Player B, in her freshman season, is averaging 17.1 minutes, 4.8 rebounds and 7.0 points per game while shooting 49.,”Player A, in her freshman season, averaged 22.8 minutes, 4.6 rebounds and 9.1 points per game while shooting 48.9 percent from the field.

Player B, in her freshman season, is averaging 17.1 minutes, 4.8 rebounds and 7.0 points per game while shooting 49.2 percent.

Who is who?

Player A happens to be former Golden Eagles forward Christina Quaye who led the team to a school record 26-7 mark last season.

Player B is current freshman Paige Fiedorowicz, who, with equal minutes, would actually be posting better numbers than Quaye did when she was a freshman.

"Christina Quaye was just an incredible player for us, with an incredible will to win," assistant coach Jennie Lillis said. "And Paige has that."

Fiedorowicz is one of six freshmen to join the Golden Eagles in their current youth movement and one of four freshmen earning more than 10 minutes per game; but more importantly she is adding much needed depth to an inexperienced frontcourt.

"We have a very young team," Fiedorowicz said. "So we had to see in practice who was going to work hard. You need to earn your spot."

She certainly has lived up to her own words. Fiedorowicz started six of the team's first seven games and had all but secured her starting gig.

Then on Dec. 6, while warming up to face Kansas, Fiedorowicz told coaches she had pain in her foot. She played 19 minutes in the 74-55 Golden Eagles loss. After the game, Assistant Coach Michelle Nason said that Fiedorowicz was told that she "had an injury that needed rest."

"It was really hard," Fiedorowicz said. "It's my freshman year, and I was really excited. Then it happened, and I only thought it was going to be a couple of days because I didn't know how serious it was. It turned out to be two to four weeks and that turned out to be five weeks and six weeks."

Six weeks is a long time in basketball—long enough for someone else to earn Fiedorowicz's spot.

She was replaced in the starting lineup by junior center Kelly Lam, who seized the opportunity to the fullest.

With Lam in the lineup, the team put up quality performances against ranked opponents Arkansas, Rutgers and West Virginia, before finally beating the No. 23/22 ranked DePaul Blue Demons. By then, Fiedorowicz was back to receiving her share of minutes, only this time, those minutes were coming off the bench.

Fiedorowicz said she is about 95 percent and is not bothered by her new reserve role. She scored 13 points in 19 minutes off the bench during Wednesday night's 79-69 loss at Louisville.

"You can't really tell she's a freshman on the court anymore," junior guard Krystal Ellis said. "She plays like an upperclassman."

Maybe the Christina Quaye comparisons are a bit premature, but if Fiedorowicz continues her steady progress, such a notion might not be too far off.

"She's got a tremendous work ethic," Lillis said. "You never really know what you get with freshmen. But watching her preseason conditioning, watching her in the weight room and watching her in our workouts, you just knew there was going to be something special about her."

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