|
SPORTS
| february 17, 2004
Women's Basketball
Confidence leads Lady Mavs to Homecoming
win
The coach says strong defensive
play was a main reason for the team’s success Saturday afternoon.
 |
| The Shorthorn: Brandon Wade |
| Senior guard LaToya Lewis goes
up to make a shot as Stephen F. Austin Lumberjack
guard Kirby Killingsworth tries to block Saturday at Texas
Hall. |
|
By Brandon
Schubert
The Shorthorn Sports Editor
Lady Mavericks junior forward Rola Ogunoye scored a career-high-tying
25 points and moved into 10th place on the university’s all-time
scoring list in a 68-45 win over Stephen F. Austin on Saturday.
SFA couldn’t stop Ogunoye, who said she was motivated to play
better than she did in her last outing.
“At the end of the last game, a lot of things happened that
weren’t supposed to happen,” she said. “I had
some unforced turnovers and some mental mistakes, and I went into
this game thinking ‘That’s not going to happen again.’
”
Ogunoye added that confidence was an important factor in her success
and the team’s success.
“When you’re scoring, it feels so good, especially when
your teammates have enough confidence as they do in me to keep feeding
you the ball,” she said. “All you can do is answer back.”
She added that she tries not to worry about opponents and focuses
on her own game instead.
“I don’t go out there worrying about age level or how
short or tall they may be, I just go out there and do what I know
I can do,” Ogunoye said.
Coach Donna Capps said she wasn’t surprised to see the Lady
Mavs dominate and added that strong defensive play was a reason
for the team’s victory.
“We’ve come so close to beating them at their place.
Even not playing well, we’ve come close the last few years
to beating them down there,” she said. “When we [play]
defense like we played tonight, we’re due.”
Defense, Capps said, is the one thing that any team can play night
in and night out.
“We’ve been able to change defenses. A lot of people
think that the zone defense means you’re playing soft, but
we’ve been changing a lot of people’s mentality because
we’re playing a really aggressive zone.”
Senior guard Krystal Buchanan agreed and said the team wanted revenge
for a 59-54 loss to SFA earlier this year in Nacogdoches.
“We knew we owed them something. From how we played them the
first time, we knew we could play better,” Buchanan said.
“This time we just put everything we’ve been working
on into the game, and it paid off.”
|
|
