Although the women’s basketball team finished 1-2 during the Glendale tournament over the weekend, its lone win was highlighted by a defensive clamping of a South Coast conference rival which enabled it to send an early message that they are a team to be reckoned with.
The women were defeated by Antelope Valley, 73-56, and Fullerton, 57-48. Despite the two losses, the women displayed a defensive dominance against Cerritos by allowing only 34 points in the 42-34 victory.
Freshman forward Carla Shaw was thrilled by the team beating Cerritos College because it allowed them to show how potentially good they can be on the defensive end.
“For us to allow Cerritos to score only thirty-four points when they scored seventy-something in their previous game shows a lot about our defense,” Shaw said. “We really shut them down, we didn’t allow any easy baskets.”
Despite the two losses, Shaw said she thinks the team could have played harder in the beginning instead of coming out lackadaisical.
Other than the fact that the women still need to work on their offensive schemes, Shaw thinks the team was thinking too much on offense instead of just playing the game.
“We came out flat and a little lazy,” Shaw said. “We got too far behind in the first half, and even though we played better in the second half, it was just too late. We missed a lot of open looks because some of us were nervous. We just need to relax.”
The women will host College of the Canyons tomorrow in the North Gym at 5:30 p.m.
Sophomore tri-captain, forward Jeminy Afusia, believes not only was the team a little flat, but communication was lacking on both offense and defense.
“We could’ve talked more on defense,” Afusia said. “We allowed some easy baskets against Antelope Valley and we didn’t really talk much on defense. Our defense was non-existent in the first half, and in the second half, it picked up a lot.”
Another problem the team is looking to fix is getting out-rebounded and not having to wait to get yelled at in order to play better.
Afusia said in the first half of the games that they lost, coach Steve Shaw got on the team for the lack of effort.
“We got out-rebounded by Antelope and coach (Shaw) got mad at us,” Afusia said. “We shouldn’t have to get yelled at in order for us to play hard, it should be automatic.”
The team is also looking to fix the missed free-throws during last week’s tournament. Freshman guard Bridget Kadelbach said the missed free-throws during last week’s games hurt their chances of winning.
“Not to take anything away from Antelope and Fullerton, but we missed a lot of free-throws,” Kadelbach said. “We would have been in the game if we had made them.”
The women play their next game tomorrow against College of the Canyons, and the Warriors are looking to fix the flaws that cost them two games last week.
Kadelbach said the team needs to come out more focused and make their free-throws.
“If we make our free-throws, come out of the gates fast, and were focused then we have a great chance to win,” Kadelbach said.
College of the Canyons is a team known to play a lot of 2-3 zone defense, which will shut down the paint, making it harder for opponents to score on easy layups around the basket.
The women are planning on working on their motion offense by everyone moving without the ball creating open shots for others and getting their post players involved.
“Ball movement is going to be the key,” Afusia said. “We can’t just stand around looking to get the ball, we have to try and move the ball around, wait for open looks creating easy opportunities to score.”
While the team will try to look for open shots against the zone defense, Carla Shaw said the team should not settle for the long jumpshot and try to get an easier basket.
“Against a zone, teams will just shoot jumpshots all day,” Shaw said. “But we have been practicing a new offense that allows open looks at easier shots so we won’t just have to settle for jumpers.”
With the new offensive scheme they are practicing, Kadelbach said everyone is confident regardless who gets a shot.
“Everyone on our team is capable of putting the ball in the basket,” Kadelbach said. “The team is pretty confident so whoever has a good look, they will shoot it as long as it is a good shot.”
Aside from attacking the Canyon zone defense with ball movement, Afusia said the team needs to feed off the energy of the bench players.
She acknowledged the bench players, regardless if they play or not, are crucial to the team’s success.
“The bench is a very, very important part of our team,” Afusia said. “This whole team is like family, we are very close so even if they are playing or not, everyone is cheering, urging each other on, just giving each other energy and support. That is what we need, not only for this weekend, but for the rest of the season.”
