by (Lawrence, Kansas) – The Haskell Indian Nations University Lady Indians (11-4/0-1) dropped their conference season opener to the 20th ranked College of the Ozarks by a final score 57-68 Friday night at Coffin Sports complex on Haskell’s campus.
The Lady Indians had a tough time to get the ball to fall down for them despite getting the shots they wanted. The Indians shot only 36% in the first half of the game to Ozarks 41%. Normally a good shooting team from behind the arc, Haskell could only get 3-of-10 shots to fall down for them whereas Ozarks shot 60% from downtown which would be the difference at the half as they led 39-27.
In the second half, the shooting woes continued but defensively Haskell picked up the pace and held the highly-touted Bobcats to only 24% shooting and scored more points than Ozarks but the first half deficit was too much for the Indians to overcome against the highly ranked opponent.
Haskell senior guard Jenine Coriz led her team with 17 points and had a game high 6 assists, she also had a 3 steals on the evening . Keli Warrior had 9 points and Jennah Williams added 8 points as Haskell’s other leading scorers. After the game, Coriz said, “We just didn’t shoot the ball well and we weren’t really communicating and things just didn’t go our way.”
Haskell head coach Shane Flanagan said, “I think turnovers was one of the keys to the game, we had 25 turnovers and that is way to many. Really, I didn’t think we played well but to be honest I think we are going to bounce back, I like the effort some of them gave but we just have to really clean it up a little bit and get back into playing.”
The Indians won’t have too much time to dwell on this game as they face their next conference foe Central Baptist College. Coriz said, “Right after the game we said ‘short term memory’, we have a game tomorrow and I think we are very good that, just forgetting tonight and come in playing harder and more aggressive.”
The Lady Indians will tip-off at 3:00 PM CST and the game can be watched online at http://www.haskellathletics.com
