Niki Cox

EAST STROUDSBURG - The East Stroudsburg University women's basketball team leader, Niki Cox, was selected to the All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division first team Tuesday.

Cox posted the highest scoring average for ESU for the second year in a row and helped the team to more than double its win total from a year ago, ending the season at 7-20.

Cox had the fourth highest scoring average in the league at 17.2 points per game.She hit for at least 19 tallies 12 times including a season-best 32 point effort to complete a season sweep of Kutztown.

The Susquehanna high graduate was twice honored as the PSAC East Player of the Week while averaging 22.5 and 21.7 points during the two weeks in which she was honored.Cox became the 10th ESU women's hoops player to reach 1,000 career points on February 21st at Millersville.Cox finished her third season with 1,030 points in 77 career games.

The junior guard held the top spot for ESU in scoring average, points scored (448), field goals (149), three-pointers (36), free throws (114) and steals (60).Cox rounded out her numbers on the 2003-04 season with 49 assists (second highest on the team), 3.4 rebounds per contest, and a blocked shot.

PSAC EAST FIRST TEAM

Niki Cox (ESU) Jr. guard.

In the fall of 2001, Niki Cox joined the East Stroudsburg University women's basketball program as a serious 18-year-old who rarely smiled and thought that was the way you approached college basketball.

"I was a bit of a head case my freshman year.I thought I had to be so businesslike that it just wasn't fun for me," she said.

Now four years later, Cox is leaving the program not only as a 1,000-point scorer and an All-Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference first team player, but also as a personable and happy 22-year-old who beams about playing the game and competing for the Warriors.

"I enjoy myself.I love this team.We spend a lot of time together and we all get along," she said.

Cox was honored Tuesday by being selected on the Lehigh Valley Small College Women's Team of the Year as announced at the final Lehigh Valley Media Organization monthly luncheon at Starter's Pub in Bethlehem.
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"Niki is an exceptional individual, not only for what she's done for the women's basketball team, but what she has done in the classroom (a 3.602 grade point average in Bio-Chemistry) and on campus.It's been fun coaching her," said Juliene Simpson, ESU head coach.

Cox has been the Warriors' leading scorer for the last three years after being a key reserve as a freshman.She had scored a career total of 1,372 points, fifth highest in the school's history, including 351 points in 22 games this season for a 16.0 average, tied for fourth highest in the PSAC, heading into a Wednesday night home game against Cheyney.

The 5-7 guard hit a career-high 36 points in a loss at Bloomsburg earlier this season, tied for the highest single-game total by any PSAC player.She has set a school career record with 119 three-pointers.

These figures come from the ESU computer statistics, but even if they weren't available, one fan who is in the stands at every game in every gym would know Cox's exact scoring totals.

"My mom (Sandy) is like a statistician up there watching the games.She doesn't know that much about basketball, but she knows when I put the ball in the basket and how many points I have," said Cox.

Ironically, Cox didn't like the sport and didn't permit her daughter to play basketball as a youngster.

"My mom wanted me to be a dancer and sent me to dancing school like my two older sisters (she also has another sister and two brothers).

"They were both graceful and I wasn't graceful at all.My dad (Tyrone) finally started me playing basketball when I was 12 and my cousin, Jarrod Gharam, who played a little at Edinboro, really taught me the game," Cox said.

"Now my mom loves basketball.She had worried that playing basketball would make me too much of a tomboy.She was used to my sisters being very girly-girls.She didn't understand the balance; I could be aggressive on the court and lady-like off the court," Cox said.

Cox went on to play basketball at Susquehanna High School where she scored 1,111 career points and guided her team to the Mid-Penn league championship.

Still even though she was recruited by ESU and other schools, she never thought she would be a successful player in college.

"I never imagined coming to school and scoring 1,000 points and making All-Conference.I thought I would be a role player in college," she said.

Cox has five games left in her career although the number may increase if the Warriors make the PSAC playoffs.

