Women’s basketball rolls past Bethesda 86-60

Nia Malekamu

December 19, 2015

Senior Brittney Dunbar pushes past her opponent and sets up a play for Weber State. (Cydnee Green / The Signpost)

The Weber State women’s basketball team rolled past the Bethesda Flames 86-60 on Friday afternoon.

“I was proud of them. Defensively we gotta do a better job of getting stops, but we did keep them way below their average,” Bethann Ord, head coach of the women’s team, said after the game in an interview. “We also did terrific job with a few of the girls in minimizing the turn over ratio. It’s evident that sharing the basketball has been set as a goal. You can tell they take care of each other.”

The women’s basketball team took care of each other and they scored the first period of the game. out pacing Bethesda and ending the period 26-10. Bethesda fought back hard in the second period, outscoring the Wildcats 17-16 and ending the first half 42-27 in favor of WSU.

The third quarter began scoreless for two minutes, but the Wildcats got things going when Deeshyra Thomas made a steal and dished it to Regina Okoye for an easy layup. The Wildcats went on 8-0 run before before Bethesda was able to score their first points in the third quarter. With four minutes left on the clock, Briah Nelson knocked down a three pointer for the flames. Weber State ended the third quarter with a 56-42 lead.

Freshman Tyschal Blake started the fourth quarter off with back-to-back power layups and gave the team the momentum to finish the game with a score of 86-60.

“We did well overall. We had minor things that we need to clean up in our next practices that we need to get better on, but it was good.” Okoye after the game.

Sophomore Cece Wooten pushes past a Bethesda player and scores for Weber State. (Cydnee Green / The Signpost)

Weber State was led by freshman Jaiamoni Welch-Coleman, who had 13 points with one 3-point basket and shooting a perfect 100 percent from the free throw line. Regina Okoye had a double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds, while Kailie Quinn and Deeshyra Thomas each had 11 points and Blake ended with 10.

“There were a few things we needed to clean up but I felt like we did well overall and we came out with the win on top,” Deeshyra Thomas said in a post game interview. “Our half court defensive is something we need to work on. We had too many people go by and too many open 3-pointers. Other than that we did well.”

The team will travel on the road and play Denver on Sunday Nov. 15 before returning home to play against the College of Charleston on Nov. 18.