Shutting down the opposition and putting the clamps on defense wasn’t the problem for the EC women’s basketball team as it finished third overall in team defense.

While the Warriors defense was third in California, it might have stopped them from putting points on the board and earning a spot in the playoffs as the women finished with a record of 13-16 overall and 8-4 in South Coast Conference play.

After a disappointing 20th place finish, the Warriors failed to make the playoffs, missing out on the top 18 spots. Finishing third on defense is an accomplishment for the Warriors, but they were unable to convert their stops on defense into points on offense.

“Plain and simple, we just couldn’t score the ball,” tri-captain sophomore Janina Hartwill said. “We just couldn’t score when we needed to. We got the stops on defense but you’re not going to win if you don’t put the ball in the basket. That was a huge problem for us.”

With the team finishing 77th overall on offense in California, Hartwill believed the team could have scored more off the fast break. With the team struggling to score the ball, Hartwill said the offense wasn’t diverse enough to create better scoring opportunities.

“On the halfcourt set, not everyone got the looks they wanted,” Hartwill said. “Not everyone got the chance to score and the plays were only run for certain players.”

Having nine new players on the team was a tough task since each player had to acclimate into the new system.

Sophomore tri-captain Laquisha Ward said the team struggled to build chemistry between teammates on the court while also trying to figure out plays on offense.

“We tried to build chemistry and figure each other out,” Ward said. “We got off to a bad start in preseason and we struggled trying to put the ball in the basket since we were trying to gel with each other. It was tough offensively.”

Ward also said that the team sometimes had great shots and great looks to score, but it was so tough that it just would not score.

“It seemed like there was a lid on the basket,” Ward said. “We had great shots at the basket, but it just wouldn’t fall for us.”

Aside from chemistry issues and struggles to score the ball, freshman center Carla Shaw said the team lacked focus at times in practice.

“There were times in practice where we goofed around and didn’t pay attention,” Shaw said. “It cost us some games at the end because we didn’t know some plays and we were at the wrong spots. If we had paid attention during practice, we could have won some games that we lost.”

Shaw also believes that since most of the emphasis was put on stopping people on defense, it stopped them from focusing on offense and scoring the ball.

“We practiced defense more than offense,” Shaw said. “We practiced our defensive sets more than our offensive sets which hurt us because we couldn’t score.”

The Warriors had four losses where they were only down by five points, especially during two heartbreaking losses against Cerritos. In those two games, the Warriors lost 55-51 and 58-56.

Sophomore tri-captain Jeminy Afusia believes those two losses hurt the Warriors playoff chances considerably since they were only out by two spots. During some of those games, the team was down by a lot of points and tried individual to dig themselves out.

“Those two losses against Cerritos hurt us a lot,” Afusia said. “We could have won some of those games we lost but dug ourselves a hole so deep, and some of us went one-on-one to try and come back. It does not work that way and that’s some of the reason why we lost.”

With an average deficit of eight points in their losses, Afusia said she believed that with a little more focus and better chemistry on offense, the Warriors would have won some of the games they lost.

“Our average deficit was eight points,” Afusia said. “That’s four baskets. If we could have been more focused on offense and try to get everyone involved with better ball movement rather than going our own separate ways, we definitely could have won some of those games.”

Afusia said the effort was there and the women played hard, but just could not score the ball. Afusia also said the women had no problems playing defense, but lack of scoring cost them a playoff spot.

“It just proves to show that defense doesn’t win championships,” Afusia said. “We were a terrific defensive team, but had problems scoring the ball.”