Struggles on offense still too much for WSU women to overcome

Scoring hasn’t always been easy for the Wichita State women’s basketball team.

But what made the Shockers the three-time reigning Missouri Valley champions is that they made it even more difficult for their opponents to score.

That mentality has left along with nearly every player associated with those championships, as Wichita State’s struggles to return to that identity continued Friday night inside Koch Arena in a 55-44 loss to Northern Iowa.

The new cast of Shockers have lost 11 of their first 14 games, including three straight double-digit defeats to begin Valley play.

“We need to turn up our energy on the defensive end and know that that’s the way this program has been successful in the past three years,” said transfer Diamond Lockhart. “We have to understand that as a young group and know that we can’t sit there and pout when we haven’t scored.”

Northern Iowa’s defensive game plan was simple: deny TaQuandra Mike the ball and sag off every other guard, forcing Wichita State to take outside shots. And take outside shots Wichita State did, but it never did make them.

The Shockers settled for 20 three-point attempts, making only three for a 15-percent success rate, and finished shooting 31.7 percent from the field with just six assists.

“It’s really the point guard’s fault,” Aundra Stovall said. “We had to get us moving early when we first brought the ball down. It started from not getting everyone in the right spots in the beginning that put us in (bad) situations.”

Even last year’s squad would have had a difficult time managing the slump Wichita State found itself in during the first half. In 31 first-half possessions, WSU finished with 13 points on 6 of 26 shooting (23.1 percent) to go along with 11 turnovers.

Coach Jody Adams thought the struggles on offense led to struggles on defense, where Northern Iowa dissected the Shockers to the tune of a 34-13 halftime lead. Once UNI took a 16-4 lead in the first quarter, it played with a double-digit lead for the remaining 30 minutes.

“Our offense dictated our defense and that’s a sign of a team that needs to get tougher mentally,” Adams said. “We have to understand we’re going to go through those spells, but we can’t let those spells be an energy vampire and become a downer for us.”

“We have to take our mindset to another level,” Stovall said. “To say, ‘OK, if we’re not going to score, then the other team isn’t going to be able to score, as well.’ ”

Wichita State hasn’t shot over 39 percent for five straight games, and by no coincidence it has failed to top 50 points in five straight games.

Adams admitted that at some point, WSU has to start producing on the offensive end to reclaim its season.

“There’s a big difference between shot-takers and shot-makers,” Adams said. “Right now we need some shot-makers.”

This story was originally published January 8, 2016 at 10:28 PM with the headline "Struggles on offense still too much for WSU women to overcome."