By Joel Weckerly, Sports Editor
The women’s basketball team has lost three conference games in a row, dropping its standing to seventh place in the Lone Star South Division. Of course, you wouldn’t know it by talking to the players.
“We’re very excited right now,” junior forward Jackie Vinson said. “We’ve gotten off track a little bit, but we’re not the type to give up or get discouraged. We’re hoping to turn everything around.”
Even so, the past three defeats have cut deep for the Wildcats, who as of Thursday held a 10-10 overall record with a 1-4 mark in the LSC South. In the losses to West Texas A&M, Midwestern State and Texas Woman’s, the Wildcats’ margin of defeat was no more than five points per game.
“Any losing streak is frustrating, especially to lose ones as close as they were,” head coach Wayne Williams said. “There’s no question any of those games could’ve gone the other way.”
However, he said Vinson’s reaction to the skid is exactly what it needs to be.
“It’s something we’ve talked about as a team, and I feel good about our mindset,” Williams said. “There’s no other approach but to stay optimistic and continue to play with a lot of energy.”
Vinson said the key to winning games is for the team to play hard for the entire game.
“We’ve had a lot of ups and downs in these last few games; we need to get better at playing the whole 40 minutes,” she said.
After traveling to Texas A&M-Commerce on Thursday, the next 40-minute stretch the Cats have to endure is at Texas A&M-Kingsville on Saturday. As of Thursday the Javelinas were 9-9 overall and 2-4 in the LSC South. Before the Cats can worry about Kingsville’s record, however, they have to worry about the 8-hour chartered bus ride from Commerce, which is about 60 miles northeast of Dallas, to Kingsville, a coast city 45 miles southwest of Corpus Christi.
“It’s a pretty big distance to travel,” Williams said of the 490-mile road trip. “I feel like it’s one of the toughest places in the conference to play; it’s always a physical game with them.”
Going into the weekend, Williams said the approach would be the same as every other game.
“We want to start a one-game winning streak and build from there,” he said. “We can’t get distracted by what’s in the past. We focus on today.”
