The Baker University women’s basketball team swept Evangel University for the first time in school history after defeating the Crusaders 60-53 on Monday in Springfield, Mo.
Shortly after Baker jumped out to a 19-4 lead and drained four of its first five 3-pointers, head coach Ben Lister recognized a change in effort from the Wildcats on the court, and it wasn’t one that pleased him.
“From that point on, we just didn’t play with a lot of emotion,” Lister said. “We didn’t put our foot on the gas and bury them like we had the opportunity to.”
Lister wanted his team to have “a postseason mentality” heading into the game at Evangel, but felt that the team played with inconsistency instead.
“It wasn’t a great 40 minutes for us and we weren’t overly impressive, but we did enough to win,” Lister said.
Although Baker kept the lead throughout the entire game, Evangel kept things interesting when it cut the lead to just two points with four minutes left in the game. The Wildcats went on a 7-2 run, though, to finish it off for the 60-53 victory.
“It’s hard to play on the road when you’ve traveled three and a half hours, and there’s not very many fans in the crowd, and you’re playing a team that has a (losing) record in the conference, but those are things that we as a program can’t take into consideration,” Lister said. “We need to show up and play the same way every time no matter who or where we’re playing. We’re having a hard time doing that consistently, but we’re still finding ways to win and that’s the positive right now.”
Another boost for the Wildcats’ game was the return of sophomore Rashida Simpson, the team’s leading rebounder. It was Simpson’s second time playing with the team after being benched for four games due to a violation of team rules, and she came out ready to play.
Simpson had 13 of the 16 rebounds Baker had in the first half and ended the game as the leading scorer with 15 points.
“I’m not sure that we would have been ahead if we didn’t have her on the court,” Lister said.
Lister hopes the rest of the Wildcats will “push themselves to play at their peak” as the team prepares to face its next Heart of America Athletic Conference opponent, Benedictine College.
Earlier in the season, Baker had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer but put up a shot a split second too late and fell on Benedictine’s home court, 61-59. Lister is confident in his team’s capabilities, though, and thinks the outcome of the game will be different the next time around.
Baker will have its chance for revenge on its home court at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Seniors Alisha Fanshier and Rece Huddlin will both be recognized during the game for the Wildcats senior night.
“We’re jacked up for this game,” Lister said. “I know our kids want to send our seniors out on the right foot, so I expect that they’ll be ready to go and be as mentally prepared as they have been all year.”
