At Point Park women’s basketball media day the bold statement was made that the Pioneers would go undefeated and win a national championship, but that prediction took a major hit.
The Pioneers lost 81-69 Saturday to NCAA Division II team Davis & Elkins College at the Davis & Elkins Classic. This is the earliest loss for 11 of the players in their Point Park careers.
“At first we were all extremely upset and down on ourselves, but coach gave us a speech in the locker room about how it was a learning experience and we just have to move on to the next one,” Alexa Xenakis said. “Now that we have a loss so early in the season, we understand how it feels and we will be ready to not let it happen again.”
The weekend started with a come-from-behind double overtime victory against University of Pittsburgh Johnstown.
In the win, Point Park overcame a 14 point second half deficit and 67-44 rebounding disadvantage. The game was the 17th consecutive regular season non-conference win.
“We made a ton of mistakes but played with great heart. It was a great team victory,” coach Tony Grenek said.
In the game, sophomore Kelly Johnson, who earlier in the week was named Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) Player of the Week, had a team-leading 31 points and eight assists. Also scoring in double figures was Kayla Kiriau [20 points], Carly Forse [19 points] and Sam Weir [16 points]. Ja’Nia McPhatter eclipsed 500 career points with Point Park with her four points in the contest.
This game marked the first time since Nov. 30, 2012 that the Pioneers played a double overtime game and that game was a 74-69 victory against KIAC opponent Indiana University Southeast.
“This [win] will help us for future big games such as conference games because we knew we are capable of winning in pressure situations,” Xenakis said.
In the loss to Davis & Elkins, Weir paced the Pioneers with 21 points and 10 rebounds. Johnson had eight points while Leah Hurst and Xenakis added eight and seven points respectively off the bench. Point Park trailed by 18 points at halftime and shot 35 percent in the first half.
“Our team as a whole learned that we all have room for improvement. We have very high expectations for this year and in order for us to be successful we need to be mentally focused at all times,” Xenakis said. “This weekend we weren’t on our A game and we weren’t completely focused, but these games woke us up and kicked us in the butt for future games because this year we have some tough competition and it isn’t going to be easy.”
Point Park next plays at Washington Adventist University Nov. 24. Xenakis views the lack of game action as a positive.
“It is a good thing because that just gives us more time to practice and execute the defense and offensive plays in order to win our next games,” Xenakis said.
