The Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns women’s basketball team won their second game at home against the Nicholls Colonels on Friday, Nov. 22, 60–55 after a two-week-long break due to a game cancellation by the Mobile Rams.
During a press conference held during the break, Head Coach Gerry Brodhead talked about some of the challenges that such a long time between games can pose.
“With the injuries we have, it’s probably not a bad thing too, to try to heal these people up,” Brodhead said. “We were planning on [being] able to practice a lot so we could get a little bit better, then we’re gonna have a stretch of games that are gonna be really, really tough.”
“You never know when you have injuries like that, you never know how it’s gonna end up. We’ll just take our time with them and do our best to try to get them ready for the conference.”
“We’re still not in shape,” Brodhead said. “We gotta work on trying to get these kids in shape, ‘cause if you’re gonna play eight or nine, even ten kids, you gotta be in better shape.”
As far as specific injuries, Brodhead was asked about an incident in a shootaround before the Nov. 8 game against Loyola in which graduate transfer from Houston Kamryn Jones had been injured and held out of that matchup.
“This is my first time that I’ve ever got someone hurt at shootaround, but we were working on pressing and breaking the press and all that, and she ran into one of our practice players,” Brodhead said.
Brodhead said that the injury looked more like a strain on the neck than the shoulder as initially thought. “I think she’ll be fine. Just was sore, didn’t wanna take a chance on the other night, playing her.”
This setback didn’t slow Jones down at all upon her return, though. She led the Cajuns’ starters in points and rebounds on plus efficiency against the Colonels, etching 14 points, 12 rebounds along with nine steals for her first double-double performance in a Cajuns uniform.
Brodhead stressed that the physicality and defense-into-offense ability of the team continues to be the most important facet of the team to him.
“Yeah, we’re turning the teams over a lot. I think that was a big difference between Illinois’ game compared to this last game [vs. Loyola]. I thought that we were able to turn them over and score in the last game, where there, we didn’t really score as much as we would’ve liked to,” Brodhead said.
“We gotta make sure that we capitalize on those turnovers like the three-on-twos and the four-on-threes.”
He also appreciated the infectious intensity and the challenge to the other forwards on the roster that Jones brings by being aggressive on the offensive glass.
“I’m impressed. The thing that I think is big for us too is offensive rebounding now, and that’s something that we’re not known for. Kam kinda starts that for us,” Brodhead said.
“We’ve been preaching that to Ashtyn [Jones] for four years, that ‘Hey, we need you to rebound on the offensive side too,’ and I think that they’re doing a lot better job of doing that.”
These points definitely made a difference in the Nicholls game, as both teams played a sloppy, physical match, drawing 34 total personal fouls and committing 24 turnovers each.
The Cajuns held a 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but the Colonels battled back to bring the game within two with just three minutes left. Sure enough, both Jones and junior guard Jaylyn James made key drives and free throws to hold off Nicholls and preserve the win.
James finished the game with 16 points in just 23 minutes off the bench, including a perfect 6–6 from the free-throw line. Nubia Benedith was also a key contributor in limited minutes, scoring 13 points, including going 3–3 on three-pointers.
Playing with intensity on defense and earning extra possessions through turnovers and offensive rebounding will beat most of the teams in front of the Cajuns leading into conference play.
Next up for the team is a trip to Westago for the Big Easy Classic, first against the Cleveland State Vikings on Friday, Nov. 29, then against the Minnesota Gophers starting Saturday, Nov. 30.