This was the first game of the season for the Lady Lions women’s basketball team. They played against Loyola University. This will be Head Coach Gauff’s first time coaching the women’s basketball team. Gauff was previously the assistant coach for the men’s basketball team.  
Annie Goodman/The Lion's Roar

In their first game of the season, the Lady Lions basketball team lost to Loyola University 76-62.

On Thursday, Nov. 3, women’s basketball started off the new season playing against Loyola’s Wolfpack. The Lady Lions scored consistently throughout the game, but could not overcome the 13 point gap established in the first quarter. 

Taylin Underwood, a junior shooting guard, scored 26 points for the team. Underwood was exhilarated for the first game.

“We’ve been working really hard to get to this point,” said Underwood. “Obviously, it didn’t turn out how we wanted it to go, but we see the things we need to work on to prepare better for future games.”

Other than Underwood, the only other player to reach double digits in scoring was Taz Stinson, a freshman guard. 

“We didn’t shoot as well as I think,” said Head Coach Errol Gauff. “We have a couple young ladies who didn’t shoot well tonight who are better shooters than that. Their size really gave us problems in the post. We couldn’t rebound the ball. Looking at these stats, they outrebounded us by 25 rebounds.”

Gauff was previously an assistant coach for the men’s basketball team, and this will be his first season coaching women’s basketball.

“It’s different, but I’m enjoying it,” said Gauff. “That’s the most important thing. You know, a lot of people were apprehensive and worried and looking out for me, ‘Uh oh, all you’ve coached is boys.’ I am intense, so they were wondering how it would translate as opposed to young men. I think it’s been okay. I enjoy the young ladies. They’re playing hard, and they’re working to try and get better, so it’s been a good experience.”

Gauff’s plans for the season are to help the ladies improve on and off the court.

“Simple, I want the young ladies to get better every day, but not just get better as, athletes, but get better as people,” said Gauff. “That’s more important. Now do I wanna win? Heck yeah. Let’s not confuse that, but I know the ultimate is for them to be better people and that’s what I want. Every day I want them to get better. Students get better, persons get better and athletes get better.”

Bre Warren, a junior shooting guard, aims for achievement and unity.

“Success obviously, but just to become a better unit as a team and just be better on each individual thing,” said Warren. “Everybody needs to be a better scorer, a better defender and just come together as a whole.”

Underwood believes she and the team as a whole need to improve in defense.

“I just think all around defensively,” said Underwood. “I definitely think defense is what I need to work on as well as everybody else to improve and actually do better in our games.”

Gauff plans to move forward by learning and remembering this is not the end.

“We just go back to work,” said Gauff. “We’ve gotta remember who we are as a team.  We’ve gotta continue to learn. Every day as coaches, we have to be good. They might be bad as a player, and you know, maybe they didn’t do as well as they wanted to on a test, or a paper or something. We still have to be good and understand where they are and be good teachers and keep working with them. Keep high standards. We can’t falter our standards. We have to use this as a learning opportunity. This isn’t the end of the world. We get better from this.”