After ending the first semester on a four-game winning streak, it seemed the women's basketball team was in a prime position to continue that success upon its early January return from winter break. But with two losses in three games and a 6-4 record overall, the Jumbos find themselves at a crossroads at the midpoint of their season.
The squad did its best to forget about its two initial losses of 2002, games against the University of New England (63-46) on Jan. 7 and Wellesley (67-43) on Jan. 10, by defeating Smith by a 45-34 margin last Saturday. Still, team members remain disconcerted.
"Obviously we are disappointed because we are not playing to our potential in the least bit," sophomore Maritsa Christoudias said. "We realize that [the losses] are something we have to leave behind us because league games are coming up."
Despite the win against Smith, poor shooting continued to plague the Jumbos, haunting them in the losses to New England and Wellesley. In the three post-break games the Jumbos have shot 32.8 percent, 29.1 percent, and 26.3 percent, respectively.
"Our problem is definitely shooting," Christoudias said. "It's something that will come. Our defense is doing fine and we are preventing teams from scoring a lot of points."
Junior co-captain Hillary Dunn said the team has been getting good shots but that "they just haven't been falling. They have been falling in practice so maybe we have just been coming out flat."
While the team as a whole is having problems putting the ball in the basket, its struggles have been magnified over the past three games. Emily Goodman, the Jumbos' leading scorer over the past two years, also finds herself in the midst of an uncharacteristic shooting slump.
Though she leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.5 points per game, Goodman has averaged just under nine points per game in the three January contests. Her struggles could be the result of a shooting slump but could also have to do with the fact that she is a marked woman after two all-star caliber seasons under her belt.
"A lot of people know about her now," Christoudias said. "She is getting a lot of pressure. She is just in a slump, and she will get out of it and when she does it will help us out. But obviously we can't put all the pressure on her."
Dunn had a different take on Goodman's point reduction. "This year we are a different team," she said. "We don't need one person to score 25 each night. We have a lot of people that can score. When we are successful it seems that we are getting points from everyone...This year we can still win games without her scoring 20 because we have other people that have developed into scorers."
Two of those players are junior Erin Harrington and senior co-captain Jayme Busnengo. Harrington led the team in scoring with 11 and 20 points, respectively, against New England and Wellesley, before slipping to three in the win over Smith. Busnengo was the most accurate shooter among the starters over the past three games, shooting at a 47.6 percent clip. She posted a double-double in leading the team in both scoring (12) and rebounds (10) in the win over Smith.
While the team's poor shooting could lead to finger pointing, according to Christoudias, it's done the opposite. "We are all really supportive of each other," she said. "Basically disappointment and frustration is the biggest thing. We have the talent to be a really good team. We played really well in the preseason. We know we can do it but we have to get it out of each other. We are not giving up on each other."
With three games in the next six days, the team will have little rest and even less time to focus on its shooting slump.
"I think it will be helpful to have all these games in a row," Christoudias said. "We know its going to be rough but games are fun and we can handle them. It's better than four practices in a row and then a game."
"We had a good win on Saturday against Smith," Dunn said. "Again, we shot badly, but we were getting good looks. We just need to take it one game at a time."