"I probably won't pick up a basketball until the alumni game here next year," she said."

It's not that she doesn't love the sport, but she will be busy attending graduate school at ESU as a cardiac rehabilitation major.She then plans to attend either medical school or pharmacy school.

On campus, Cox has served on the ESU Student Athlete Advisory Council and also was the school's representative to the PSAC SAAC meeting last March.She was featured in the school's 2003 advertising campaign "Learn More, Stay Close, Go Far" with her picture appearing in e various university recruiting publications.She also has been a student worker for the university police department.

In May, Cox will be in the spotlight in the Koehler Fieldhouse again, but not as a basketball player.She will cross the stage at graduation ceremonies as an honors graduate and unlike when he entered school as a talented, but admittedly worried freshman, she will have a big smile on her face.

EAST STROUDSBURG - Junior guard Niki Cox scored 24 points, but it wasn't enough as the East Stroudsburg University women's basketball team dropped a PSAC crossover game, 72-64, to Lock Haven University Wednesday night.
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Jennifer Simpson 0 6-6 6, Jasmine Gittens 1 0-0 2, Tiffany Barnes 5 3-4 13, Maryellen Onofre 3 0-0 7, Niki Cox 5 14-17 24, Stephanie Burdge 1 1-2 3, Amy Jones 0 0-0 0, Brooke Betts 0 0-0 0, Shelly Garlach 1 6-8 8, Melissa Conley 0 0-0 0, Cheyenne Davidson 0 0-0 0.

It was Senior Night for the home finales in the LeRoy J. Koehler Fieldhouse and one of the seniors, the women's team leader, Niki Cox, played one of the best games of her four-year career.

Cox scored a team-high 21 points, including 17 points in the second half, made five steals and fed off three assists.She shot 8-for-18 from the floor with three 3-pointers and went 2-for-2 from the foul line.

"It was really important for me as a senior to win my last time on this court and set us up for the playoffs.We got this win and now we have the momentum going into Saturday," Cox said.

ESU coach Juliene Simpson added: "Niki was in control of her game tonight.She didn't try to do the 9,000 things she sometimes tries to do.She took better shots and when she had two people on her, she passed the ball off."

Cox had plenty of help from her teammates.
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Cox 8-18 2-2 21; Lacey 5-10 2-2 14; Onofre 3-9 4-4 11; Gallagher 4-7 0-0 9; Simpson 2-5 2-2 6; Fogelsanger 2-5 2-2 6; A. Jones 0-5 3-4 3; Davidson 0-1 0-0 0, LaPergola 0-0 0-0 0, Burdge 0-0 2-2 2, Gittens 0-0 0-0 0.

A Barnes jumper from Niki Cox at 4:17 cut the margin back to 54-50 but ESU would get no closer.
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JONES, Amy 3-6 4-5 10; BARNES, Tiffany 5-6 0-1 10; ONOFRE, Maryellen 2-10 4-4 9; CONLEY, Melissa 3-7 1-2 8; GITTENS, Jasmine 3-3 0-0 6; COX, Niki 2-12 1-2 5; DAVIDSON, Cheyenne 1-3 2-4 4; SIMPSON, Jennifer 1-2 0-0 3.
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EAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University's Niki Cox was selected as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division Player of the Week in women's basketball.

Bloomsburg University's Stef Kline is blocked by East Stroudsburg University's Niki Cox during the second half of their game at Nelson Fieldhouse on Saturday.

Junior guard Niki Cox led the way with 26 points and five steals as ESU snapped a three-game losing streak.

In the earlier women's game, ESU's Niki Cox scored a season-high 32 points in leading the Warriors (7-17, 3-6 PSAC) to an 82-68 victory over Kutztown (8-15, 4-5).

Cox, who fell one point shy of her career-high, was 5-for-7 on 3-pointers and now needs one point to read the 1,000-point mark.