Shutting down the opposition and putting the clamps on defense wasn’t the problem for the EC women’s basketball team, finishing third overall in team defense. Their defense was so smothering, they might have stopped themselves from scoring and getting into the playoffs.

After a disappointing 20th place finish, the women’s basketball team failed to make the playoffs and missed out on the top 18 spots. Finishing third on defense is a great accomplishment for the lady Warriors, but they couldn’t 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 and that was a huge problem for us.”

Since the team finished 77th overall on offense, Hartwill thought 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 ran for certain players.”

Having nine new players on a team can be a tough task since everyone has to be acclimated into the new system. Laquisha Ward, sophomore tri-captain said the team struggled to build chemistry between them 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 pre-season 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 they 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 were at the wrong spots. If we had paid attention during practice then we could have won some games that we lost.”

Shaw also thinks 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 team had four losses of which they were only down by five especially two heartbreaking losses vs. Cerritos. In those two games, the women lost 51-55 and 56-58.

Tri-captain, sophomore Jeminy Afusia thinks those two losses hurt their 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 vs. 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 1-on-1 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 thinks that with a little more focus and better chemistry on offense, they 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 team played hard, but it just couldn’t score the ball. They had no problems playing defense but they lacked scoring and it cost them a playoff spot.

“Just proves to show that defense doesn’t win championships,” Afusia said. “We were a terrific defensive team but had problems scoring the ball. You’re not going to win games if you don’t add to your point total and that was our biggest problem.”