The Plattsburgh State women’s basketball team (9-9, 6-5 SUNYAC) is looking to make improvements from last Saturday’s performance against Fredonia State to better prepare themselves for the upcoming road games.
Although the 70-64 score doesn’t seem too brutal, the coaching staff claims that much more went wrong than the score suggests.
Assistant coach Ben Sarraf believes that rebounding was the biggest flaw in the Cardinals’ performance.
“We got out-rebounded big time and most of them came from the offensive side of the ball,” Sarrif said. “We’re not the greatest rebounding team, and it’s been like that all year.
In their big win against Buffalo State last Friday, PSUC was a force on the boards 60 rebounds. This number was nearly cut in half against Fredonia State with 32. The Cards’ inability to take control of the boards resulted in a 14-shot advantage for Fredonia. Having more offensive opportunities in the game will allow you to have a greater chance of winning, he said.
“Even if they were to make a quarter of those 14 extra shots, that still gives them eight more points that we just gave them,” Sarrif said.
To view more of our videos, visit our Multimedia page.In addition to rebounding and giving the other teams more chances, head coach Cheryl Cole is concerned with the inconsistency the team has shown throughout the season. She hopes to enter their match with Oneonta, the first of five upcoming road games, with the team playing their own style.
“We’ve been very good some games and very bad some games,” Cole said. “We have the capabilities to beat every team — we’re just never sure which team is going to show up.”
Rebounding isn’t the only thing that is a concern of the Cards for their upcoming games. Cole explained that being on the road is always a different experience than playing at home.
With a conference record of 6-5, PSUC has been successful in shaking off the away jitters. Factors such as a home crowd and being comfortable with the rims can play a key role in games.
“There’s nothing like playing at home. It’s always nice to play here at Memorial,” Cole said.
“We just have to get through every game one game at a time because it is hard to win on everyone else’s court.”
The team is not going to be on their own home court again until Feb. 20, so they are going to have a hard schedule for the next couple of weeks.
Having to play games at Oneonta, New Paltz, Cortland, Oswego and Potsdam in five straight games away is going to be a tough task for the Cards.
Coming out of practice Tuesday night, junior Devona Paul felt confident in the adjustments that her team has made and feels that they are ready to take on any team.
Paul desires to take the energy from Friday’s big win against Buffalo and gear it towards the upcoming games. Paul stated that the team has to work on rebounding, which they made a focal point of Tuesday night’s practice.
Paul was also able to shed more light on what was needed to be successful in the future.
“Rebounding, transition defense, and taking care of the ball — those are our three priorities,” Paul said, “We’re really hammering those in this week before we hit the road.”
PSUC feels confident in their upcoming schedule and Cole put it in the simplest of terms.
“We just have to be able to put it all together each night for 40 minutes,” she said.
Email Kevin Morley at kevin.morley@cardinalpointsonline.com.
