With a winning record of 3-2 so far this season, head coach Tim Kirby said the Lady Bison basketball team has had a great start to the season, with two of its three wins against conference teams on the road.
“We’re excited about how our conference got started,” Kirby said. “Anytime you win games on the road, you’re very pleased with that. We went to Oklahoma with a really good mindset and saw some very positive things.”
Kirby said the two losses they took came against two teams who will easily make an appearance in the NCAA tournament. One loss was a buzzer-beater, and the other a tight game with a couple of missed plays that could have sealed the victory for the Lady Bisons, according to Kirby.
Junior guard Andi Haney echoed Kirby’s thoughts that although the team has faced two losses thus far, they have been two winnable games. Haney said it is important for the team to focus on learning from those games to improve as the season progresses.
“We are a young team, so sometimes it’s easy to just get away with mistakes when you win,” Haney said. “The girls have responded well to the losses and we have grown in our game. I really like how well the team is growing together in chemistry to work the kinks out, which is encouraging for the rest of the season.”
Sophomore guard Lundon Williams said that becoming better each day is one step in continuing to improve and preparing for the coming games.
“Our goal everyday is to build on the positive things that occurred the previous day,” Williams said. “We focus on preparing our mind and body to be in the best condition possible each day. Never being satisfied is a big factor, and realizing there is always room for improvement is important.”
Kirby said that with the season still in its early stages, the young team, with nine out of the 12 players being underclassmen, has to focus on developing depth. He commended the players on their competition level, especially the upperclassmen that Kirby said know how to compete and deal with tough situations on and off the court.
“Our individual skills and mentality need to get better, but if you just look at our needs right now, it’s the need to develop some depth,” Kirby said. “We’ve got to develop depth that will allow us to deal with adversity during our games.”
With two games left in 2015 and two weeks before the players head to winter break, Kirby said another big focus of the team will be to stay conditioned over the break and use the two weeks to accomplish some of the short term goals set out for the team.
The Lady Bisons took on Southern Nazarene University on Thursday, Dec. 3. Scores were not available at the time of print. The Lady Bisons play Oklahoma Baptist University on Saturday, Dec. 5, at 1 p.m. in the Rhodes-Reaves Fieldhouse.
