Another loss, another slow start for women’s basketball

November 19, 2008
By Marcus Johnson
Sports Writer

Photo by David Clary In a physical game last Thursday, Robert Morris put UIS in double bonus with more than eight minutes left in the second half.

The UIS women’s basketball continued on with there sluggish starts and fell behind early against the Eagles of Robert Morris Chicago last Thursday. The mixture of the slow first half starts and the turnovers were the main factors in the 72-52 lost.

The first half saw the Eagles jump out to an early 12-4 lead. The lady Prairie Stars started to make a comeback around the ten minute mark when they cut the lead to 14-18 with a lay-up by Susan Coryell. After this, the game got ugly for the Prairie Stars. The Eagles converted on 15 points during the first half off of Prairie Star turnovers.

“I’m the kind of coach that will allow backdoor lay-ups if it means the team will get steals every now and then,” Eagles Head Coach John Natanek said after the game.

The Eagles also had their way in the post, out-muscling the Prairie Stars and taking a 23-11 advantage in rebounding in the first half. When asked about this, Coach Roy Gilmore said that the girls were simply, “Terrible. They played with no heart and no effort. They got pushed around in the post the whole game.” By the time the first half was over, the Prairie Stars trailed the Eagles by 20 at halftime.

The second half started off with another slow start for the Prairie Stars. They were held without a field goal until the 16:16 mark when Jeanell Randolph got fouled and converted on the shot.

“What people don’t realize about a zone-trap defense is that you don’t have to get steals,” Natanek said. “It’s goal is just to burn clock and when you start your offense with around 15 seconds left you have to rush everything.”

The second half was also much better for the Prairie Stars, but it didn’t help the team gain an advantage in the scoring column. During the second half they shot a better field goal percentage at 44%, while the Eagles got worse and shot 35.1 percent from the field. But this advantage still kept them behind. The closest the team got to the Eagles were 19 points.

All of the turnovers weren’t what Coach Gilmore expected from the team. He knew and the team also knew that Robert Morris was going the play pressure defense. But as he put it, “we didn’t execute tonight.” The turnovers were also a main focal point in the losses to both Robert Morris and Taylor University. During the lost to Taylor University, the team committed 16 turnovers and in the lost to Robert Morris Chicago, they committed 32 turnovers. In both games Robert Morris and Taylor University converted on the miscues of the Prairie Stars.

The team is very young but as the season continues, they will grow on these miscues. Once they get more game experience, they will start to grow.