Lady Keelhaulers upset #7 Eastern Oregon 55-49
In the biggest win in the Women's Basketball program's history, Cal Maritime made defensive adjustments at the half that led to them shutting down the Mountaineers and holding them to 14 points in the second half.
Not only did Cal Maritime (3-1) notch the program's highest-rated defeat in their history at the Simpson Classic in Redding, but it's also the biggest notch in the belt of Cal Pac Conference on the young women's basketball season so far.
Senior Samantha James (12 points), freshman Tal Webb (11), and sophomore Kameron Taylor (10) led the Keelhaulers in scoring.
Eastern Oregon shot 57.7% from the field in the first half, building a 35-27 halftime lead. But Cal Maritime locked down defensively in the second half, limiting EOU to a total of 14 points on 27% shooting. The Keelhaulers outscored the Mountaineers 28-14 in the second half.
Cal Maritime was down by 12 at one point in the second quarter. Head Coach Dennis Cox called a few timeouts in the first half, including his full time out to adjust the Keelhaulers strategy defensively.
"In the first half we were hanging on and trying to stay in game," Cox said. "I used some early time outs and changed how we guarded stuff and in how we switched defensively. We were getting beat to the basket and helping too much, and we had two early fouls for Tal so she only played a few minutes."
Coach Cox remained confident in his team's ability to bounce back in the second half, even against a highly-ranked team that won 31 games last year and advanced to the Sweet 16 in the national tournament.
"At the half we talked about how we can fix a couple things defensively, get Tal back out there, and we'll be fine," Cox said. "We rebounded much better in second half and only gave up six offensive boards to a bigger team."
Cox plans on that stingy defense being the Keelhaulers calling card.
"We want to be known as a tough, defensive team. So far we've proven to be that and I hope it continues," Cox noted. "These non-conferecne games are good test for us. When we hold people to 49 points, we can beat anybody. Our timing isn't where it needs to be offensively, but defensively we forced turnovers and rattled them. Our point guard Valiceia Horne is a tough one to dribble by."
The Keelhaulers went on 8-0 run to start the second half. Webb hit two three pointers in that run, and James hit one as well to keep the hot shooting going, cutting into the deficit fast. In the middle of the fourth quarter Cal Maritime got their first lead with James making some big buckets and Nneka Anyaoha hitting a free-throw-line jumper when the Mountaineers concentrated on James. Cal Maritime's biggest offensive adjustment came in how they handled defensive pressure.
"We spent a good bit of time watching film after the loss to Hope International and their pressure," Cox said. "If we take care of the ball better in that game, we'd have a chance to win it. We fixed those things and we made corrections against Eastern OU's press, and they eventually stopped pressing."
When asked his thought's on program's biggest win, he mentioned some qualifiers to temper getting ahead of themselves, but still noted its significance.
"I don't know the program's whole history, but this has gotta be a pretty good win," Cox commented. "We gotta be careful to stay grounded. That was Eastern Oregon's first game and they have only four returners from their Sweet-16 team last year. Their All-american isn't eligible until second semester, but still I'm not taking anything away from what our kids did tonight."
The win carried some significance personally for Cox, who was the NCAA D-II coach of the year in 2011 en route to a national championship, but struggled to get wins in his time at SF State and his first year at Cal Maritime.
"I've had some big wins in my career," Cox said. "But this was my biggest win in state of California for sure."
UP NEXT: The Lady Keelhaulers return to action one week from tonight for an afternoon tilt at home vs. Cal Mirimar on Nov. 9 at 3 p.m.