UWF Women's Basketball: Second-quarter surge propels Argos past UWG for ninth-straight win

The wins keep rolling in for the University of West Florida women's basketball team.

Behind double-doubles from sophomore forward Zoe Piller and graduate forward Jaclyn Jarnot, the Argos extended their season-best winning streak to nine games after taking down West Georgia 71-57 on Wednesday from the UWF Field House.

Piller finished the night with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Jarnot added 18 points and 10 boards.

This was the team's sixth double-digit win within this stretch. It was also UWF's second victory of the season over the Wolves, previously hammering UWG 77-49 on Dec. 4.

In that road blowout, the Argos gained separation by winning the third quarter 24-10. This time around, the critical sequence came just before halftime as the home team ended the second quarter on a 12-4 run.

"We kept running, we pushed the ball and got some transition opportunities in that second quarter," UWF head coach Stephanie Lawrence Yelton said. "We hit some open shots around the perimeter and played some really great defense. We started boxing out and rebounding a lot better in that second quarter and kind of stretched it a little bit."

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Up 28-27 with 4 minutes, 45 second remaining in the first half, the Argos got their run going when Jaden Langford dished the ball to Maddie Griffon for a basket in the paint. Following a miss on the other end, the hosts extended their advantage on a 3-pointer in transition from Haylee Luttrell.

Coming out of a Wolves timeout, Jarnot stripped Peace Okeke on a drive before scoring inside on the other end. Both teams exchanged buckets until Landford put in a layup to give the Argos a 40-31 lead entering halftime.

UWF ballooned its leads to 57-43 at the end of the third quarter and opened up as much as 19-point cushion in the second half.

Okeke paced the visitors with 21 points. Luttrell nailed five 3-pointers en route to a 17-point effort. Langford was limited to five points, but she grabbed eight rebounds, racked up seven assists and was a game-best plus-19 on the floor.

"Jaden's been sharing the ball, her assists are way up right now. She's rebounding the ball extremely well," Yelton said. "She's got the job of playing the better wing player on most opposing team, so she's our defensive anchor. But I think for her, other things that she brings to the table us is she's able to help us break pressure and start the fast break without our point guards having to handle the ball, she's able to rebound and she's able to feed the post and make interior passes."

UWF improved its record to 14-5 overall, which includes a 14-3 mark against Gulf South Conference opponents. The team is currently third in the GSC standings, trailing only Lee (16-3, 14-1 GSC) and Valdosta State (15-3, 14-2 GSC).

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday night.

'Effort and heart'

West Georgia held the Argos to 38 percent shooting from the field. That's compared to UWF knocking down 53 percent of its shots in the teams' early-season meeting.

The Wolves unleashed a zone defense which forced the home team to fire shots from the perimeter. Entering the night averaging 18.5 three-point attempts per game, the hosts went 7-for-33 (21 percent) from long distance.

However, by playing a zone, UWG was often out of position on box outs. And the Argos made the visitors pay, racking up 22 offensives rebounds and 26 second-chance points.

Overall, UWF won the battle on the boards 44-33.

"We hunted those suckers down. We went after them," Yelton said. "That's what we do on a regular basis, but sometimes its harder playing against a zone defense to get those rebounds. It's effort and heart from our players; they bring that night in and night out and it showed up again today.

"Leaving open perimeter players, I though (UWG) sucked into the paint really hard. And when that shot clock starts rolling down, you got to take a shot at some point and sometimes that is the open perimeter shot. So for us, I liked some of the shots were taking versus the zone, they just didn't fall. When they don't fall, we have to rely on those rebounders to help us out."

'Nobody should mess with us'

Piller was a menace on the offensive glass, pulling down a game-high six offensive rebounds.

Frankly, she was a menace on the offensive end of the floor altogether. Connecting on her first six attempts from the floor, the 6-foot-2 sophomore from Nolensville, Tenn. finished 9-for-13 shooting.

Piller was just as dominant against the undersized Wolves in December, also pouring in 24 points on 10-for-13 shooting to go with eight rebounds. In what appears to be a favorable matchup, the forward believes her success comes from being locked in.

"I really just stay focused," she said. "If shots are going in or not, I just try to stay mentally in it. If shots aren't going in for me, I try to focus on rebounds. If rebounding isn't working out either, I just say 'go for the hustle plays, go for the 50/50 balls.' I think with this team and where we're at now, every game you have to go in and give 110 percent. I'm just trying to give my all in everything."

The sophomore's most emphatic points of the night came midway through the fourth.

After she was blocked by Okeke on an interior shot, Piller crumpled to the ground due to a inadvertently blow to the back of the head from another UWG player. Okeke celebrated her rejection as the sophomore needed a moment on the floor to regroup. Rather than bark back, the forward went to work.

The Argos immediately went back to Piller in the post, where she banked in a bucket before letting out a roar on her way back up the floor.

"Usually I'm not good when I let my emotions take over just because I leave mentally and I like to stay in," she said. "But in that moment, the emotions got hot and I heard them screaming when I got my head hit. I was like, 'if they want to play like that, give (the ball) back to me and I'll show you.' Foul me or not, I'll try my best to make it and I'll make the two right there or I'll make the two on the free-throw line. We are West Florida and nobody should mess with us."

'A special moment when we get it'

Following a three-game homestand, the Argos play its next four games on the road, beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday at Spring Hill.

History will likely be made by the time UWF returns to its home floor.

With the victory on Wednesday, Yelton collected win No. 182 with the Argos, leaving her one shy of tying Shannan Bergan's mark for most wins by a head coach in program history.

Yelton surpassed Kathy Davis for second on UWF's all-time coaching wins list at the beginning of the team's current win streak. On the verge of securing her eighth winning campaign in 11 seasons, the former UNC Tar Heel great was thoughtful through her reflection of the years and reluctant to take much of the credit.

"It's amazing to be on the brink of what is an amazing career here at West Florida," Yelton said. "And to own that record would be phenomenal, but I'd remiss. I haven't scored a bucket in a UWF uniform. I don't rebound the ball, I don't make passes. I'm orchestrating some really good players that have come through and they've trusted me to be their coach, to lead them in a way to excel on the basketball court, but also to excel in life.

"I reflect on the great players that have been through here. I think about my staff; I've had many assistant coaches that have comes through the doors and have really left their mark. I think about our administration; they've been supportive of me from door one and have been really encouraging of women's sports and athletics at our university and that comes straight from the top with the president of our university. It's just an amazing place to work, it's an amazing place as a woman in the workplace and to be leading a women's team. I've very blessed and I've stayed here long enough and been able to bank some very good wins to chase this record. And I think it's going to be a special moment when we get it."

Patrick Bernadeau is a sports reporter for the Pensacola News Journal. He can be reached at (850) 503-3828 or pbernadeau@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: UWF Women's Basketball: Rebounds, first-half push key in Argos win over UWG