Despite extending its winning streak to six games, head coach Suzy Merchant was “disappointed” in the No. 15 MSU women’s basketball team’s 55-48 win over Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Spartans shot 38.5 percent from the field, 50 percent from the free throw line and had 19 turnovers. Merchant said MSU (8-1) lacked the energy it’s had in the past few games and is at fault for most of the errors and turnovers.
“Their kids came with a lot of fire, and our kids were very flat,” she said. “I was worried about that after last week, but I just felt like we were very unfocused in almost every area. I was disappointed, but we can learn from it.”
Junior forward Lykendra Johnson led the team with a career-high 16 rebounds, while she added seven points and a team-high of four steals. Merchant credited Johnson’s rebounding to her swiftness and smart mindset, but didn’t know why the rest of the team didn’t show up.
“I felt like (it was) Lykendra or nobody on the defensive side, and that’s pretty unacceptable,” Merchant said. “But she is really playing with a lot of toughness down there and works really hard to get around people.”
Senior guard Brittney Thomas and junior guard Porschè Poole each posted 11 points, while senior forward Kalisha Keane added nine.
Leading MSU with four assists, freshman guard Klarissa Bell recognized the value of crisp passes, especially while struggling from the field.
“If you’re scoring, you’re scoring,” Bell said. “But if you can drive and get out a sweet dish to one of your teammates and they score, it just makes the whole gym go crazy.”
Despite attacking the boards, MSU’s turnovers – as well as Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s 22 – kept both scores low.
“It was poor decision-making and fumbling the ball, (and) I just think it was a lack of focus,” Merchant said. “I think we are a team that is capable of taking care of the ball. … We were not sharp, and I think some of our turnovers were a lot of our own doing.”
MSU opened the game on a 9-0 run, which was capped off at 17:04 with a layup from Thomas after taking the ball away from Wisconsin-Milwaukee guard Angela Rodriguez.
The Spartans didn’t score for the next six minutes, allowing the Panthers (3-5) to get on the board and make it 9-7.
With a layup from Johnson, the Spartans got their nine-point lead back at 26-17 with 1:10 remaining in the first before ending the half up, 27-17.
“I just work on my foot speed on that because I know there’s a lot of girls who will try and hit be first before turning around and searching for the ball,” Johnson said. “So I try to go one way and fake and go another way and just try to beat them.”
While shooting 42.3 percent in the first half, MSU struggled to hold onto the ball. The Spartans were also 4-for-8 at the free throw line and 1-for-7 in 3-point attempts.
The Spartans dropped their 10-point lead in the first four minutes after starting the half. Wisconsin-Milwaukee forward Lindsay Laur made a shot in the paint, allowing the Panthers to get within four at 27-23.
Going on a 12-2 run, Annalise Pickrel’s layup gave MSU a 39-25 lead over Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the largest lead of the game at 9:28.
However, the 14-point lead quickly disintegrated when the Panthers went on a 13-3 run, but Johnson’s rebounding kept them hanging on. With 4:28 left in the game, Merchant was forced to call a timeout.
With Wisconsin-Milwaukee getting the rebound off of Poole’s missed 3-pointer, Laur got her team within two points after the timeout. But MSU turned its game around with a 3-pointer from Keane and a steal and a layup from Thomas to make the score 47-40.
Laur led the Panthers offensively with 20 points against MSU, and Rodriguez followed up with 13.
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“I didn’t like what I saw today, but we were able to sneak away with a win,” Merchant said. “Maybe we can learn a lesson.
“We’ll see; it’s up to the team to kind of figure it out.”
