Despite a recent string of losses, the Grinnell Women’s Basketball team is hoping to return to their pre-break form. After starting 3-4, the women dropped eight out of nine during Winter Break. Coach Gluckman and her team are confident that this recent skid does not reflect this team’s ability.
“Outside of the program one could look and say we lost a lot of games,” Coach Gluckman said. “But the challenges, growth and team-bonding [that the team experienced during break] were what we needed.”
Coach Gluckman and Jessica Shots ’10, the team’s only senior, said the break allows players to build a basketball team community and literally nothing else because there are so few distractions on campus during break.
“We did have two weeks at home, which was really nice to get off campus,” Shotts said. “For the break, being here for three and a half weeks was kind of long, but we got a lot of basketball in. It was nice because we got to focus on basketball, we didn’t have to worry about homework, people’s minds were clear.”
But after the women began playing in January, they had lost some fire. With a record of 1-8 in the New Year, the Pioneers were left to wonder: “Why?”
“The year started off pretty strong and with a lot of momentum,” Elizabeth Burnett ’12, Center/Forward, said. “Most of our losses are a result of an eight minute break we seem to take in every game…usually right after halftime. By halftime it’s a really close game, but then we come out of [halftime] and [the opponents] go on a run.”
Burnett, who scored 12 points and shot six for nine in the Pioneers’ 60-75 loss against Monmouth Wednesday, is right. The team was actually ahead 29-25 at the end of the first half, before things started to unravel, yet again, for the Pioneers.
“We can play one really good half of basketball,” Gluckman said.
Gluckman cited “composure” as a potential reason for drop-off in the second half, but for whatever reasons, the team thinks they have the components needed to overcome this mental block. For the relatively young team, which is composed of just three juniors and the aforementioned lone senior, every game is a chance to improve team chemistry improves and the players’ comfort level.
“I think we have a lot of potential—we have a lot of depth,” Burnett said. “As opposed to years before, we have post players and we have solid guards. Not just the starters but the people on the bench…can carry the team.”
The Pioneers play Lake Forest College at 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, in Lake Forest, Illinois.
