The Women’s Basketball team kicked off their 2015-2016 season with a win over Western Oregon University. The Wildcats never trailed in the game and finished with a 29-point lead over the Wolves with a result of 71-42.
Weber State took control of the game from the start of the first quarter and never looked back, putting Western Oregon behind for the rest of the game. The Wildcats had the lead at the end of the first quarter with a score of 22-9.
During the second period, the Wolves managed to bring the score within 10 points, showing a glimmer of hope. The Wildcats, however, continued to expand their lead and added 15 more points to increase the score to 37-22 going into halftime.
They came out in the second half keeping their lead against the Wolves and putting them far behind for the rest of the game and finished strong.
Senior Regina Okoye led the team with 20 points while junior Deeshyra Thomas contributed 13 points in the game. Sophomore Kailie Quinn had the highest number of assists with a total of six. Sophomore Jocelyn Adams had a game high of six rebounds and the Wildcats had a total of 23 steals while the Wolves had seven.
“I loved how the girls shared the basketball. I know it said we were 14 for 14 assist/turnover ratio, but I’ll tell you what, Kailie Quinn, although she’s a great shooter, she had six assists,” said Head Coach Bethann Ord, adding that “ you could tell the way they played together, how close they are.”
Not only the coaches, but the players were lauding the teamwork exhibited during the game.
“We shared the ball really well. We’re really proud about that,” said Okoye. “We gave an extra pass, and we’re not selfish with our teammates.”
This is Okoye’s last year playing for Weber State, and she is planning to go all in. “With me and my teammates, we’re hoping to go far, so I’m very excited.”
Okoyoe led both the conference and the country in stealing with an average of 3.68 steals per game. Though she did not record as many steals as in past games, she was 100 percent on shooting with 10-10 shots made.
When asked about what the team could work on the most going into the new season, Okoye said, “We need to work on communicating more with the offensive and defensive end. We need to get stops first and then offense second.”
The Wildcats’ next game will be against Bethesda at the Dee on Friday, Nov. 13 at 4:30 p.m. The following games will be against Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University.
The Women’s Basketball team will kick off Big Sky Conference play on Jan. 2 at Idaho State University.
