When asked where his team needed improvement, Emporia State women’s basketball coach Brandon Schneider stopped short of the laundry list that seemed to fill his mind.
“There’s a lot,” Schneider said. “There’s a lot of little things we need to do better.”
Though the coach certainly isn’t complaining about Wednesday’s 68-62 road victory over Fort Hays, he still believes his team is capable of greater things.
Most could be accomplished, he said, with a little more focus.
“We’re not a team that pays enough attention to detail right now,” Schneider said. “To win in this league, especially on the road, you’ve got to do all the little things very well and very sharply.”
ESU won’t have to wait long for its next test.
The Lady Hornets will travel for a second consecutive road game, this one at Southwest Baptist.
The Bearcats should pose a completely different challenge than the Tigers did Wednesday.
SBU (8-2, 0-1 MIAA) enters as the highest-scoring team in the MIAA, averaging 84.1 points per game. FHSU is last in the conference at 65.6 points per contest.
The Bearcats showed their scoring capabilities on Wednesday, falling 101-97 to Northwest Missouri State. In that game, Courtney Creed (25), Erika Souza (25), Cortney Shewmaker (18), Katelin Cutbirth (12) and Rachel Graves (11) combined for all but six of SBU’s points.
“They’re going to give us all we want,” Schneider said.
Meanwhile, ESU hopes it will be more ready to compete during MIAA play.
With more than half of the roster playing its first conference game on Wednesday, the Lady Hornets seemed a bit surprised by the physical nature of the game.
“I think all the people that weren’t really prepared for it will have their eyes open,” ESU senior Michelle Stueve said, “and be a little more prepared.”
The Lady Hornets were especially bothered in the first half, where they had just 26 points, shot 30 percent, had 14 turnovers and were blocked five times.
“They were just playing more aggressive than we were,” Stueve said. “We weren’t being patient. We weren’t really running our offense the way we run it in practice.
“I think it was just a matter of them coming out and playing a lot tougher and more physical than we were ready for.”
Hornets looking to right ship
Unfortunately, the road won’t get any easier for an ESU men’s team desperately searching for a victory.
SBU (8-1, 1-0 MIAA) comes into the contest having won six straight, including a 67-66 upset victory at No. 11 Northwest Missouri State on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, ESU (5-5, 0-1 MIAA) has lost five of its last six and needs to start picking up wins quickly if it hopes to be in the hunt for its second straight NCAA Tournament berth.
“We’ve got to get going,” ESU guard DeAndre Townsend said, “and get back on the right track.”
The game has the potential to turn into a track meet.
ESU is leading the conference in scoring (87.2 ppg) and SBU, which also has a reputation of a high-scoring offense, is fourth (83.9 ppg).
The Hornets won the teams’ first matchup last year, 93-84, before losing 108-89 in the regular-season finale.