Women’s basketball opens season with a win against Oklahoma City Stars, 78-64

Sophomore guard Libby Hoffman prepares to lob the ball down the court.

Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh

By Kai Olbrich

The No. 5 Concordia University Bulldogs Women’s Basketball team came out hot in their opening game of the season on Nov. 1, jumping out to an early lead in the 78-64 win over the Oklahoma City Stars in the first round of the Cattle Classic.

Senior Abby Krieser opened the Bulldog scoring account with two layups in the first few minutes. This helped Concordia get out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and 24-9 by the end of the first quarter.

By the end of the game, however, the Bulldogs had not added to their lead, they dropped one point from the margin they had in the first quarter.

Concordia shot well from beyond the arc in the first two periods, going 7-15, but struggled in the second half of the match with only 14.3 percent of their three-point attempts finding the basket.

Krieser led the scoring for the Bulldogs with 10, closely followed by graduate student Kendal Bringham, and sophomores Raelyn Kelty, Joclyn Bassett, and Juliana Jones, who each added eight. Jones led the team in assists with four, blocks with two, and steals with two. Kelty led the Bulldogs in rebounds with eight.

While the Bulldogs won via a relatively comfortable margin of 14 points, coach Drew Olson believes that they did not put together a complete performance.

“I think we just got to get more points. I felt like we passed some threes and we got to get more people just confident catching ready to shoot. And once we do that, you know we should be shooting more threes. And hopefully, that happens more,” Olson said.

Olson understands that the first is not going to be perfect, but still has high expectations for his highly ranked team.

“You know, going into the game, I had really high expectations and, I just felt like it was a typical first game over. We didn’t really, like, play as great as we could. We had moments where we were really good, but at the same time, we just did not put a full game together,” Olson said. “We were very inconsistent. [We] turned the ball over a little bit too much, and then, especially in the second quarter fouls and just weren’t really smart defensively at times.”

A positive from the game was their trademark high press. Concordia was able to collect eight steals throughout the game. They were also able to empty their bench and have 12 different players get on the scoresheet.

“We love our depth; I feel like we can go 11 maybe even 12 at times. So I have a lot of confidence in that. And that helps us, allows us to be able to play at the pace and press the way we want to,” Olson said.

The substitutes did not let the level drop, as the Stars couldn’t come closer than a ten-point deficit more than one after the first quarter of play. Sophomore Libby Hoffman and junior Megan Belt combined for 15 points off the bench

The Bulldogs will host Southern Oregon University in their second game of the season on Nov. 2, scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in Friedrich Arena.