Two specific statistics stand tall among the rest in Allen womens basketballs 77-63 loss to Connors State at home on Thursday to open up the second half of the season.
The Lady Devils were outrebounded 52 to 34 in the game including at a nearly 2-1 clip in the second half. The discrepancy on just the offensive glass was even worse: 26-12 overall with, again, a 2-1 clip in the second half.
Its a stat thats plagued the Lady Devils throughout the season and is more than partly responsible for their 2-13 overall record and 12-straight losses and unfortunately, thanks in part to the diminutive stature almost all of the ACC players, its something that looks to continue to be a problem throughout the rest of the season.
We work on rebounding every day and were still not at the point where we push people back, Coach Rachel Janzen said, Were so small that they jump up and were at a disadvantage. I dont know how many offensive rebounds they had but it totaled out to them having too many second-chance opportunities.
The Lady Devils were outscored 22-8 in second-chance points a stat that matches the Lady Devils 14-point end-of-game deficit.
We play a great first 30 seconds of defense, Janzen said. We make them take a shot with two seconds left, they miss it and then they get the rebound and thats where they get us. We have to do it all over again and you make it tough on yourself when that happens. It kills us.
THE LADY DEVILS trailed by six after the first quarter but fought their way into the lead thanks to finding success playing with pace versus the Cowgirl defense.
They briefly took the lead at 27-26 with a 1:20 left in the half and then jumped back ahead at 30-29 before the halftime buzzer.
We were really working well in transition, Janzen said. We settled down and we knew that they were going to run their press so we got the ball to the middle and started fast-breaking on them and getting wide open lay-ups. Thats how we want to play. We want to play fast.
However, thats when things faltered. A 7-0 Cowgirl run to start the second half soon turned to a 45-34 lead with 6:45 to play in the third quarter.
