The Wayne State women’s basketball team hosted the top-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies Saturday. The last ranked team to come to the Matthaei was then-No.15 Northern Kentucky. That game ended in a Wayne State victory. Things were very different this time around.
The No. 1 Huskies came out and played like the No. 1 Huskies, crushing the Warriors 84-46. When the score was 21-12 in favor of the Huskies, the visitors knocked down two free throws and their lead was never less than10 for the rest of the game.
“We regressed today. We didn’t do a lot of the little things that we needed to do against a team that’s this fundamentally sound,” coach Gloria Bradley said. “They defend well, they pass well, they box out, they shoot well.”
The Warriors had just one player score in double figures. Sophomore Felicia Thomas finished with 10 points.
“It just goes to show you how far fundamentals will get you. Just stuff that back to the basics,” said freshman Paige Sickmiller about the dominant play of MTU. “That’s what they really stress as a program.”
As the score suggested, little went right for the home team. For the second game in a row, it had a tough time finding some offensive rhythm. Outside of a short stretch where Sickmiller poured in six points in just over a minute, the Warriors could not find the bottom of the net, especially from the 3-point line, where they shot an icy 2-of-14.
“Its frustrating. If we could just learn from them and see how well they do the little things. They don’t do anything special,” junior Chelsea Kouri said. “If we just watch the film to watch them, I think that will help us.”
The Warriors had one day to prepare for the best team in the country, which didn’t help matters at all. But they aren’t complaining about the schedule. There’s actually more talk about what more work can be done over the much needed holiday break.
“Every single person on the team knows something that someone else can do better,” Kouri said. “We need to grab that person and say, ‘We’re going to the gym to work on this,” so we can get better. We won’t have the excuses like we have to study, or we have class, or we’re tired. I’m hoping more people get into the gym.”
The Warriors are off until after Christmas when they close out the calendar year with a home game against Madonna on Dec. 29. Last season, WSU rolled Madonna, 61-35, at Madonna.
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