The College of DuPage women’s basketball team fought past Olive-Harvey College offensively on Jan. 11 at home through the first half. The Chaparrals struggled to respond defensively when the Panthers picked up offensive momentum through the fourth quarter. COD couldn’t regroup, losing to Olive-Harvey 56-22 and leaving their record at 4-12.
“I just think that Olive-Harvey wanted it more,” head women’s basketball coach Abby Talley said. “We got content. If something’s not working you got to do something different. We were expecting something to work the whole game. We made adjustments. We started running different plays, but nothing was falling.”
Sophomore guard Sierra Gibson led the team with 21 points and put up six total rebounds. Gibson also led with five assists and five steals. She said that although COD led by as much as 13 points against Olive-Harvey, they need to keep pushing while they’re ahead.
“We get way too comfortable with the lead,” Gibson said. “We didn’t even have a lead that big. We come in thinking that we’re going to blow these teams out and we don’t play our game. We just play lackadaisical. We need to play aggressively every quarter, and we can’t let up at all.”
Sophomore forward Savannah Anderson nearly matched Gibson’s offensive effort, racking up 20 points and seven total rebounds. Anderson also made one assist and one steal. She said the Chaps struggle to close out games due to a lack of mental toughness.
“We got too content like we normally do,” Anderson said. “We become too confident that we’re going to run teams. That’s OK if you can execute, but unfortunately, we have a problem with executing. We’re just not mentally tough as a team. We let teams get in our heads and let ourselves get in our heads. We need to be mentally strong.”
Sophomore forward Sarah Topps tallied eight points and eight total rebounds. She also picked up one assist and one block. She said that the team couldn’t settle down to get back in the game after the Panthers took control of the scoreboard.
“Towards the end, we were feeling rushed because they got a little lead,” Topps said. “We felt rushed offensively. We felt like we just had to come back [immediately] instead of taking our time and letting our lead come back gradually.”
Freshman guard Autumn Rohde added four points and six defensive rebounds. She also secured one assist and one steal. She said COD communicated less while trying to take the lead back.
“We were up the entire game,” Rohde said. “The lead just kept getting smaller and smaller and as soon as we were tied, you could feel the energy drop on the bench. I feel like everybody just tried to take over for themselves and not take the best opportunity shots. I could say that for myself as well.”
Talley said game results won’t change until the Chaps can click on both offense and defense, and that remained clear against the Panthers.
“We need to go on both ends of the court,” she said. “We’re a solid defensive team, we need to figure it out offensively. Three quarters we looked good offensively but defensively we let them hang around, and obviously, we let them hang around close enough for them to whoop our asses by 20 [points].”
The Chaparrals battle the Elmhurst University JV Bluejays at 1 p.m. on Jan. 15 on Klaas Court.
