Junior guard Klarissa Bell attempts a lay up over Wisconsin-Milwaukee guard Emily Decorah on Saturday, Dec. 1, 2012, at Breslin Center. The Spartans defeated Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 81-50, improving their overall record to 7-0. Adam Toolin/The State News
The MSU women’s basketball team (8-0) has accomplished more with their backs against the wall this year than was expected of them, and now they have another obstacle to hurdle when they take on No. 19 Dayton at 1 p.m. Saturday in Dayton, Ohio.
When the Spartans travel to Dayton, they will be without sophomore center Jasmine Hines, who will be away from the team to attend her friend’s funeral.
“We’ve been handling complications all though the season,” junior guard Klarissa Bell said. “She’s making the best decision possible. It will just give us a different look, but I’m ready for it.”
Junior forward Annalise Pickrel will move to power forward, and sophomore forward Becca Mills will be under the basket at center to adjust to the brief loss of Hines. However, Pickrel said if there’s one team that can handle it, it’s this group.
“All the girls on our team are hard-nosed girls, especially when it comes to defense,” Pickrel said. “It’s just going to shift us around a little. It will give our game a little different feel.”
Still, there’s a game to be played, and Bell said the team has been focusing on ways to beat the Flyers.
“We really talked about transition defense; we have to rebound, we have to have one-on-one accountability,” she said. “The guards really have to focus on getting over screens and getting our screens right.”
With their 75-43 win against Oakland on Wednesday night, the Spartans now have the best start in program history. But for Bell, it’s not time to start celebrating yet.
“It’s awesome, but we don’t want it to stop now,” Bell said. “It’s a pretty big deal, but you have to keep the streak going and make it even more of a bigger gap.”
Pickrel said although the streak wasn’t one of their original goals, it would be silly for them to give up on it now, and they don’t want it to end on Friday.
“Through coach’s game plans, we have really put a premium on defense, and that has gotten us to 8-0 on this run,” she said. “It kind of puts the pressure on us, you know. You never want to have the first loss. It’s just going to be about keeping our composure so that we can keep this run going.”
Mills said she didn’t know about the record until after they set it, but isn’t worried about it and is focused on getting a win in Ohio.
“It’s the first ranked team we’ve faced, and probably the best team we’ve faced,” Mills said. “On paper right now, we look like a team that hasn’t played the stiffer competition, so we really want to get this win to prove that we can play with the rest of the country.”
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