The Harding women’s basketball team fell in their third and last exhibition game to NCAA Division I Western Kentucky 96-64 this past Friday.
Harding was led by sophomore guard Shana Holmes, who averaged 17.7 points per game in the three exhibition games, and sophomore forward Arielle Saunders, who averaged 12.3 points per exhibition game.
Friday’s game was the first exhibition game where the Lady Bisons did not outrebound their opponent.
The Western Kentucky Toppers outrebounded Harding 38-30.
The Lady Toppers had 22 points off of Harding’s 23 turnovers. In the end, it was the turnovers that cost the Lady Bisons the game.
“We just had too many turnovers against WKU on Friday,” assistant coach David Walker said. “You can’t go on the road and play a good Division I team, turn it over 23 times and expect to win.That’s a program that has been to the Final Four three times, so it was great competition for us. We didn’t execute as well as we did in our win at ORU.”
Although their loss to Western Kentucky comes as a disappointment, the team is looking ahead to their regular season, which begins tomorrow.
“I’m looking forward to getting the regular season started,” Walker said. “It’s been a long time since we lost in the GAC Championship, and we are ready to build off of that finish and use that as a springboard to a great season.”
Sophomore guard Montana Lewis is also ready to get back on the court and into full swing for the season.
“I am looking forward to playing basketball games again and building onto the success we ended with last season,” Lewis said.
Although the Lady Bisons are looking good, they still have plenty to work toward as they begin the regular season.
Walker said they are trying to get better every day so they have a chance to win every game.
“As a coach, you would like to have more time before the season opener, but I think the DI exhibition games on the road have been great in preparing us for just about anything,” Walker said. “Offensively, we just need to be taking care of individual responsibilities. We have a lot of talented players who bring different things to the table.”
Despite the little amount of practice they have had against other teams, the Lady Bisons are ready for their season opener this Saturday as they host Christian Brothers University at 5:30 p.m.
