Exhibition games train fresh teams

The women’s basketball team began its season on the road with an exhibition game Sunday, Oct. 30, at Auburn University and suffered a tough 85-25 loss.

The team is taking on the challenge of playing with a largely new team, with 11 new players, and currently has only one senior for the 2011-12 season.

“They continue to make strides of improvement every day,” Head Coach Maurice Smith said. “Hopefully, all these little strides add up in the end.”

Auburn had a strong defensive game which crippled the Bobcats’ ability to score. With very little access to the net, free throws were their only chance of scoring in the first half of the game. The girls trailed 43-6 at halftime, which added more pressure to the already jittery team.

They managed to score more points in the second half once they got warmed up, but it wasn’t enough to take the lead and Auburn took the win with the final score at 85-25.

Freshman guard Shanteona Keys led the team in points, scoring a total of eight points followed by senior guard Myeshia Simms with six points. Simms also had four steals and an assist in the Auburn game.

“Some people are still learning,” Simms said. “It will get better.”

Sophomore forward Krysta Lewis led in rebounds, grabbing seven, while freshman forward Jasmine Williams had six rebounds.

The Bobcats next exhibition game was Thursday, Nov. 3, in Macon at Mercer University. The Bobcats lost 73-43, but it was an improvement from their first game.

Georgia College started strong when the team secured an 8-0 lead less than four minutes into the game, but Mercer quickly stepped up its game.

Going into the second half, GC was close to tying the game, trailing by only three points, but Mercer continued to play aggressively.

Although the Bobcats showed much improvement in the second half, they were unable to even the score and Mercer took the win with the final score at 73-43.

Keys was the team’s leading scorer for the second time in a row with a total of 13 points during the game. She was followed by freshman forward Belinda Schaafsma with eight points.

“I had glimmers of hope,” Keys said. “We definitely played better during the first half. The team is still a work in progress.”

Simms led in rebounds, snatching up nine of them against Mercer. She also had seven assists during the game.

The Bobcats will be in action again on Friday, Nov. 11, where they will have their first home game of the season, facing Anderson University.

“They are a talented bunch, but talent won’t get you wins,” Smith said. “They need to learn how to play off of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They are still coming together as a team.”

Posted by MorganWilson on Nov 10 2011. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.