The Arkansas State Red Wolves women’s basketball team got off to a slow start in their first appearance, but soon got back to their winning ways in a 71-69 victory over the Henderson State Reddies.

A-State spent much of the first quarter behind the Reddies, as the Red Wolves just could not buy a bucket. The Reddies rode the hot hand of guard Natalie Cardenas, who ended the game shooting 5 for 5 from the three. The Reddies went 4-6 from three in the first quarter and put on a show by taking a double digit lead by the end of the quarter. 

This continued up until midway through the second quarter. The Red Wolves finally started to sink shots from three. It did not take long after the first successful three for A-State to come back and tie the score by halftime at 33. 

Head coach Destinee Rogers addressed the slow start, citing consistency with how last season’s conference title-winning started the season versus how they ended.

“We’ve just kind of got to go through a couple games to figure it out,” Rogers said. “You saw it last year, it looks bad and then all of a sudden it looks great. That’s what this looks like.”

The Red Wolves extended their lead through the second half, with veteran guards Zyion Shannon and Crislyn Rose hitting double digits in scoring. Shannon scored 17 points and epitomized the phrase “shooters shoot,” going 5-18 from the field and 3-6 from the free throw line. She nailed 4 three-pointers.

Henderson started to mount a desperate comeback in the 4th quarter, and pulled within a point in the final minute. A Reddies foul on forward Marlie Dickerson sealed the win for the Red Wolves, as Dickerson made a free throw to make the final score 71-69.

The defense for the Red Wolves struggled for much of the game to prevent wide-open threes from the Reddies. 

“I think that it just comes down to discipline and working at it,” Rogers said. “There were a couple of times we weren’t in the right positions or we might have been in the gap too far, or our reaction was late. We just need to get a ton of game reps and then it’ll clean up pretty quickly after that.”

Some of the newer players to the roster got plenty of playing time as the Red Wolves look to put the final touches on their gameplan. Dickerson got the most minutes of the newbies, leading the team in steals with 5 and managing to get 6 rebounds, including 4 offensive boards. Guard Mia Tarver led the new players in points with 9 and had the best free throw percentage in the game.

“We want to just keep them up and know that we can make mistakes,” Rose said of the new players. “We play so fast and aggressive that we just got to be able to move on.”

While the win was narrow against a Division II team, Coach Rogers is not concerned about the game’s results. “Some people might look at it and say ‘You barely beat a DII.’ I really don’t care,” Rogers said. “I think that was a great game for us. They’re smart. They know how to make shots. We want to get to a point where we are dominating games, but we’re not there yet and that’s okay. That’s what the system looks like.”

The Red Wolves will open the regular season at home on November 3 with the first game of the MAC-SBC Challenge. A-State will take on Ball State, the defending Mid-Atlantic Conference champions. The game will be preceded by a championship banner ceremony. Coach Rogers encouraged every fan to attend to support the Red Wolves.

“We need the community of Jonesboro to show up on Monday night,” Rogers said. “The tickets are one dollar so there’s no excuse for people not to come out. You got an opportunity to be a part of history.”

Categories: Sports