WSU women try to keep moving in the right direction

Wichita State’s women’s basketball team is on its best run of the season and has been rewarded with some time off.

Only it might not be such a reward. The Shockers play Wednesday night at home against South Dakota State, their only game in a 13-day stretch that followed Saturday’s win over Incarnate Word.

After winning four of five games to bring its record to 5-5, WSU isn’t necessarily looking for a break in momentum. The Shockers begin Missouri Valley Conference play on Dec. 30 against Drake.

“Always we want to play more,” WSU junior forward Rangie Bessard said. “We live and breathe basketball. It’ll definitely be good to go home and see our family, but we have to make sure we’re keeping these (upcoming) games in our mind. When it comes around, it comes around quick.”

The Shockers play five conference games between Dec. 30 and Jan. 5, including two pairs of Friday-Sunday games that will test their conditioning and help determine their Valley status.

When that gauntlet begins, WSU will try to carry over the positives of the last five games, like shooting better than 50 percent in four wins and holding four opponents to fewer than 65 points.

“We’ve been working really hard to get into rhythm,” WSU coach Jody Adams-Birch said. “…We’ve just been on a roll and we’ve just got to put things together for this last game. This team (SDSU) that we play is very good, very efficient. They’re disciplined, they communicate well, they don’t stand.”

The Shockers have been efficient, too, but not always consistent. With comfortable leads against Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian last weekend, WSU was outscored in the second half of both games.

Against Incarnate Word, WSU built a 25-point lead but was outscored 28-13 over the final 13 minutes and won by 10.

“We never want to be complacent with what we have,” Bessard said. “Our coach really focused on, let’s start treating these games as conference games, and we take every game seriously.”

This story was originally published December 20, 2016 at 4:13 PM with the headline "WSU women try to keep moving in the right direction."