Second-year head coach Destinee Rogers will be looking for improvement this year that is as hard hitting as her team’s play.

The Red Wolves women’s basketball season ended play last season with a 13-19 record. Since then, the team has worked hard to better their play, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

“Our defense is a lot better,” said Rogers. “We’re a lot bigger. We’re focusing on our rebounding while also trying to make our pace a lot better offensively. I really think this team can do some special things” 

This season, the Red Wolves want to clean up some bad marks from last season, including an eight game conference losing streak in the middle of the season.

Despite a slow start, the Red Wolves finished strong, winning seven of their last eleven games, including two games in the Sun Belt tournament.

Rogers said the main focus of the off-season practices has been defense including more defensive stops and creating more turnovers. 

 “I didn’t think our defense was very good last year,” said Rogers. “We allowed a lot of paint points. So we created a new defense to try and stop that.”

Meanwhile, the roster was bolstered by several transfer players in junior guard Bre Sutton from UL-Monroe, redshirt sophomore guard Wynter Rogers from West Virginia, junior forward Emma Imevbore from Lamar University, junior forward Kendra Gillispie from Baylor and senior forward/center Cheyenne Forney from Denver University.

“We knew that with having our returners come back we needed to add pieces that could elevate us to another level.,” said Rogers. “We did just that. I’m really impressed with what they bring to the table.”

The team roster has also seen several key returning players, most notably junior guards Lauryn Pendleton and Izzy Higginbottom. Both led the Red Wolves in scoring last year, and this year Higginbottom was named a preseason All-SBC First Team member. 

Pendleton, a Little Rock native majoring in creative media production, said confidence is up this season. 

“The confidence is pretty high, especially among the returners, because we saw a lot of success at the end (of the season).” Pendleton also said that this offseason has been trying, but rewarding. “I’ve put in more work this offseason than I ever have before in my career. I’ve been trying to become more of a threat from the three.”

Higginbottom, a psychology major from Batesville, said the momentum from the end of last season is something she’d like to see carry into this season. “We’re just looking to build off the success we saw last season and carry that over into this season, and win a bunch of games in non-conference. And hopefully carry that over into the Sun Belt tournament and win a championship.”

The Lady Wolves begin the season November 6th with a road game against the South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Brookings. The first home game of the season is November 9th against Northern Illinois. Conference play begins December 30th, where the Red Wolves are slated to play at home against Coastal Carolina.

Categories: Sports