The Weber State University women’s basketball team started their 2017–18 season in a 79–62 exhibition win over the Colorado Mesa University Mavericks.
“It’s always good to get an early season test,” head coach Bethann Ord said. “I thought we did a fantastic job on the offensive side today.”
The Wildcats had a dominant first half offensively, leading by as many as 15 points and taking a 43–29 lead into halftime. WSU was led by senior guard Larryn Brooks with 12 points at the half, shooting over 50 percent from the field.
“It definitely was a good test for us at the beginning,” Brooks said. “There is always room for improvement, but today we came out strong and that was what we wanted to do.”
WSU was able to push their lead to 21 in the third quarter. The Mavericks gained a little momentum early in the fourth, but WSU held onto the lead for the remainder of the game.
“We need to work overall on our team defense and rebounds,” Ord said. “Also, our toughness around the boards needs to improve as we get into the season.”
WSU senior forward Briana Gray also had a nice showing, recording a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Juniors Emily Drake and Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman also scored in double digits. Drake added 11 points and Welch-Coleman had 12 of her own. Brooks finished with 27 points and also added five assists and three steals.
“We want to keep our opponents to low-scoring games, and we did not do that today,” Brooks said. “However, we were able to put a lot of points up today, so it didn’t affect us too much.”
WSU shot 51 percent from the field, 47 percent from beyond the arc and 63 percent from the free throw line. They also were able to pull down 37 total rebounds and dish out 15 assists. As the ’Cats enter the new season, they also welcome two graduate transfer players, Brooks who transferred in from Texas Tech and Gray from Bradley University.“ Larryn Brooks is a tremendous offensive threat for us,” Ord said. “You always want your point guard to have an offensive mind like she does. There’s a reason she earned all-rookie in the Big 10 Conference.”
WSU is hoping to improve on last year’s record 13–18, which saw them taking an early exit in the second round of last year’s Big Sky Conference Championship.
“We love the opportunity that we have this season,” Brooks said. “The schedule is set up perfectly for us. We have a lot of tough games, which is going to be important to us and what we want to do this year.”
