Week 5 of the college basketball season brought action back to Moby Arena, as your CSU Women’s Basketball team faced High Point University on December 5th, looking for their seventh straight win.
Cali Clark, the top rebounder for the Rams, sustained a bad sprain to her leg according to Coach Ryun Williams, and unfortunately came into Moby wearing a boot and will be out “for a bit.”
Mckenna Hofshild was honored in a ceremony before the game after breaking the CSU record for total assists in a career for a Ram, passing Ellen Nystrom for the honor and receiving a standing ovation as well as a kind video from Nystrom before action kicked off.
The first quarter saw the Rams get out to an early, dominant 17-9 lead. The defense forced the Panthers into 29 percent shooting from the field, including 14 percent from behind the arc. The Panthers got hot in the 2nd quarter, allowing the Panthers to nearly triple their offensive output in the second frame, however the Rams would take a 36-26 lead into the half. The Rams came out of the break with an excellent shooting half, with 46-25-100 shooting splits to take a commanding lead.
The 3rd quarter continued the Rams offensive dominance ending 61-47, with a McKenna Hofschild 10 point quarter to keep the Rams up big. Things started to get a little chippy as Lauren Bevis of High Point got a little chippy with the Rams and was assessed a technical for the skirmish.. Things reached their boiling point in the final quarter, as Lauren Bevis and Nakyah Terrell got tangled with Cailyn Crocker and a few other Rams, which led to Bevis getting her second technical foul and being ejected from the game amidst her team-high 19 point performance. The Rams outscored the Panthers 32-14 in the fourth quarter and finished the night with their best offensive output of the season with a 93-61 final.
“Anyone on this lineup can have these nights,” said Williams in response to four Rams reaching double figures in scoring.
In the absence of Cali Clark, Hannah Ronsiek really stepped up in her absence. Ronsiek, who has averaged 4.5 boards per game up to tonight, grabbed 8 rebounds on the night. When asked about her mindset going into the game, she said that she “knew the hole that would be there” when missing Cali Clark, and went into practice striving to up her game in that department, that focus showed in her performance.
When asking both the players and coach on what their outlook is as they come closer to conference play, they share the same sentiment, getting consistent, just in a couple different spots. Mckenna Hofshield stated that the team is heading toward success here for the future, but when it comes to conference play, “A lot of these girls [in the Mountain West] know each other and are familiar, and it comes down at the end of the day to who wants it more, and we just have to keep striving to improve in that department.” Coach would like to see more consistency on both offensive and defensive sides of the ball, chasing the ball each and every defensive opportunity as coach could be heard yelling during the game and emphasizing those opportunities, and on the offensive side of the ball, not getting too trigger happy on there shots and taking more time to get up good shots on offense.
Both outlooks for the Rams show you exactly why this Rams team is an undefeated squad, with their leaders emphasizing the want for progress and continuing to get better despite only seeing success so far at 7-0 on the season. Rams will travel to Missoula, Montana to take on the Montana Grizzlies on Saturday, December 9th to keep their undefeated season alive.