The Chaminade University women’s basketball team dropped its last nonconference game of the season 80-63 against California State University East Bay on Saturday in McCabe Gym. Chaminade is entering PacWest Conference play Tuesday on a four-game losing streak to start the season.
Chaminade struggled against East Bay’s 2-2-1 trapping full-court press, turning the ball over 19 times in just the first half. The turnovers caused Chaminade to go down 48-24 in the first half. Chaminade finished with a season-high 32 turnovers, which Cal State East Bay turned into 29 points.
“We’re a team that turns it over,” said first-year Chaminade head coach Travis Brewster. “So we have to be very proficient in something else, and we haven’t done that good enough.”
Chaminade junior guard Alyssa Schuetze tried her best to help the Swords out with her scoring. She led all scorers with 21 points, setting her career high. Schuetze shot 6-13 from the field and 9-10 from the free-throw stripe. Sophomore guard Holly Dolny added 15 points with her scoring as well, with shooting 2-5 from 3pt and 5-6 from the stripe.
Chaminade is entertaining the conference play on Tuesday against in-town rivals Hawaii Pacific University looking to pull off a win. Though the 63 points against East Bay was a season high, the Swords are averaging just 56.5 points in the four games so far.
“I think we’re scoring adequately,” Brewster said. “You know, I’d rather score closer to 75-80.”
A positive from Chaminade’s nonconference run is that they are shooting better from the 3-point line this season compared to last season where they really lacked. This season, so far, they are shooting 31%, compared to last season where they shot only 21% behind the arc.
“We’ve definitely gotten better at shooting on the outside, which I feel was a struggle for the team last year,” Dolny said.
With a new coach and new system, the women are all trying to buy in and take whatever steps necessary to turn around what they had going in the preseason. Despite being on a four-game losing streak, there’s still a fight in everyone on the team.
Another focus for Chaminade moving forward into conference play will be playing more as a team and working together. With having only 10 players on the team, the Silverswords have to trust each other and play for one another.
As Chaminade turns the page from a difficult preseason into the start of conference play, the team sees this week as a chance to reset and define who they want to be. Despite turnover issues and a tough stretch of losses, the Silverswords showed glimpses of what they can build on such as improved three-point shooting, stronger individual performances, and an increased commitment to buying into Brewster’s new system
“Although we had preseason struggles, it’s a positive getting the opportunity to restart and start fresh with our new coach and play with my teammates,” Schuetze said. “Just cause we only have 10 girls, I think that it’s a blessing to still be here, and I think that once we work together, that it’ll start getting better.”