Junior guard Jaclyn Scholvin tries to help the Lady Lions to a recovery in the second half against Sam Houston State University. Jacob Summerville/The Lion's Roar
The Lady Lions basketball team added a loss and a win to their overall record after facing two teams from the Southland Conference last week.
The first game was held in the University Center on Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. against Sam Houston State University, and the second game took place at Nicholls State University on Jan. 27. With the final score of 57-52, the loss against the Sam Houston Bearkats ended the two-game win streak that the Lady Lions held. Although the game ended in a loss, the Lady Lions held the lead for over 34 minutes of the game.
Junior guard Jaclyn Scholvin shared several aspects that helped the Lady Lions maintain their lead.
“I think when we were up, we shared the ball the most,” said Scholvin. “We were getting stops when we needed to and converting on the other end. People were scoring all across the board. Towards the end of the game, we didn’t get stops when we needed to, and shots were forced offensively as a team. They went down and hit shots, so we started to fall in a hole.”
Although the Lady Lions scored more points on the floor, the Bearkats had them beat with free throws, scoring 20 points as opposed to the Lady Lions scoring 12.
Head Coach Ayla Guzzardo shared her thoughts on the foul trouble throughout the game.
“Early on, our foul trouble was in our post, and right now, we’re missing one of our key post players Jyar Francis,” said Guzzardo. “Without her, we only have two true post, one sub-post, but we’ve got to keep them on the floor. Our posts getting into foul trouble and playing timid, it hurts us.”
The team went 17-66 for field goal shots and 6-31 for three pointers, which are below their season average.
Guzzardo stated that the one main improvement that needed to be made after the game was making shots.
“We got defensive stops, but offensively, we weren’t scoring the ball,” said Guzzardo. “We shot 25 percent in the field, 16 percent from the three-point line. You can’t win games like that. Our goals keep insisting we did, but we didn’t put the ball in the hole. A lot of key players that normally hit shots didn’t do what they normally do. When you have the highest person with 10 points and it’s just two people, it’s hard to win games like that.”
Scholvin and sophomore guard Charliee Dugas were the two players that scored 10 points each with freshman forward Caitlyn Williams following up with nine points.
Junior guard Ashailee Brailey had a suggestion to fix the scoring issues from the game.
“If we’re not hitting our shots, we need to remember that we can take it inside,” said Brailey. “I think that’s what we need to look at for the next game. If our outside shots aren’t going in, we need to look inside, get it to our post.”
Guzzardo admitted that the team underperformed this game, and that the team could expect another loss if they played similarly at Nicholls.
“I don’t think our momentum was where it needs to be,” said Guzzardo. “It wasn’t like this in Houston Baptist, and it wasn’t like this against Northwestern. We didn’t play the same type of basketball against those two teams.”
The Lady Lions walked away with a win against Nicholls. The team beat the Colonels 66-57, adding a fourth win to the team’s record this season.
Guzzardo shared her excitement as the Lady Lions increased their intensity on defense as well as putting emphasis on the improvements with the shooting percentages.
“It differed in the way we played on both ends,” said Guzzardo. “We played a very good defensive effort tonight, and we scored the ball offensively. We shot 16 percent last game from the three, and 26 percent from the field. Tonight, we were 25 percent from the three and over 40 percent from the field. So, putting the ball in the hole on the offensive side, and defensively, we got after it and made every basket that they shot hard.”
The Lady Lions hit their peak during the second half, scoring 43 points.
Guzzardo stated the couple of things the Lady Lions will practice before they face Nicholls again at the end of the season.
“Offensively, they’re usually a zone team, but they came out man-to-man, and we weren’t real prepared for that,” said Guzzardo. “But, the girls handled that. They handled the pressure that they applied to us very well. So, we’ll prepare a little bit more versus man-to-man and a little bit of their half-court trap that they applied that gave us a little bit of problems. So, those are the things we’ll probably do on the second time we play them on our ‘Senior Night’ at the end of the season.”
The Lady Lions are back in action on Jan. 31 at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. Tip off will be at 7 p.m
