Cowgirls look to bounce back from first loss
Published 11:11 am Thursday, November 20, 2014
The McNeese State Cowgirls will be looking to rebound from their first loss of the season at 7 p.m. today when they host LSU-Alexandria in the third of a four-game homestand.
The Cowgirls (1-1) opened the season last week with an 83-61 win over Louisiana College before losing 75-55 to Tulane on Sunday.
Head coach Brooks Donald Williams said her team learned a lot in the loss to a quality opponent.
“We felt like we improved as that game progressed, and it made us better,” Donald Williams said. “I really feel like we did a much better job in the paint and in transition than we did (against Louisiana College).”
McNeese will need a turnaround performance from leading scorer Allison Baggett who managed six points against the Green Wave. She leads the team with 12.5 points per game.
“I think Tulane had a great game plan for Allison, they played her really physical,” Donald Williams said. “But Allison is a good player and a great shooter and she will continue to shoot the ball well for us. We have complete faith in Allison Baggett; she has put our team on her back the past two seasons and we will continue to trust her to do that.”
Junior point guard Jaylin Johnson led the Cowgirls with 10 points against Tulane. Freshman Fredrica Haywood (6.5 ppg) leads the team in rebounds with 9.5 per game.
When the Cowgirls take the floor tonight it will be against a Generals (0-3) team in their first year playing competitive basketball. That doesn’t mean that they won’t provide a challenge for McNeese, Donald Williams said.
“(LSU-A) has a really nice program,” Donalds Williams said. “They have several Division I transfers and they are going to be tough. For a brand-new program, they are going to be very tough.”
The Generals are led by former Fairview High School standouts Reagan and Taylor Maricle, who were part of five state championship teams. The two spent their freshman seasons at Louisiana-Monroe before transferring to LSU-Eunice as sophomores.
“The Maricle twins are very well known around this area because they were great high school players and both played a lot while they were at Louisiana-Monroe,” Williams said. “Taylor can shoot the lights out and Reagan just makes that team go. More importantly, those two just know how to win after spending time under coach Kyle Jinks at Fairview.”
Other local players include Sulphur’s Brooke Richard of Sulphur and Kinder’s Destyni Brownlow-Dindy.
Rick Hickman
