Injury-plagued Owls unable to pick up pieces

By Yan Digilov     1/29/09 6:00pm

The women's basketball team (5-14, 0-6 C-USA) was knocked down twice last week, and with the 10-count almost over, they are showing no signs of getting up to fight again. After a crushing 77-52 loss at the University of Central Florida (6-13, 4-2 C-USA) on Jan. 22 and a demoralizing 65-50 loss at home against the University of Southern Mississippi (12-7, 5-1 C-USA) on Sunday, the last place Owls are putting their hopes on the return of freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart. Though Smart is listed as day-to-day, she said that she is ready to play as soon as the coaches let her, even though she is currently walking with a brace on her foot. She was expected to make her return yesterday on the road against the University of Tulsa, but the results of that contest were not available at the time this article went to press.

In the meantime, the team's many struggles have continued. The inability to score, poor communication on the floor, and confusion on defense all prevented Rice from taking advantage of several opportunities to grab the lead from Southern Miss at Tudor Fieldhouse.

"Defensively we don't focus really well," head coach Greg Williams said. "They couldn't remember that we were trying to change defenses a little bit. If you have four players playing zone and one playing man, it is probably not going to work."

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The home team took four minutes to score their first basket of the game, and the Golden Eagles took an early 8-0 lead. Rice fell behind early and trailed by double digits at one point, before a run late in the half pushed them to within five.

In the beginning of the second half, Rice pushed to within one, but only fell further behind from that point.

"That happened too many times in the second half," Williams said. "It's nothing that complicated. They just don't focus."

Several weaknesses in the Owls' game came to the forefront in the contest. The Golden Eagles utilized a full court press throughout the game to apply pressure, and Rice crumbled.

Junior point guard Shyrelle Horne gave up six of the team's 19 turnovers in 40 minutes of play. The third string guard was forced to play the entire game after backup Amenemope McKinney fell ill with a mysterious ailment.

"She is having pains in her chest," Williams said. "We ran every test known to man a week ago."

But the tests left the team without a culprit, and McKinney played 35 minutes against the University of Alabama-Birmingham (7-13, 2-5 C-USA) last Sunday. The condition worsened against UCF and the young guard repeatedly asked to be taken out of the game because of exhaustion.

"Toward the end of the game she looked like death rolled over," Williams said. "She couldn't walk."

Williams himself had only recently recovered from his own health problems. Transient Global Amnesia sidelined Williams for 48 hours, forcing him to miss the contest against UAB. It was his second time experiencing the sickness, which causes temporary losses in short-term memory.

But the Owls' struggles were not due entirely to health problems. The players that are healthy have not been able to emulate the team performances that produced positive results in the weeks before their recent six-game losing streak.

"We were shooting the three [point shot] pretty well earlier in the year, and we have just been horrendous in the last three games," Williams said.

Much of that early three-point production came from junior guard Tara Watts, who scored no points at UCF and only two points against Southern Miss. Butt Watts was not the only one who failed to produce against the Knights.

Only senior Maudess Fulton scored more than eight points, and the team shot only 32 percent from the floor. Fulton scored 19 against UCF and 15 against Southern Miss. She has hit double-digits in six out of the last seven games.

"[Fulton] has really, in the last few games, understood that she is a senior and that she needs to go out and play hard," Williams said. "I am really happy with the way she is playing, but from there, other than D'Frantz, we don't know who is going to play. Some of our young kids aren't making the progression that you would hope . but you expect your experienced players to step up. That hasn't happened."

Freshman Megan Elliott has also increased her production in recent weeks, finishing with 16 points against Southern Miss. Sophomore Melissa Wittmayer has been less consistent but also shown signs of strong potential. She scored nine points against the Golden Eagles and registered key blocks and rebounds several times in recent weeks.

The Owls take on Southern Methodist University (12-7, 5-1 C-USA) tomorrow in Dallas. SMU has won eight of their last nine games, and are currently second in the Conference USA standings.

After that, they have back-to-back games scheduled against crosstown rival University of Houston (12-6, 4-2 C-USA), led by sophomore Courtney Taylor, on Feb. 4 at Tudor Fieldhouse and Feb. 7 at UH. The Owls dropped both matches against the Cougars last year and have not beaten them since January of 2007.

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