HSU women anticipate challenging SFSU team
HSU's Ashley Peralta takes the ball into the circle before dishing off an assist to temmate Madison Parry. (Jose Quezada, HUMEDIA / For The Times-Standard)
Following the team's first win of the season, Humboldt State women's basketball coach Michelle Bento-Jackson is preparing her team for a Thursday night matchup against San Francisco State, which she forecasts to be a tough one.
"We know San Francisco State is going to present challenges to us that we're obviously working on this week in practice and, you know, we hope just to be better than we were in the last game," the head coach said Tuesday afternoon. "That's really how we're going through this season, show improvement from the week before and prepare for the upcoming opponent."
If the team's rematch victory over Dominican University is any sign of improvement, then things are headed in the right direction.
Saturday night action at the Lumberjack Arena saw HSU's women defeat its visitors 66-49 to avenge a narrow 72-70 loss on the road.
The Lumberjacks' home opener saw the hosts take control of the game in the third quarter outscoring their opponents 21-10 and holding them to a measly 14% shot rate. HSU fired from the field with a 50% rate.
With the team's non-conference schedule behind it, the coach has taken lots of points into consideration as it heads into its duel with SFSU, the first in the CCAA conference schedule.
"To be honest, every week is kind of different. Some weeks there's areas on the defensive end that we have to improve and we might make some improvements in those areas, but we're learning each and every week and just trying to build up our previous games in many different areas to continue to improve upon," she elaborated.
Despite the workload and preparations, Bento-Jackson is happy to have snapped the team's three-game losing streak at home.
"It was great to get a win in our season opener here (at the) Lumberjack Arena and it was just nice for the girls to be playing with the fans and the environment. It's something that we've been really anxious for and it was our last non-conference game. So hopefully we can build off of that."
Freshman-year guard Kaz Parks was among HSU's standouts in the Saturday duel, making seven assists, 17 points and nine rebounds.
She points to the focus on constant improvement as a factor in her performance.
"I was just focused on executing defense basically. Like just focusing on what we've been working on all throughout practice for the past how many days we had leading up to that game and just incorporating it to the game basically," Parks said.
The guard wants to keep the momentum going.
"It's just continuously moving on offense and just getting my teammates the ball," Parks said.
Bento-Jackson sees conference play as a whole other season, and is glad to start out at home.
"We're fortunate that we get to kick off a CCAA season here and Lumberjack Arena with some home games and we're just literally taking each game one at a time," the coach stated.
SFSU's women will travel up Highway 101 to Arcata with a 3-2 record in tow.
HSU's Madison Parry powers through a Dominican defender to score for the Lumberjacks.(Jose Quezada, HUMEDIA / For The Times-Standard)