Women’s basketball team struggles to maintain second half focus

“Possessions win ball games,” said head women’s basketball coach Jocelyn McIntire Wednesday. A lesson learned for the Saints women’s basketball team, who went 1-2 at the Bellevue Invitational Dec. 2-4. in Bellevue, Wash. The tournament got off to a rough start, with the Saints dropping a loss on the first day of competition to the Big Bend Vikings 56-66.

The Saints, who shot eight for 12 in the first half and 10 for 21 in the second half against the Vikings, avoided a blowout but struggled with mental focus during game time said McIntire.

“I have mixed feelings about our performance. Some of the girls didn’t show up and seemed like they were out to lunch,” said McIntire, who says her team struggles with keeping second half energy. “In that game we reached a point, again, where we kind of fell asleep and checked out,” said McIntire. Still, the Saints have steadily increased their field goal shooting percentage with each game and are making steady progress early in the season. “We are moving forward and learning and getting better, so I’m happy with that,” added McIntire.

Day two of competition showed a more focused Saints team against the Green River Gators, defeating the Gators 56-53. The Saints, who were down seven points coming out of the first half, hustled back to a second half push with the help of sophomore shooting guard Kelsey O’Neil who led the Saints scoring with 20 game points, “She’s a natural scorer,” said McIntire who adds that she would like to see more shot productivity from the rest of the team.

“There are definitely some girls that I’d like to see step it up. What happens if K.O. (Kelsey O’Neil) misses a game? We have to work on lightening that load,” said McIntire.

It was a lot of lip service from the Highline Thunderbirds in the final day of the tournament. “They were a very physical team, a lot of talk, a lot of attitude, very intimidating. But we didn’t get sucked into it,” said McIntire. Still, the Saints who entered the second half down by only two points, dropped their focus, “It was a good game but we checked out again,” said McIntire.

Refusing to quit, with 10 minutes left in the second half, the Saints fought back from a 14 point deficit, to make it a one possession game. “We managed to regroup and chip away one possession at a time.” But with two missed free throws near the half, the Thunderbirds narrowly edged past the Saints with a final game score of 63-60.

Despite the loss, the Saints had 42 game rebounds and shot 64 percent from the line, a percentage that continues to increase with each game, and that coach McIntire says is close to the percentage she’d like to see her team shooting from the line. “Unfortunately, the only way to get better at shooting is to just shoot,” said McIntire who in addition to daily practices, has her team shooting for an hour two times a week to improve. “I’d like to see that number closer to 70 percent. It’s still early, and there’s a lot to learn but I’m happy with our progress. At this rate we will start peaking in January and February which is great.”

The Saints will play the Columbia Basin Hawks in Pasco, Wash. tonight at 7 p.m. Then the Saints will head to Walla Walla, Wash. Saturday to face the Walla Walla Warriors with a game start time of 6 p.m.