The women’s club basketball team, which has seven members, squared off against Austin Community College on Oct. 9.
The tip-off started with St. Edward’s winning the jump but losing the ball. Agatha Ais, vice president of the team, tipped the ball and then tried to gain possession. ACC converted the gain into a three pointer, and scored an additional six points from behind the arc before Hilltoppers could retaliate. Mariana Colindres had the ball stolen, but Ais locked down on defense, grabbing a defensive rebound and converting for a layup.
After another three pointer from ACC, Daphnee Molina replied with a mid-range jumper, and Colindres followed by hitting their first three pointer for the night, causing the score to be a close 12-7. Ais stole the ball from the Riverbats, but missed the shot on the convert, and two plays later drained a three to raise the score to 14-10. The game was littered with defensive stops, with multiple players grabbing steals, blocks and defensive rebounds. The score at halftime was 21-13 for the Riverbats.
The second half started with the ball being stripped from SEU in the first play. Ais, who had one shooting foul in the first half, committed another which added an additional two points to ACC’s lead. However, Ais hit a mid-range baseline shot and soon after a three pointer. Offensive efforts fell short, as shots were consistently missed for St. Edward’s.
The Riverbats extended their lead, getting to an edge of 32 points to SEU’s 18. Jennifer Arroyo, who frequently had defensive rebounds in the paint, reigned one in before losing it to a jump ball, giving possession to ACC. Colindres grabbed a defensive rebound, but the ball was turned over allowing ACC to score again. Sydney Carrigan shot a dagger three to get St. Edward’s up to 21 points. Both teams got in a couple hard-fought mid-range looks as the clock wound down. The Riverbats had the final dagger — a buzzer beater layup to lock in their final score at 41 points to SEU’s 26 points. Ais topped the leaderboard with nine points.
The St. Edward’s women’s club basketball team has no coach, but a player who stepped into the role to allow opportunities for the team. Jada Rae, player, president and interim head coach, is a sophomore business accounting major. She joined the team last year, and has been trying to rebuild it after it was left behind by graduating students.
“This year was better, we had a coach from ACC that we played last year come up to us, and asked us to play in a league, and that’s how we got into these games this year,” Rae said. “We’ve got a whole new team.”
The league functions as round robin games this semester, with a championship opportunity in the spring semester. Rae stressed that the team has shifted their practices to build on their first game, which they lost by a margin of 30 points.
“We have a lot of great shooters on the team, we just haven’t focused a lot on shooting in practices,” Rae said. “We switched that this week. That’s what we’ve been working on the past two weeks, which is why today was a little more successful. We still lost, but not by much.”
Stay updated on the team on their Instagram, @seuwcbasketball.
