By Kelvin Butler
UNIVERSITY CENTER – It’s the midseason for the Delta women’s basketball team and they’re sitting with a 6-9 record.
Head coach Sean Williams laments their latest loss against Macomb Community College, one of the most important experiences for the team.
“If we defended better […] make our layups and free throws — we’re in that game,” says Williams. “We may not win, but we’re in it.”
Giving the team a turning point changed their mentality, which was greatly welcomed, especially considering the conference games started — the most important games of the season.
If they finish high enough in their conference, they can still enter the playoffs and make a deep playoff run — possibly ending with the rings for all the players and coaches.
After their Macomb loss, the women’s practices have ramped up and gotten more intense. They started to hold each other more accountable, which is what they needed. They’ve been playing together and playing hard.
“Once that translates to the floor, we’ll be solid,” Williams adds. “[…] We’re still missing a few pieces, but all in all we should be able to compete with anybody in this conference.”
The women’s team needs to be more consistent for 40 minutes in order to compete. When they do well, they seem to attack the basket more than shoot outside shots.
When they do that, they get the team in foul trouble — causing the opposing team to play safer defense. This makes it easier for the defending team to collapse the defense, giving Delta’s players more open looks and putting them in better situations to score.
The rough start of the season was in part due to sick players and ineligibility issues.
For those wondering about the 98-point win against Olive-Harvey and then the 66-point loss to Macomb: the Olive-Harvey team wasn’t a challenging game for Delta. The Macomb game was more important to the coaches and players, as they went up against one of the best teams in the nation.
After that game, though, the Pioneers saw that Macomb wasn’t as good as they thought — Delta’s players know what they have to do from here on out to win.
With the next half of the season coming up and the team prepping to be 100%, this women’s team can make Pioneers basketball history.