Photo by Ibuki Hinohara | Photo Editor

On what should have been a triumphant night for the Arkansas State University Women’s Basketball team, the Ball State University Cardinals swooped in and snatched a 68-66 victory on the Lady Red Wolves’ ring night.

Before tipoff, the team was given their Sun Belt championship rings and celebrated the greatest season of women’s basketball in A-State history, which ended with the school’s first bid into the NCAA tournament. 

The team seemed poised to come out carrying their confidence and energy from their previous season. However, things got ugly right after tipoff. 

The Cardinals came out swinging to start the first quarter and beat down on the Red Wolves, with the visitors finishing the period with an 11 point lead. Cardinals guard Grace Kingery led the charge as the leading scorer of the quarter with 6 points.

The story of this quarter for the Red Wolves was their lackluster shooting. At the end of the first, they ended up shooting 3-20 from the field, 2-10 from three, and 1-4 at the free throw line, seemingly lacking the confidence they needed to fire back at the Cardinals.

The defense seemed to struggle greatly as well on the perimeter, with risky double teams trying to push full court pressure leading to wide open shooters on the wing scoring 9 points on open three pointers. However, the defense showed a glimmer of hope with 8 forced turnovers, but the offense was unable to capitalize on these opportunities.

Head Coach Destinee Rogers believes this quarter will be the worst play that the fans will deal with this season, noting her strong faith in this team in the post-game press conference. “As rough as that quarter had been, that was probably the worst quarter we’ll have all season,” said Coach Rogers.

Shooting from the field did not greatly improve in the second quarter for A-State, shooting 2-12 from the field and 0-8 from three, but coming out of the half, the Lady Wolves came out with a fire and hustle that the Cardinals could not contain. 

The team began to torch the net, going on a 12 point run near the end of the third quarter to even the score at 44-44. Guards Zyion Shannon and Crislyn Rose led the charge, scoring 8 points and 5 points respectively. 

Rose and the Red Wolves came out knowing they needed to be more aggressive and keep up their defensive hustle, commenting on this third quarter message that they needed in the post-game press conference. Rose said, “Honestly, we got to be more aggressive. We didn’t look like we wanted it more, so we had to go out there and just play hard, be aggressive, and let our defense turn into offense for us.”

The Red Wolves clearly understood the message. 

The defensive plan of full court pressure finally paid off with a whopping 10 forced turnovers, giving way for 11 points off of the Cardinals’ mistakes. The offense clicked as well as they continued to drive into the paint for 16 points, relying less heavily on shooting threes with only six attempted in the quarter.

The Red Wolves were back in the game going into the fourth. However, costly mistakes led to their momentum slipping.

The game went down to the wire with the Cardinals as the Red Wolves had the ball in the final seconds in what came down to a single possession game. Rose attempted a buzzer beating three with a defender all over her, but was unable to nail the shot. 

After the game, Coach Rogers made it clear that while she wanted the win, she was unfazed by the loss as she sees a winning team with a few easy to fix adjustments that need to be made. “So I think for me, you know you want to win on ring night, but I’m not walking away from this with my head down,” Rogers said.

These adjustments that need to be fixed were evident during the game. The shooting slumps of the first quarter and a few unnecessary fouls at the climax of the match were a major issue in the game, but are easy to adjust through practice and watching film. 

“I feel like we’re in pretty good shape. We just gotta clean up the little things,” Coach Rogers said. 

Even with the unfortunate loss on what was a night to commemorate a record setting season for the Red Wolves, there were glimpses of how much of a force this team can be at its full potential. The third quarter comeback brought the arena to life, and Coach Rogers has urged the fans to continue bringing that energy and more to each game this season. 

Categories: Sports