The Miami University women’s basketball team is atop the Mid-American Conference East Division for a variety of reasons.

Talent. Leadership. Role acceptance. All apply to Kristin Judson.

The 6-foot-1 redshirt junior forward is typically the RedHawks’ sixth man. She’s the team leader in field-goal percentage (49.3), averaging 4.4 points and 2.3 rebounds while playing 15.5 minutes per game.

“I feel like I give a boost to the team in a silent kind of way,” Judson said. “I think it takes a calmness to come off the bench like that. You have to know whenever you’re needed, whether it’s five minutes a game or 25 minutes a game, you just need to be ready. Just be calm, always be calm.”

The Bloomington, Ill., native redshirted her first season in Oxford because of a bone contusion in her heel and believes it was a beneficial move, allowing her to acclimate to Division I basketball.

Judson hasn’t been a statistical force during her career and didn’t realize her field-goal percentage was best on the team, but Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa called her “an integral part of our success.”

“Kristin’s a very smart player who can take on any role,” Fantanarosa said. “I can play her at every position and she knows what’s going on. She’s a worker.”

Judson likes the short- to mid-range jumper on offense and banging down low when it comes to defense and rebounding. That’s why Fantanarosa calls her “a very physical post player, but a finesse scorer.”

Judson was battling the flu when the MAC season began earlier this month, and Fantanarosa said she’s still trying to get her timing back. She’s totaled two points the last two games.

“I’m not big on excuses,” Judson said. “I’m still coming back a little bit, but my shot still feels good. I stayed home this summer and worked a lot on my shot with my dad, so I think that helped me just get a good feel for it.”“

She comes from a coaching family — her grandfather was a high school coach, and her father is currently an assistant at Illinois State — and Judson wants to follow in that tradition as a teacher and coach.

“I don’t know if it runs in the family. It’s just kind of something that my heart wants to do,” Judson said. “Maybe it’s just in my blood. I’ve just been around it so much that I fell in love with it. I used to sit on the bench when my dad coached at Northern Illinois and give his players water. I used to go recruiting with him when he coached at the University of Illinois.

“I probably watch the game differently. I definitely notice the smaller things more than some players do, but I think that just makes me love the game even more because I know even after I leave Miami, hopefully basketball is going to be in my life much longer. I realize this is just a stepping stone to what I have next.”