By MAYAN PAZ
Tiger Media Network
Riding a five-game winning streak, FHSU women’s basketball returns to Gross Memorial Coliseum after two weeks on the road this weekend. The Tigers will host Northeastern State (10-10, 6-5) on Thursday and Arkansas-Fort Smith (13-7, 7-4) on Saturday.
FHSU (18-2, 9-2) kept pace at the top of the MIAA standings, defeating Washburn 85-47 and Central Missouri 74-64. Talexa Weeter led FHSU against Washburn with 19 points, while Olivia Hollenbeck, Kate Dilsaver, and Bailey Wilborn scored in double-figures as well. Against Central Missouri, it was Katie DeGarmo who led the way with a season-high 26 points, which was backed by double-figure contributions from Dilsaver, Hollenbeck, and Brooke Loewe.
FHSU Head Coach Talia Kahrs was pleased with the team’s performance.
“I thought we did a good job as a team trying to execute our game plan,” she said. “The guards did their job, as far as pressuring the ball and pushing their guards out and then we did a good job at the post as well.”
Defensively, the Tigers have been terrific this season, allowing just 56.9 points per game, the best in the MIAA. The last two games were no different, as the Tigers forced 19 and 15 turnovers on their opponents, respectively. Kahrs spoke about her defensive philosophy.
“We try to run through what they like to run on offense, and so we have a pretty good idea of what they’re trying to do. So we are being really intentional, if we recognize what their offense is, we are taking away what they’re trying to do, so their first pass, especially making that wing pass really tough, is difficult,” she said. “Then making them have to do something that they don’t normally want to do, and then usually that forces a turnover because we put them in an uncomfortable situation to make them have to make a tough pass.”
Weeter spoke about her performance against Washburn, where she added six rebounds to her 19 points.
“I went into the game just telling myself I was just gonna play my hardest, play good defense, and then the offense will flow as like the game goes on,” she said. “But I just thought as a team, we played really well.”
Weeter, who normally comes off the bench, said the key to becoming a productive contributor off the bench is to be really focused on what her opponent is doing and what her defensive chores are going to be like and let the offense flow as a result of hard defensive effort.
Going forward, the Tigers will face opponents that are ranked higher in the MIAA standings. Kahrs spoke about the specific challenges those teams will present.
“(Northeastern State) like to press a little bit, and they really do a lot of different things on defense, and so we have to recognize what they’re trying to do and hopefully take advantage of that on the offensive end,” she said. “And then defensively, maybe change some things up and not worry as much about personnel, and just really try to play really good team defense, really focusing on communication this week on the defensive end.
“And then Fort Smith is really athletic, similar to Northeastern. These are two more athletic teams than what we face on the north side of the conference. We need to guard really hard and just to be able to really cut and deny the ball really well. And so, just preparing for their athleticism.”
FHSU and Northeastern State tip off at 5:30 p.m. tonight inside GMC. UAFS and FHSU will play at 2 p.m. on Saturday.