The early season road struggles continued for the University of Indianapolis women’s basketball team this past Saturday, Nov. 22, when the team fell on the road to the Grand Valley State University Lakers 73-57. It was the Greyhounds’ second-consecutive loss to start the season, placing their overall record at 0-2.
UIndy was statistically led in their loss by junior guard Princess German, who posted a career-high statistic in points with 21. Despite the performance by German, the Greyhounds struggled during the game with preventing turnovers and second chance opportunities for the opposition, providing 17 giveaways to Grand Valley’s defense and allowing the Lakers to grab 17 offensive rebounds. The Lakers were able to capitalize off the Greyhounds’ mistakes, scoring 29 combined points as a result of both areas of error.
The Greyhounds fell in their regular season opener on Friday, Nov. 14, to the Wayne State University Warriors, 77-59. Wayne State previously defeated the Greyhounds last season in the first round of the NCAA Midwest Regional.
Since that loss, the Greyhounds entered this season with nine new players, six of whom are freshmen. The Warriors controlled the game right from the opening-tip, creating a 14-point advantage over the Greyhounds within the first nine minutes of the game.
Senior guard Kelly Walter said that she knew the game was going to be tough, heading into the rematch with the Warriors. Coming off of a season-ending defeat to the same team, she said that she conveyed that message about how tough the game would be to the new players.
“For the returners, it’s what we know about Wayne State in the past. We lost to them in the tournament, and we kind of carry that with us on our shoulders,” she said. “We explain to the newcomers that this is what happened, to get them prepared in that sense.”
In their loss, the Greyhounds were led once again by German, who posted 16 points, and senior guard Carly Lythjohan, who contributed a career-high 14 points and a team-high six rebounds. Sophomore forward Nicole Anderson and Walter also contributed to the Greyhounds’ score, finishing with eight points each.
The Greyhounds struggled statistically on offense during the game, shooting just 34.6 percent, while the Warriors finished the game shooting 52.7 percent. The Greyhounds had a positive result from the free-throw line, making 17 of 21. Wayne State out-rebounded the Greyhounds 38-28, while also creating 34 points in the paint, compared to the Greyhounds’ 20.
Looking at the youth of this year’s team, Head Women’s Basketball Coach Constantin Popa said that the Greyhounds have work to do as far as learning how to play as a team with many newcomers.
“We have a couple [of] returning players, which helps a lot, a couple of them seniors. It definitely helps to have them [seniors] and their experience,” Popa said. “But we have nine new players, and it’s going to take a while to build some type of team chemistry and obviously to be able to get everybody on the same page. So we just have to do a lot of coaching, a lot of teaching and have a lot of patience. And you know, we do see a lot of progress, which is very encouraging. We just have to pretty much get better every day.”
Walter has been working closely with her team, stepping up into a leadership role. One of her hopes is that the team will be able to build chemistry, which she thought the team’s exhibition loss to the Indiana University Hoosiers at the beginning of the season helped to start.
“I feel like it [the exhibition] was a good game to help us build chemistry and get us started on the season,” she said. “Obviously it’s IU and the Big Ten [we were playing], [so] it’s nothing for us to worry about. It was a starting game to help us build chemistry and kind of see what they [the new players] can bring to the team to help us out.”
The Greyhounds will return home to host Ohio Dominican University on Saturday, Nov. 29. Tipoff from Nicoson Hall is set for 5 p.m.
