Women’s Basketball thrashes Western New Mexico to claim second Conference win
Bench key as MSU makes it two-in-two in Lone Star Conference.
More stories from Sharome Burton
Marketing junior and forward Liz Cathcart passes the ball to special education junior and forward Annette Dukes for a lay-up against Western New Mexico University. Jan 12. Photo by Bridget Reilly
The women’s basketball team notched up its second victory in the Lone Star Conference on Saturday with a domineering 80-46 win against the Western New Mexico Mustangs at the D.L. Ligon Coliseum.
The women never trailed throughout the 40 minutes of play and stifled their opponents to just 20 points in the second half en-route to the W, which saw them improve to 5-8 for the season and 2-4 in conference play.
Head coach Noel Johnson said her team ticked the box in several areas.
“Our energy was good, we defended very well, offensively we shot the ball well and if we didn’t have a make on that first opportunity we were there rebounding and getting some putbacks,” said Johnson, who recorded her 144th win with the Mustangs. “The combination of that was huge for us today.”
The team dominated the boards, out-hustling WNMU 49-28 on rebounds and also showed greater depth, winning the battle of the benches 38-5.
“Our depth is imperative – everybody being a contributor, being ready to go, being intense when they’re subbed in – I think that’s one of our strengths. We have a lot of weapons sitting on the bench and a lot of weapons out on the floor,” said Johnson.
One of the stars off the bench, special education junior and center, Annette Dukes posted a game-high 17 points from 20 minutes, including 7-from-8 at the free-throw line. Dukes said she was targeting more consistency in her game.
“Today I had to show up because for the past games I’ve been struggling to get back to my regular level of performance and the team deserves better, so today it just came to me and I’m just trying to continue to make it consistent,” said Dukes, who also pulled down 6 rebounds.
Starting point guard, exercise physiology senior Chelsie Kizart said, the team has positives to take from the win into their upcoming schedule.
“We just got to keep the same energy, play defense and run our sets and we’ll be perfectly fine,” said Kizart, who tallied 13 points in 26 minutes.
MSU started the week 4-0 in the Lone Star Conference, but now have momentum following wins over WNMU and UT-Permian Basin.
“We can’t go in with a mindset of losing – we’ll go on with a winning mindset just knowing we’re gonna control everything, making sure we’re running ‘us’, sticking with the game plan and just being ourselves,” added Kizart.
Heya! My name starts with Bridget and ends in Reilly. I moved to Wichita Falls five years ago from New South Wales, Australia. In December 2020 I will...