A-State working to fix defensive issues

Lady Red Wolves having trouble with shutting teams down

From Arkanas State University

astateredwolves.com

JONESBORO — Destinee Rogers expects a different approach to start yielding different results on defense this evening.

Arkansas State gave up 180 points over two games last week as the Red Wolves opened their Sun Belt Conference women’s basketball slate with losses at Louisiana-Monroe and

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Georgia Southern. ASU has surrendered 75 or more points in six games, five of which resulted in losses.

ULM scored 29 points in the first quarter of its 81-66 victory over ASU last Thursday. Georgia Southern’s Terren Ward poured in 40 points against the Red Wolves on Saturday and her team put up at least 20 in every quarter, capped by a 33point fourth quarter that sealed a 99-86 victory.

“Obviously last week was a disappointment. We’re not going to dwell too much on that. My team knows what we expect of them and what the expectation is moving forward,” said Rogers, ASU’s head coach.

“They had a really good practice (Monday). I was very demanding about what we’re going to be moving forward defensively because I’m just not proud of our defense. I don’t like it.”

ASU’s defense will be tested again this evening as Troy visits First National Bank Arena. The starting time for the Red Wolves’ first home game since mid-December is set for 7 p.m.

Troy (6-7, 1-1 Sun Belt) has been a recent nemesis for ASU (5-8, 0-2 SBC) with 10 consecutive victories in the series. The Trojans are the Sun Belt’s second highest-scoring team, averaging 81.2 points per game, and they lead the nation in offensive rebounds with an average of 23.2 per game. They give up 78.8 points per game, which is last in the Sun Belt, but their defensive pressure leads to 11.2 steals per game, which is second in the conference.

Rogers said Troy is always good, but the Red Wolves are more focused on themselves.

“We haven’t been the best at what we do. Our defense has just been unacceptable, so that’s something we’re working on,” Rogers said.

“We’re intentional about working on that this week and, like I said, just a demand – this is how we’re going to play, this is who we want to be defensively.

Obviously they lead the country in offensive boards a game at 23 and they’re going to rely on that.

“They’re going to get at you defensively, they’re going to press you. We know everything that’s coming. It’s pretty much the same as it’s always been. They’re tough, they know how to win, and my team has to be tough. We have not been that. We haven’t guarded anybody, quite frankly, and so on Thursday we will guard Troy. You’re going to see a different mentality with these kids on Thursday.”

ASU is 13th out of 14 Sun Belt teams in scoring defense at 73.1 points per game. The Red Wolves are last in the league in field goal percentage defense (.427); six of their last eight opponents have shot 46 percent or better, topped by Georgia Southern’s 52.2 percent.

Rogers said she has blown the whistle this week in practice every time she has seen something she didn’t like on defense.

“It’s just correcting the mistakes,” she said Tuesday. “I haven’t done a great job of that before this, but I can promise you we’re going to fix it. That’s what we did (Monday). It’s just making them do it.

Sometimes you have to force kids to do it and I’m OK with doing that.

They’ll learn to love it because it’s going to help them win ballgames.”

ASU played last week’s games without sophomore guard Izzy Higginbottom, their season scoring leader at 15.8 points per game.

Rogers said Higginbottom was held out because of plantar fasciitis and described her status as day to day.

Sophomore guard Lauryn Pendleton is coming off her best performances of the season. Pendleton scored 22 points against ULM and 24 against Georgia Southern, hitting 18-of-39 shots from the field over the two games.

“I had a one-on-one conversation with her and I kind of felt like she had been forcing it a little bit, not letting the game come to her. I just told her she needed to relax and play Lauryn Pendleton basketball,” Rogers said. “I felt like she did and she scored 22 and 24 because of it. We just want her to keep that confidence. We want her to continue to be aggressive and let the game come to her. I think it started with her defensive intensity. She was our best defender and it powered through to her offense.”

Pendleton’s scoring average increased to 13.7 points per game last week. Senior guard Keya Patton is averaging 10.3 points after scoring 14 points against ULM and 11 against Georgia Southern.

ASU ranks fourth among Sun Belt teams in scoring at 71.2 points per game.

“We all know that we have the pieces offensively. I think the bigger issue is we don’t defend,” Rogers said.

“You can’t score 80-plus points and lose a game. If you’re going to score 80plus points, you need to be able to win because you should be able to get stops and we just didn’t value getting stops. It’s unacceptable. It starts with me holding myself accountable for preparing my team.

“The approach has been extremely different this week and I expect to see our defensive intensity look a lot better on Thursday.”