Wichita State women roll to second win of season (+video)

It’s no accident that Wichita State women’s basketball coach Jody Adams, a winner at every level she has been on, surrounds herself with coaches and players with winning mentalities.

But when this group of winners stopped winning, Adams had to have an honest conversation with her team the day before the Winter Classic.

“None of us have been in this position before, me included,” Adams said. “So we talked about it being OK to be uncomfortable.”

Wichita State returned to a familiar place Friday evening at Koch Arena in its 64-36 thrashing of Prairie View A&M. It was the second win of the season for the Shockers (2-7) and their first at home on their fifth try.

Wichita State built a 17-point halftime lead, thanks to an 8-0 run to end the second quarter, then suffocated Prairie View A&M into 25 percent shooting and 21 turnovers.

Things like that happened last season when WSU was winning its third straight Missouri Valley Conference championship, not this season where the Shockers are off to their slowest start in two decades.

Wichita State’s lead fluctuated to as many as 33 in the fourth quarter, a welcome change for a team that had lost seven of its first eight games.

“We’re very excited about this win,” point guard Aundra Stovall said. “We see how the game plan worked for us and trusting in our coaches worked for us and going hard for the entire 40 minutes worked for us. That’s a feeling we don’t want to lose.”

Prairie View A&M gambled that its mixture of full-court and half-court pressure could jar WSU’s guards. Not only did the plan not work, but it backfired so badly that Rangie Bessard scored 14 of her 18 first-half points simply being around the basket to receive the pass after WSU had passed out of the traps.

Bessard finished with a career-high 24 points and 10 rebounds, also her first double-double. Adams said the key was sending Bessard in and out of the game in 2- to 3-minute bursts as the freshman transfer tries to work her way into playing shape after not playing for over a year.

“I think this is the best thing for me to help my team,” Bessard said of the substitution pattern. “I have no choice but to go all out. There’s no excuse.”

It wasn’t just Bessard who picked on undersized Prairie View A&M. Even Marija Pacar, who considers herself a three-point shooter, made it a point to establish position on the low block and body her way to a couple of baskets en route to a 13-point performance.

Comfort has been thrown out of this team’s lexicon. Right now they are only concerned about turning this season around.

“I’m more comfortable behind the three-point line, but today I think we all really bought into the game plan and trusted the coaching staff,” Pacar said. “I just did my role. I trusted my coaches that it was going to get us a win and it did.”

North Carolina A&T 72, North Dakota State 64 — Aprill McRae made 10 of her 13 shots to score 24 points and lead North Carolina A&T to its third victory of the season. North Dakota State (2-7) was led by Taylor Thunstedt and Marena Whittle, who combined for 43 points.

North Dakota State plays Prairie View A&M at noon on Saturday, while WSU and North Carolina A&T State will play at 3 p.m.

This story was originally published December 18, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Wichita State women roll to second win of season (+video)."