HOLDING ON: Flagler women's basketball is winning despite rocky start
ST. AUGUSTINE — Flagler women’s basketball head coach Maurice Smith didn’t envision a 1-6 start this year, but it wasn’t necessarily unexpected.
His young team that features only one junior and one senior has some growing to do. Thus, the Lady Saints' start isn’t really all that shocking.
“We’re still trying to find ourselves in a lot of ways,” Smith said. “We’re still trying to find out what we do well early on.”
What has been most impressive about the young group, Smith said, is its eagerness to learn and grow. The players been receptive, he added. And their hearts and eyes are open.
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Patience will be important as they continue to grow and develop over the next couple of months and years. Of their first seven games, there have only been two in which they didn’t tie or have the lead. In those same games, however, Smith believes opponents’ experience and some mistakes eventually cost the Lady Saints.
Smith pointed to poor shot selection, turnovers and poor offensive rebounding as some of the problems that have caused games to slip away.
Right now, Flagler is averaging 36 rebounds per game to opponents' 39.7 and 15.4 turnovers per game to their opponents’ 10.6.
Opponents are also shooting slightly better from the field than Flagler (39.5% compared to 39.3%), steal the ball at a much higher rate (7.6 per game to 4), assist on more baskets (14 per game to 9.1) and score at a much higher margin as the Lady Saints average 60.7 points per game and their opponents, 72.7.
“Our team, right now, is going through a lot of growing pains,” freshman guard Sarah Pedraza said.
Something positive and noteworthy is that Flagler is a great 3-point shooting team. The Lady Saints average a whopping 40% from behind the arc compared to opponents’ 30%.
The biggest positive, though, is the team’s tight bond, which is something Smith noticed instantly when he met his group for the first time.
That genuine connectivity, he said, will pay dividends later.
“When conference comes — no matter if you’re a winning team or a losing team — it’s a tough road to finish strong,'' Smith said. “In order for you to do that, you’ve really got to be a unified, energetic, enthusiastic bunch. We really like each other and trust each other.”
The goal for Flagler is to be ready for conference play. Their tough nonconference schedule thus far has aided it in that preparation.
Now is the time to make mistakes as a young team that is still getting acclimated to playing together and playing at the collegiate level. Now is also the time for them to learn that mistakes are a part of the game and they happen, said Pedraza, reiterating one of Smith's gospels.
“As a team, winning might not be on the scoreboard,” Pedraza said. “If we make a mistake and we learn and we grow, that’s a win. That’s really what we push for on our team.”
This article originally appeared on St. Augustine Record: Flagler College women's basketball upbeat despite slow start
