Following Western’s 71-62 loss to Louisiana-Monroe Wednesday night, coach Mary Taylor Cowles found out what it’s like to not to be involved in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament after the first round.
The 10th-seeded Warhawks upset the seventh-seeded Lady Toppers in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament to end a season in which there were expectations that Western could be a part of the NCAA Tournament when the first and second rounds are played at Diddle later this month.
“I don’t know how to feel,” Cowles said. “I don’t know how to think. I don’t know how to act. It’s extremely new to me. So, as we go forward, whether it’s tonight, whether it’s tomorrow, or whether it’s next week or in the month of April, when we’re allowed to get back in the gym, we’ll have to kind of have to come up with a game plan.”
The Toppers also lost their chance to defend their Sun Belt Tournament championship.
One key difference from last year’s team to this year’s was undoubtedly a strong leader, Cowles said.
After former Lady Topper forward Crystal Kelly graduated last year, the leadership role fell on the shoulders of senior forward Dominique Duck, but Duck eventually took a medical redshirt.
The leadership that Duck displayed even as early as last year was never really picked up by anyone, and the Lady Toppers suffered all season long because of it, Cowles said.
“When we made the decision, and we made that decision together, for Dominique to redshirt this year, we made that knowing that’s what was best for her,” Cowles said. “In the back of my mind I knew that other than points and defense and rebounds where our team would really miss out on Dominique Duck was that leadership.”
Freshman guard Caitlin House said earlier this year, that the biggest transition from high school was trying to learn the never-ending amount of plays.
By the end of the season however, House, forward Teranie Thomas and center Jasmine Johnson all averaged more than 10 minutes per game.
Leadership wasn’t the only problem for Western Wednesday night.
The Lady Toppers simply didn’t want the extra rebounds, steals, and all other statistics as badly as ULM, and that was the thing that separated the two from the beginning, sophomore forward Arnika Brown said.
“Like coach Cowles said, it was pretty obvious they kind of wanted it more than we wanted it,” Brown said. “I mean it was very tough. Myself, personally, there was one play that was at our end and the ball was right there in my face and I didn’t dive on the floor and get it and that’s frustrating as a player.”
Brown finished with 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The only thing the Lady Toppers can do now is to move forward and work hard toward next year, and use this season as motivation, junior guard Kenzie Rich said.
Rich led the Lady Toppers with 18 points.
“I know it’s going to motivate me to work harder,” Rich said. “This season it was all about little things that we didn’t get done, and we just have to commit to doing that. Hopefully everybody will.
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