Wichita State women’s basketball took on their first Division I opponent, Northwestern State (La.). The Demons finished last year with a .500 record around the middle of the pack of the Southland Conference.
The Shockers fell into a 13-point hole at halftime and eventually lost, 55-42, dropping their record to 1-1 on the season. The Demons, on the other hand, bounced back after their brutal 103-46 loss against Nebraska, rising to 1-1.
“This is not our team,” Wichita State head coach Terry Nooner said. “This is not how we play. Our defense is good, and we got to get the offense fixed. We have got to make shots when you get a chance to make them…. (You) usually can’t win a game if you only make 15 shots in the whole game. That’s not a good formula for winning.”
Graduate guard Abby Cater slithered inside on a putback to put Wichita State on top to begin the game, 2-0.
The track meet Wichita State displayed in its season opener on Tuesday was a 180-degree turnaround on Thursday evening. Graduate guard Taya Davis showed frustration after graduate forward Treasure Thompson’s errant pass at the 7:52 mark in the first quarter.
“I just told her to calm down and just breathe, because she was moving a little too fast,” Davis said. “So I told her calm down because I didn’t want her to get in her head, so I just told her, ‘next play.’”
The half-court offense started rocky, with sloppy passing at times. On the defensive end, the Shockers fell flat, especially with Cater benched after stacking up two fouls within two-and-a-half minutes of gameplay.
“Abby had two quick fouls in the beginning of the game,” Davis said. “So we couldn’t get her to get down here and get buckets. So it was hard in the beginning, but that was the type of place we’ve got to work on and get better. Who’s going to step up next when this person can’t get open and get a shot?”
Wichita State was aggressive out of the gate, racking up four team fouls in the first four minutes of the first quarter. Junior guard Azjah Reeves picked up a foul within her first 18 seconds.
The early fouls were even felt on offense. Instead of driving to the paint for efficient field goals, the Shockers racked up six charging fouls. Passes went awry, either creating turnovers or pushing open players out of position.
“The telling stat is five assists and 25 turnovers,” Nooner said. “We just couldn’t execute like we needed to execute on offense.”
The Demon defense sagged off of Davis as she refused to shoot, leaving them to key in on other players, denying them the ball. Graduate guard Jaila Harding, who scored 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting in the season opener, was held to 3-of-12 shooting for the night.
“It was hard,” Davis said. “That’s our best shooter on the team. So it’s hard when you can’t find your best shooter.”
The Shocker defense fell victim to the 3-point massacre by NW State. The Demons hit 8-of-24 attempts from deep for the game.
Graduate forward Sophie Benharouga provided the much-needed defense in the post, while also showing up on offense. In 19 minutes off the bench, she scored five points but was busy on the glass, tallying a team-high nine rebounds.
Benharouga’s presence on the court had the Shockers playing 7 points better in the offensive plus-minus, but the early mistakes were too much to overcome.
“She’s a good player,” Nooner said. “She played almost 20 minutes. We’ll get her to play more. I mean, we (were) happy with her. One of the things that we’ve been focused on her about was being more physical and that kind of stuff.”
Despite holding NW State to a 32.3% shooting percentage, Wichita State hit an abysmal 25.9% of its shots. The Demons’ sophomore forward Vernell Atamah made her shots count, scoring a game-high 25 points and hitting 7-of-12 shots from 3-point range.
“We want to be shooting in the high 40s,” Nooner said. “We needed to make another 15 shots that we would normally make.”
The stalled offense of WSU barely created any trips to the charity stripe, shooting just 10 free throws for the game. The Shockers made seven of them, however.
“I don’t think we played aggressive in the first half,” Nooner said. “So it’s just adjustments in how the games come. Maybe we attack the basket a little bit harder, but you never want to blame a game on the refs.”
Despite a 16-8 fourth period by the Shockers, it was too little, too late, softening the blow in a blowout loss to the Demons.
“We just (have) to continue to evaluate the team,” Nooner said. “The whole structure of the team, how we want to start, having energy off the bench … You want to make sure you have great energy off the bench, also.”
Wichita State will hit the road for its first road trip of the season against Western Kentucky on Tuesday, Nov. 11. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. and can be streamed on ESPN+.
Box Score Breakdown
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 T
WSU 8 10 8 16 42
NW State 19 12 16 8 55
Shooting totals (fg-3p-ft)
WSU (25.9% – 19.2% – 70.0%)
NW State (32.3% – 33.3% – 77.8%)
Leaders
Points – WSU: Abby Cater (15), Jaila Harding (10), Sophie Benharouga (5). NW State: Vernell Atamah (25), Nya Valentine (7), Tiara Abron (7).
Rebounds – WSU: Sophie Benharouga (9), Diamond Richardson (7), Abby Cater (6). NW State: Clarence Djuela (12), Carla Celaya (6), Nya Valentine (4).
Assists – WSU: Jaida McDonald (2). NW State: Carla Celaya (3), Clarence Djuela (2), Nya Valentine (2).
