WSU women looking to keep momentum going at home after big road win
The Wichita State women’s basketball team executed the two things coach Keitha Adams constantly harps on and picked up its first American Athletic Conference and road win, a 62-44 victory at Tulane on Saturday.
It was a quality victory — Tulane is a clear top-half team in the conference and entered with a 13-5 record — that snapped a five-game losing streak. But more importantly for the Shockers (8-11, 1-5 AAC), the win showed the nation’s fifth-youngest team a glimpse of their potential when they limit turnovers and focus on rebounding.
Now the Shockers return home to Koch Arena for a crucial week where they will host the two teams they’re currently tied with at the bottom of the standings. First up is East Carolina (10-9, 1-5 AAC) on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. Then the Shockers cap off the week against Temple (5-14, 1-5 AAC) on Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
“Every experience we have right now is a learning experience for our team,” WSU coach Keitha Adams said. “No question a win puts a little more gas in your tank. We went through some adversity and it had been a struggle, so it was nice to play well and play hard and do things we’ve really been harping on.”
Before the win over Tulane, WSU had only won one rebounding battle in its previous eight games, a statistic that annoyed Adams. She challenged WSU’s posts and junior center Raven Prince responded with eight rebounds, seven coming on the offensive side. The Shockers as a team grabbed 50 percent of their own misses and dominated the glass, 36-26, over Tulane.
But WSU’s biggest problem has been limiting turnovers. The Shockers rank dead last in the conference at 19.4 turnovers per game and are committing a turnover on 23 percent of their possessions. Against Tulane, WSU limited its turnovers to 16, the fourth-fewest amount in a game this season.
“We took care of the ball and we showed if we do that, then we can be a pretty good team,” said WSU senior Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage, who scored 16 points and was named to the AAC weekly honor. “That definitely gave us a confidence boost. Hopefully we can start turning things around and things will only go up from here.”
ECU offers a revenge game of sorts for WSU, which was embarrassed by its performance in a 78-56 loss in Greenville, N.C. where the Shockers shot 38 percent, committed 21 turnovers and were out-rebounded by 20.
If the Shockers can execute their top two goals — limiting turnovers and focusing on rebounding — against an opponent they’ve already lost to, Adams thinks that will the next step in becoming a better team.
“They completely dominated us at their place,” Adams said. “One of their strengths (steals) has been one of our weakness (turnovers), so this is going to be a big challenge for us to grow up and change some things we’ve been doing in the past. Hopefully we learned something from that and we’ll be better about valuing it and (Tuesday) will be a big test in that department.”
East Carolina at Wichita State
Records: ECU 10-9, 1-5 AAC; WSU 8-11, 1-5
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Koch Arena (10,506), Wichita, Kan.
Radio: GoShockers.com/Listen
TV: Cox YurView (HD 2022)
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