After the first 10 games of the season, the Warhawk women’s basketball team stood at 6-4 overall and were coming off a three-game losing streak.
Conference play began and the `Hawks had a couple weeks over winter break to figure out they needed to improve. They played six games since Christmas and have won them all, including five double-digit wins.
Head coach Keri Carollo was quick to point out that the team still has not reached its full potential yet.
“I think we’re playing a lot better, but I wouldn’t say that we’re playing our best,” Carollo said. “We still have some things that we need to improve on. I think we have definitely started to play together as a team and we’ve made a focus to balance out our scoring.”
Over the six-game winning streak, the `Hawks scoring came from a variety of players, and in only two of those games did someone reach 20 points. The 20-point efforts came courtesy of junior center Cortney Kumerow, scoring 20 points against UW-Platteville and 22 against UW-Superior.
“Spreading the ball around is definitely an important part of our offense,” Carollo said. “It makes us a lot more difficult to guard if we’re able to score from the perimeter and on the post. Not allowing teams to focus on one player or even two players makes us a lot more difficult to guard.”
Having a plethora of scoring options has not been the only positive for the team over the six-game winning streak. The defense has played great as well. The `Hawks have only allowed one team since Christmas to score more than 55 points in a game.
“Our defensive effort has been much better and much more focused,” Carollo said. “We’ve been able to communicate a lot better on the floor.”
Leadership was a question that the team had after the 6-4 start to the season, and still has not been completely answered according to Carollo.
“I think once you start winning it kind of alleviates a lot of those questions and people find their niche,” Carollo said. “Leadership has been something that we’ve struggled with all year and maybe we won’t find our true leader, or leaders, but we’ve definitely had some players step up and lead by example.”
The `Hawks will put their six-game winning streak on the line tonight at 7 against UW-Oshkosh in the Kachel Gymnasium.
