Rokila Wallace did just about everything a basketball player can do.
The senior guard out of Columbus High School was outstanding Tuesday night, scoring 25 points, grabbing 7 rebounds and playing all 40 minutes, but it wasn’t enough as the Mississippi University for Women women’s basketball team dropped a 62-45 decision to Belhaven at Pohl Gym.
Wallace made 7 of 11 free throws; the rest of the team hit 1 of 8. Wallace drained 2 of 3 shots from behind the 3-point arc; the other Owls combined to go 1 of 11. She also had 2 steals and an assist and drew a team-high 7 fouls.
“She’s for real,” The W coach Drew Johnson said. “She’s for real, and she’s been a great leader for us on the court so far. These young kids are gravitating toward her and feeding off of her.”
“Young kids” is the problem for the Owls (0-2), who have precious little experience on the floor at any one time.
“There were times out there when I was playing three or four freshmen, and they’ve got to learn this ain’t high school,” Johnson said.
Playing a quality team didn’t help much. The Blazers are 3-0 and won an exhibition game against No. 25 Millsaps, and they came out strong against the Owls.
Belhaven scored the first 10 points of the game, keeping the Owls off of the scoreboard until Jasmine Shaw’s putback with 5:13 left in the first quarter. The teams basically traded baskets for the rest of the period, but the Blazers turned the same trick in the second, reeling off14 consecutive points to build a 31-7 lead.
To their credit, the Owls didn’t fold. They pulled within 38-27 3 minutes into the third quarter, fell back, then climbed closer again, making it 49-39 with 7:10 left in the game.
“We came out asleep, but we fought back,” Johnson said. “We’re young, we’re inexperienced, but we fight, and that’s what really matters. Everything else is going to fall into place.”
The Blazers turned aside the threat, with Shomaria Overton driving for back-to-back layups to start a 9-0 run that essentially sealed the win.
The stat sheet showed clearly the difference between the teams. The Owls didn’t shoot well, and there were assists on only four of their 17 field goals, but the biggest issue was rebounding.
Not only did Belhaven outrebound The W 53-32, the Blazers had as many offensive rebounds (20) as the Owls had defensive rebounds.
“We still haven’t gotten it through our heads that when the shot goes up, you don’t watch the ball, you go and you hit somebody,” Johnson said. “It’s something we work on every day in practice, and it’s something we’re going to continue to work on until we get it.”
Johnson isn’t too worried about his players working; in fact, he is very excited about the prospect of watching this team develop. He sees freshman forward Jaycee Haynes out of Birmingham, Alabama, as a future 20-points-per-game scorer and believes Maddie Guerina freshman forward from North Pontotoc High School, could someday be the team’s best player.
But for now, the focus is on rebounding, with a game Thursday at Crowley’s Ridge College and then a tournament this weekend at Millsaps College in Jackson to test if the Owls can do a better job on the boards.
“That’s a key for us,” Johnson said. “If we can figure out how to rebound the basketball, we’re going to win some games. We can score, and we can guard; we just have to rebound.”
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