“It’s a chess match, I thought all night long, between the two coaches,” said Seattle University Women’s Basketball Head Coach Suzy Barcomb, referring to Bonnie Henrickson, University of California, Santa Barbara Women’s Basketball head coach and herself.
#15 Kamira Sanders drives and draws the foul.
On Friday, Nov. 18, Seattle University women’s basketball team played the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), with the Redhawks earning their first win of the season, 58-53.
The game had everyone on the arena watching intensely, waiting to see which team would come out on top.
At the end of first quarter, Redhawks were leading 19-4, but by the second quarter UCSB began to catch up, 27-19. By the third quarter the Gauchos had cut it to 2 points with a score of 41-39, but the Redhawks would prevail.
The Gauchos came off with a speed that seemed to surprise the Redhawks. Once they caught onto the Redhawks game plan, they began to counter with great success.
“[The Gauchos] executed incredibly well and really showed our flaws,” Barcomb said.
Apparent enough, it was a game that contained lots of emotion and endless grit from both sides. Although they continued to lead through the game, the Gauchos were getting closer to stealing the game.
“The student-athletes have really been working hard and we’ve come close on a couple of games and we’ve fallen short,” said Baromb. “So this is the first time we’ve had someone take the lead back and then we answered back and had the chance to squeeze out the game.”
The Redhawks started the season on the wrong foot after losing their first two games. On Nov. 11, Redhawks lost by a short 4 points against Idaho 68-64, and lost by 14 points against the University of San Francisco, 73- 59, on Nov. 15.
The win against USCB was a great character builder for the team, Barcomb said.
“The biggest improvement I saw, even though they caught back to us, was the fact that we actually closed this one out. Against Idaho, we had trouble coming together at the end but we actually closed it out this time,” said Alexis Montgomery (24), guard for Seattle U.
“As long as we can play to each of our strengths and get better at taking care of the ball, I think we’ll have a good shot at beating our next opponent,” Montgomery said.
The Redhawks play Loyola Marymount at the Connolly Complex at 7 p.m. on Nov. 29 and end the week playing Montana on Dec. 2.
“We are a new program, so we have to learn how to play with each other. There’s a lot of learning since we’re this early in the season,” Montgomery said. “But I think that with each game we play things will get better and better every time.”
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