Up and down season plagues women’s basketball
Aaron Dunton
The rocky basketball season continued for the lady T-birds when they took on Central Arizona College on Jan. 9. Central Arizona College showed why they were the number two team in the nation this night by beating Mesa 98 to 42 in a game that never showed life to being close.
Mesa, who is currently 5-10 on the season, has now lost 6 in a row, mostly to top ranked teams.
The upside for the women is their schedule gets a lot easier in the upcoming games.
Head coach Kori Stephenson agreed. “To our defense, our losing streak has consisted of many top ranked teams in the nation.”
Central Arizona College was no different. They remain undefeated on the season.
Mesa started out slow by only shooting 14 percent from the field in the first half to Central’s 50 percent.
It proved to be too much of a deficit in the game.
Probably the biggest problem to overcome for the young T-birds was the turnovers. The team had 27 turnovers compared to Central’s 14.
The young Mesa team did show a lot of upside in the game.
Freshman Abbey Ritz came through big off the bench.
She came in and arguably led the team in the second half.
She finished the game by shooting three for four and finished with 7 points.
The team also had a huge scare when starting point guard Charlieanne Chacon went down with an ankle injury early in the second half. She didn’t return in the game.
Stephenson later said, “We are hoping to have her back by our next game.”
When asked if she felt her injury affected the teams play in the second half, Chacon said, “It doesn’t matter whose playing. One player out means one player in. We are a team.”
Chacon left the game with a team high three assists and 5 steals as well.
Lauren Hall had a rough game but came through with a team high 10 points on the night. She was 8 for 8 from the free throw line.
The women’s next home game will take place on Wed. Jan. 16, against Arizona Western College.
They will follow that up with another home game on Sat. Jan. 19, against Chocise College. All games will start at 5:30 p.m.
