Lady Shockers shoot down Aces

The Lady Shockers beat the Evansville Aces 66-48 Sunday, despite missing the usual first punch.

The Lady Shockers won eight games in January by an average of 25 points by building up an early, insurmountable lead.

WSU delivers this punch by playing great defense, forcing turnovers and in the words of head coach Jody Adams, “by coming out and ripping the ball away from the other teams’ hands.”

WSU ‘s aggressive play has created huge leads in the first five minutes against multiple teams in January alone.

On Jan. 20, WSU took a 14-0 lead in under five minutes.

On Jan. 27 and 31, WSU took 13-2 leads against Indiana State and the University of Southern Illinois, respectively. Both leads happened within the first six minutes.

The Shockers’ quick starts are part of the reason why the Shockers are 18-2 overall and lead the Missouri Valley Conference with a 9-0 record.

However, WSU started slow against Evansville Sunday.

The Shockers couldn’t set up their press defense and Evansville took an early 2-6 lead.

WSU offense was sloppy—they couldn’t make shots and they turned the ball over.

WSU was behind until Jamillah Bonner stole the ball at half court and tied the game at 15-15 with seven minutes to go. 

The Shockers then got a 3-pointer from Michaela Dapprich that revitalized the crowd.

WSU ended the half with a 14-5 run.

The score was 29-23 at halftime.

WSU started the second half with a 16-7 run and pushed the lead to 16 halfway through the second half.

Forward Michelle Price played well. She scored 18 of her 21 points in the second half and led the team with 10 rebounds. 

After the game, she said that she had a “mentality change” going into the second half.

“I know I can make shots, Price said. “I have to have a good mentality.”

WSU had a comfortable lead until the Aces started to force turnovers, and closed the gap to 52-46 with five minutes to go.

It looked like the Aces were going to catch up to the Shockers, when Alex Harden got a defensive rebound and passed it up court to Price to score.

The Aces then missed shots and turned the ball over.

The Shockers ended the half on a 14-2 run.

Although they didn’t dominate from the beginning, coach Adams said it was a good learning experience for the team.

“It was a great game,” Adams said. “Evansville made us play every possession. We had to fight for this game…we have been winning by such large margins, we had to prove to ourselves that we can win on defense and rebounding.”