The College of DuPage women’s basketball team brought their strong defense into the new year on Jan. 4 against Madison College. The Chaparrals shut the WolfPack down, sharing the ball well and making consistent shots at home. COD clicked on offense and defense to snap a five-game losing streak, beating Madison 56-22 and raising their record to 4-10.
“We did well sharing the basketball,” head women’s basketball coach Abby Talley said. “We did well pushing in transition. Obviously, we’ve been struggling offensively, so I think our bread and butter right now is to just push the ball in transition and take advantage of numbers.”
Sophomore forward Savannah Anderson recorded her second double-double of the season, leading the team with 15 points and 12 total rebounds. Anderson also led with four steals and made one block.
“I aim to do the best thing I can for my team,” Anderson said. “I ball out every time I can. I don’t usually check my stats, however, my goal is to get a triple-double one day. I know it’s possible. As a post player who’s getting that many minutes, a double-double is a requirement at this point. I’m playing [consistent] minutes, I’m a strong player and I need to be getting there.”
Sophomore forward Sarah Topps secured her first double-double of the season, scoring 11 points and leading the team with 12 defensive rebounds. She also led with five assists and picked up one steal.
“We lost one of our biggest rebounders [to injury], and coach said somebody needed to step up,” Topps said. “A lot of us did step up, but today was a game that I stepped up. It was a lot, but I couldn’t do it without my teammates.”
Freshman guard Megan Martinez put up 10 points and four total rebounds. She also tallied three assists and two steals. She said COD slowed their play to keep their momentum against Madison.
“We used the time that we had [better],” Martinez said. “We would be rushed with it [in previous games], but I feel like we didn’t feel rushed. There were negatives and positives, but we definitely played a lot better as a team.”
The Chaparrals outshot the WolfPack 94-57 in field goal attempts. Sophomore guard Sierra Gibson added eight points and four total rebounds. Gibson also picked up one assist, one block and one steal. She said that the surplus of shots was an improvement from their previous offensive efforts.
“Even though we took a lot of shot attempts, a lot of them were good looks,” Gibson said. “We did better than just wasting time and then chucking up a three, or throwing something off of the backboard. We were moving it, we were looking for open players and getting good shot attempts.”
COD held a 3-10 record last year going into the second half of the 2022-2023 season, and they finished with a 15-16 record. Talley said she hopes the Chaps see the same success the rest of this season.
“I’m just hoping that this is the confidence booster that the girls need going into the rest of the season,” she said. “You saw this with last season. It kind of took until after winter break for us to get going. I’m hoping that this is going to be a similar situation.”
The Chaparrals face the College of Lake County Lancers for the second time this season at 1 p.m. on Jan. 6 in Grayslake Ill.
