The College of DuPage women’s basketball team kept a vicious Oakton College team at bay defensively on Dec. 21. The Chaparrals kept shutting down the Owls, but their offense couldn’t net enough shots to capitalize on their defensive success, falling 48-37. The Chaps hold a 3-10 record heading into the break.
“I honestly can’t be more proud of the team,” head women’s basketball coach Abby Talley said. “They knew exactly what they needed to do. We need to score more buckets obviously. That’s been our problem this whole first [part of the season].”
The Chaps held Oakton to the lowest-scoring game of their season.
“[Oakton] averages 91 points; that’s their average,” Talley said. “For us to hold them to 48, I think we did a pretty damn good job.”
Sophomore guard Sierra Gibson led the team with 16 points and made six total rebounds. She also tallied four steals and one block. She said although the team battled hard against Oakton defensively, they needed to focus on their offense.
“Honestly we just didn’t want to get 100 points [scored] on us,” Gibson said. “I think that’s what drove us to hold them to what we did. They’re so used to blowing teams out, and we didn’t want to get blown out. We kept them to a good game. We’ve got to score more on offense.”
Freshman forward Teegan Roach picked up eight points and seven total rebounds. She also recorded one assist, one block and one steal.
“[We didn’t] capitalize on things we probably should’ve,” Roach said. “A lot of missed [shots] and things like that. I wouldn’t say they did anything special. I think a lot of it was done to ourselves. There were a lot of turnovers that we shouldn’t have had. Over this break, we’re going to come together, and we’re going to figure it out.”
Sophomore guard Iwiyisi Osaghae scored four points and put up five total rebounds. She also made one steal. She said COD played their best defensive basketball of the season so far against Oakton.
“I feel like this was the best defense we’ve ever played,” Osaghae said. “We really held them. Usually, they got teams where they always saw 100 [points], but this time they didn’t make it. Their coach in the end; you could tell was getting mad. We really did our best this game.”
(Rachel Wagner)
Sophomore forward Sarah Topps added three points, made two offensive rebounds and secured two assists and one block.
“I think during practice our main focus was just getting them defensively and [hoping] offense would come,” Topps said. “Today it was a little bit harder. Their defense was a zone and [man-to-man] situation, but they had to adjust because they usually just play straight zone. We’ve got shooters. We’ve got people that can drive. We did what we did.”
Talley said the Chaps will focus on cleaning up their offense before the second half of the season.
“I’m giving them a much needed week,” she said. “After that week it’s full gas on the pedal. This is my favorite part of the season, because this is when things get interesting. What we’re going to continue to work on is our offensive game. Defensively, I think we’re doing a great job. There’s things that we can tweak but offense is where we’re really struggling, and that’s what we’re going to continue to work on.”
The Chaparrals return for the second half of their season against the Madison College WolfPack at 5 p.m. on Jan. 4 on Klaas Court.
