Carolina on my mind
AUBURN, Ala. — The University of Arkansas women’s basketball team hopes to keep its one game winning streak intact traveling to South Carolina for a Sunday afternoon game televised by ESPN2.
Arkansas (10-14, 2-9 SEC) picked up a big win at Auburn Thursday moving the Razorbacks up a spot in the SEC standings with a chance to continue the climb Sunday.
Arkansas shot better than 50 percent for the game, its best shooting performance in a league contest this year.
“Well I wish I could explain why we had such a good shooting night because we’d like to can it and reproduce it for every game,” head coach Tom Collen said. “I couldn’t tell you for sure. It’s the same shots we’ve taken all year long. When you go back and look at our games and those halves in which we shot really well we look really good offensively and when we’re missing shots we don’t.
“The win was a relief and I think the kids needed it,” Collen continued. “It’s hard to sustain long runs of defeats and then think you can pick yourself back up and keep going on. There are only so many speeches a coach can give to his team to try and reinforce what you’re trying to get done. When you come out and get a win especially on the road to a team you’ve lost to the last four or five times and who was the SEC Champion last year it’s a shot in the arm.”
Arkansas got good minutes from several players. Senior Charity Ford paced the team with 18 points but sophomore C’eira Ricketts and freshman Quistelle Williams both had big games as well.
“I don’t think talent’s ever been this team’s problem,” Collen said. “I think we play well in spurts. I think we play hard in spurts. It’s just those lapses that we’ve had. We certainly still have a lot of good teams left to play — teams who are trying to get into the NCAA Tournament like Mississippi, at LSU and at Georgia and South Carolina. The challenges are certainly big for us but we have to take it one game at a time and build some momentum.”
Arkansas wraps up the road trip coming home to a pair of league games with Ole Miss Thursday and Alabama Sunday. The Bama contest is Pink Day and Senior Day and will be televised.
“I hope we do (show signs of closing strong),” Collen said. “We did last year. I thought our inside game was better. We just need them to be a little more consistent. We don’t’ need them to be big time scorers for us although if they step up and score that’s great. We’ve got some players who are starting to come along and I think if they were to emerge and play with some consistency that will go a long way towards winning some basketball games and taking this team to where we want to be.”
