSOE, Glenville — Wheeling Park grad scored 32 points and ripped down 13 rebounds before fouling out in a win over West Virginia State. For his efforts, he was named Mountain East Conference Player of the Week.

LUKAS ISALY, Marietta — River High grad is off to a strong start for the Pioneers, who are now ranked in the top 10, nationally, in Division III.

TRENTON TIPTON, Wooster — Union Local grad scored 15 points and posted nine rebounds in a win over Wilmington last weekend.

TREY SINGLETON, Muskingum — Meadowbrook scored 16 points in a win over Adrian College.

WRESTLING

CALEB REA, West Virginia — Weir High product was tech falled in a dual match at Army.

TARIQ WILSON, N.C. State — Steubenville graduate posted a pair of victories via decision in a triangular against Cornell and Binghamton.

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