Texas A&M-Texarkana women’s basketball coach Kevin Dobbs is still looking for that one player who will take the bull by the horns.
The Eagles (3-15, 0-5) remain winless in the Red River Athletic Conference after losing Saturday’s game at the Patterson Student Center to Paul Quinn College (Dallas), 70-58.
Texarkana’s freshman dominated lineup started the game hot. The Eagles led 4-0, and 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.
“Right now we haven’t had that player who can make the big play at the end,” said Dobbs. “I can’t fault my girls, they play hard and try. We’ve been good enough to compete, but we’re even better than that in my opinion. Until we win one and prove it, it doesn’t do any good to say it.
“Tonight we had 53 rebounds, which is probably more than anyone in the conference averages. The problem is they had 67. We don’t have size, we know that. We wanted to get the ball up and down the floor, because they don’t have great shooters. No. 23 (Raven Ringo) looked like Steph Curry tonight. I’m going to quit looking at statistics, and just go with feel.”
Coach Dobbs unhappy with late play
It was all Paul Quinn (5-11, 3-2) in the middle quarters, with the Tigers outscoring their host 32-18 for a 49-37 cushion going into the final 10 minutes. That lead climbed to 17 early in the fourth quarter, but TAMU-T rallied after Victoria Hill came off the bench. Hill scored her six points late, and the Eagles pulled within, 61-57.
That’s when Texarkana’s offense went silent, with the Tigers scoring nine of the final 10 points in the last two minutes.
Ringo led all scorers with 18 points for Paul Quinn, including four 3-pointers. Symone Carmenar, Jade Butler and Alexus Scharkley all contributed 12 points. Those same four combined for 31 of the Tigers’ 67 rebounds.
“We’re young, but better than this,” said Dobbs. “We just haven’t been wise enough. Still, I think we’re only one or two players away from elevating into the fourth or fifth spot in the conference. I’m at a loss as to why we can’t shoot the ball better in this gym, but we haven’t all season.”
Houston freshman Brooke Cephus was the Eagles’ hottest shooter outside with four treys for 12 points. Otherwise it was a terrible shooting effort. TAMU-T shot 20 percent in the first half, improving to 23 at the end of the game. Freshman Naomi Tekleab is the Eagles’ leading scorer recently, but converted only 3 of 23 shots in Saturday’s game.
Tekleab finished with a team-high 15 points, making 7 of 8 free throws. Other statistics turned out to be deceiving. The Eagles had 53 rebounds, and forced 28 turnovers with 14 steals.