Emily Sheldon's surge last season put UPS in the NCAA Tournament.  Puget Sound athletics photo

Emily Sheldon might be becoming a bit of a West region women’s basketball expert.

As the all-Northwest Conference guard introduced herself to the teammates she’d be traveling to Brazil with last summer as part of a Division III all-star team, she started noticing a trend.

Four players were from Iowa Conference schools, two from the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Two more from New York.

“And then I was like, ‘Oh, I’m from the University of Puget Sound,’” Sheldon recalled, “and they’re like, ‘What? Where’s that?’”

The team got to know each other pretty well during an almost two-week trip, and many players have kept up with others’ seasons.

“I get to see some teams you don’t necessarily hear of as much because they’re in different conferences and get to follow their years as well as see how other players are doing,” Sheldon said.

Now she has fans spread across the world, thanks to her Midwest connections and handing out Loggers gear to Brazilians.

Sheldon has a chance in the last few weeks of her career to help even more people recognize the name Puget Sound. She averaged 7.4 and 12.9 points her first two seasons, but has elevated her game further in the last half of her career.

The Portland, Ore., native logged 13.9 points and 5.2 rebounds a year ago, including 20.8 points in the last eight games of the regular season to help UPS grab an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament.

Sheldon has picked up where she left off, scoring 19.8 points, grabbing 6.8 boards and dishing 3.5 assists per game in 2015-16.

“I think she was one of the major reasons why we were successful toward the end of the season last year and had an opportunity to go to the NCAA Tournament,” UPS head coach Loree Payne said. “She improved even more over the summer, went on a couple foreign trips and just really spent the summer playing basketball, working on her skills and getting better. This year she’s been a consistent factor for us.”

Sheldon’s mother is an alumna of Puget Sound, so she had always known about the school, but said she wasn’t sure she wanted to follow that path.

A visit quickly erased any doubt, as she felt a connection with the school and the team.

“I kind of had my mind set on D-I, because I felt like that’s what I should have been doing. But I’m really happy with my decision,” Sheldon said. “I think that Coach Payne and I, the way that we see basketball is very similar. I think it’s a perfect fit and I felt that when I came and visited.”

Payne felt that same connection and has seen Sheldon’s leadership qualities shine, especially this season, in which the freshman class makes up half of Puget Sound’s roster.

“Anytime you can get buy-in from players, that’s huge, and I think her just understanding the game the way we do and understanding why we do certain things in our program, she gets that. It’s exciting to see someone that has that basketball IQ and has the ability to understand the game without us having to explain everything,” Payne said.

“She gets it. She has a basketball mind. She watches it, not just as a spectator, but through a coach’s lens a lot of times.”

Payne said Sheldon’s mid-range game has improved her offensive ability. Plus, Sheldon has continued to grow defensively.

A lot of that can be attributed to her competition.

Sheldon got her start playing basketball because she wanted to be just like her older brother, Matt, who is now playing soccer in Europe.

That’s not a convenient exaggeration, either. Sheldon, who also has a younger brother named Mike, played baseball for four years in elementary school.

“Not softball,” she confirmed. “Baseball. To be like my brothers.”

Backyard games were always competitive, and Emily has carried that into college.

“I’ve been so frustrated with how people have stopped me,” said Sheldon, who is also on the UPS track and field team. “I’ve kind of translated that to my defensive mindset. I’ve improved a lot over the last three years defensively, just because a lot of really, really good defensive players have guarded me.”

Sheldon pointed to the team’s defensive improvement for its recent string of success, having won six of its last seven games.

Puget Sound is now 14-7 and second in the NWC at 9-3 with four games to play. The likelihood is it will need to win the conference tournament to return to the Big Dance.

Most assume that means knocking off No. 2-ranked George Fox, which UPS hasn’t done since January 2011.

“They’re always in the back of our heads because they’re the No. 1 team in the conference. Everyone is thinking about them,” Sheldon admitted. “(But) we really do think about each game at a time. That’s one thing I’ve learned the hard way over the last four years.”

After that? Probably a year off before law school, Sheldon said. Perhaps time to see more of the world.

Tommies top MIAC again

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, some news out of Minnesota: St. Thomas has clinched at least a share of the MIAC men’s basketball title.

If you’ve lost count, that’s 11 consecutive conference championships.

The fourth-ranked Tommies edged rival St. John’s 69-68 on Monday to guarantee another title before being upset by Augsburg 98-89 on Wednesday.

With a three-game lead on second-place St. Olaf and three games to go, UST is still in great position to win outright.

This year’s team has a number of weapons, with four players averaging double figures in scoring.

Cortez Tillman leads the way with 14.8 points. Taylor Montero is shooting 48.8 percent (59-121) from 3-point range and averages 14.6. Grant Shaeffer adds 14.0 and a team-high 3.9 assists while Ryan Saarela leads the team in rebounding (8.9) to go along with 12.3 points per game.

It was Jimmy Remke (8.3 ppg) who led the team against SJU, scoring a game-high 19 points.

UST’s only loss was by one point to Carleton. With balance like that, it’s easy to see why off nights haven’t resulted in a pile of Ls.

Is BVU for real?

Buena Vista started 1-2 in IIAC women’s basketball play and 7-7 overall, but has won seven of its last eight.

The hot streak was punctuated by an 81-71 victory over league-leading Luther on Saturday. A win over Central on Wednesday moved BV to 8-3 in the IIAC, one game back of the Norse for the league lead.

The Beavers hit 12 of 28 3-pointers against Luther and 15 of 42 against Central, the 11th and 12th times they’ve made more than 10 shots from beyond the arc in a game.

BV shoots only 33.1 percent from deep, but makes 9.6 a game. That ranks second in the nation behind North Central (Ill.), which plays a version of the Grinnell system.

A fast pace allows Buena Vista to shoot a high volume of 3s and earn an advantage against its opponents. 43.5 percent of BV’s shots are from downtown and the Beavers rank second in the IIAC in turnover margin (+1.77).

Lexi Fisher averages 14.1 points and put up a career-high 36 against the Dutch. Plus, BV has an inside threat. 6-1 senior Jasmyn Flynn-Graves averages a team-high 15.0 points.

Two of BV’s last three games are on the road, where the Beavers will try to snag a conference tournament bye (top two teams), and maybe even a championship.