The Lady Eagles will play a pair of home games this week with a chance to improve their standing in the conference. Sixth-place John Brown will host fourth-place Wayland Baptist on Thursday and second-place Lubbock Christian on Saturday.
This week’s schedule gives the team a chance to break its three-game loosing streak and build some momentum for the conference tournament.
“Its nice to have something to play for at the end of the season,” said head coach Jeff Soderquist. “If we can pull together a run here at the end [it] can not only get us in position in the conference tournament but it also [can] give us confidence going into the tournament.”
The Lady Eagles will look to sweep the season series with WBU after winning their last contest 74-67 on Jan. 26.
“The key to [beat] Wayland is limiting our turnovers and [to] keep them off the offensive rebound,” said Soderquist.
The Eagles will look to recover from a rough 98-48 loss to then-No. 1 ranked Oklahoma City on Saturday.
The Stars won big despite 10-point nights from sophomore forward Morgan Ankrom and junior guard Sierra Shipley.
John Brown was only down 47-27 at the half but only made three shots from two-point range in the second half and were outscored by 30 points.
Soderquist said the key to getting back on the winning track against Wayland Baptist is to replicate what JBU did in their last meeting but to improve offensive rebounding.
“We’ve got to take care of the basketball and we’ve got to attack them offensively,” Soderquist said. “Defensively we’ve got to keep them out of the paint and we’ve got to finish the possession with the ball off a rebound.”
Wayland Baptist is on a 2-6 skid after starting conference 3-0, with its only wins in that stretch coming against the bottom two teams in the conference, USAO and MACU.
Soderquist said the team is going to focus on stopping junior guard Angeleigh Davis, who leads the Flying Queens with 15 points per game.
On Saturday JBU will face No. 3 Lubbock Christian. The Lady Chaps, who were ranked No. 1 much of the season before losing twice to Oklahoma City, are coming off a win over Oklahoma Baptist last Saturday.
The Lady Eagles will face Wayland Baptist Thursday at 6 p.m. in Bill George Arena and Lubbock Christian Saturday at 1 p.m.