Leading scorer for D-III school picks spring break trip over team’s Sweet 16 game

The King’s College’s women’s basketball team reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III National Tournament in Amherst, Ma., but they’ll be forced to play their playoff game without their leading scorer.

Senior Paige Carlin, who leads the team with 11.4 ppg, already had tickets booked for a spring break trip and chose to vacation rather than work with her team this week, The Citizens’ Voice reports. She took off for Cancun, Mexico on Sunday, the day after her team’s win against William Paterson last weekend.

Carlin played in all 29 games this season, averaging 23.9 minutes per game. She was the team’s first player off the bench, though her contributions had been limited in the team’s first two tournament games. Her name has been removed from the team’s roster.

Coach Brian Donaghue and the rest of the team had no idea about Carlin’s plans until after the fact, but they’re not letting it bother them.

“We’re not letting it be a distraction,” Donaghue said. “We’ll be fine.”

The natural reaction would be to criticize Carlin, and that would seem fair, but we don’t know her side of the story. On the surface, it appears as if she’s chosen to spend some of her final college memories sweating with her friends on the beaches in Cancun rather than with her teammates on the basketball courts in Amherst. Maybe there is something more to her decision; we’d all be curious to hear what it is.

Chest bump to Deadspin for the story