The first five games of the Kacie Cryer era served two distinct purposes: to find a point guard and analyze how much the first-year coach could rely on a bench of talented but sometimes unproven players.
Playing four teams below Division I in that span, Cryer doled out minutes liberally. Eight players average 16 or more minutes per game. One is Caitlin Davis, a true freshman who has started the last three games and seemingly sewed up her role as point guard.
When Davis gets erratic, tired or in foul trouble, classmate Mady Brasseaux enters. A natural two guard playing out of position following a season-ending injury to Keara Hudnall, Brasseaux is nearing three assists per game while limiting her turnovers.
“It showed me that our young kids can handle it and it showed that I had a lot of tough kids and a deep bench,” Cryer said. “It showed me that I’m going to be able to sub in and out and there’s not really a fall off. That’s very, very, very pleasing and exciting moving forward.”
After losing their opener to Louisiana-Lafayette, the Cowgirls (4-1) have won four in a row.
The schedule stiffens today, when the Cowgirls face Tulane (4-1) at 7 p.m. in New Orleans, the first of six consecutive nonconference games against Division I opponents before Southland Conference play begins. Five of those six are on the road.
Sometime Tuesday morning, Cryer led her team onto a bus bound for New Orleans. The Cowgirls’ first road trip comes with a different approach than any of the 10 returning players are accustomed.
Under former head coach Brooks Donald Williams, the Cowgirls practiced at Burton Coliseum before bussing to their road venue. A shootaround occurred upon arrival, then the team went to its hotel for the evening.
Cryer met with the team’s three seniors, who suggested a full practice at Delvin Fieldhouse — and the other venues on schedule — would be beneficial.
It’s a superficial change in a season full of them. The new coaching staff’s overhauled the defense, emphasizing a more aggressive square stance when guarding defenders on the ball in a primarily man-to-man scheme.
McNeese opponents are shooting 32.8 percent, the best field goal percentage defense in the conference. Still, Cryer requests a more aggressive shutdown of driving lanes with on-ball defense. She sees a team too reliant on help-side defense.
“Every game, I think, we figured out something else we need to pick up on with defense,” Amber Donnes said. “It’s kind of frustrating because it’s always something that’s wrong with the defense, but it’s also fun because it’s something we can fix and get better at. It’s something we can control.”
Cryer said she cannot fault her team’s effort, though. Even without leading scorer Victoria Rachal on Sunday, the Cowgirls hung 100 points on LSU-Alexandria and had five players in double figures.
Rachal, recuperating from a sprained ankle suffered against Wiley College on Nov. 22, will play against Tulane. It’s a rematch of a 74-55 loss last season where the Green Wave outscored McNeese 22-4 in the first quarter. Rachal played 5 minutes and was held scoreless.
Cryer reviewed that film this week, but it was rendered almost moot, she said. This team, without a reliance on simply one or two players to score, functions so differently.
“I think we’re headed in the right direction,” Donnes said. “Obviously we wanted to beat (Louisiana-Lafayette), but we didn’t hang our head down about it and we got better as a team and individually. Everybody is starting to figure out their roles. Just playing hard is what we want to do, playing tough, and that’s what’s going to help us leading into the next two games.”
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NOTE: Tulane has won 10 of the last 12 meetings, including the last eight. The Cowgirls’ last victory was in 1993 in Lake Charles. They haven’t won in New Orleans since 1986. … Tulane has won three straight — Southern Mississippi, Eastern Michigan at Texas-San Antonio. … Tulane’s lone loss was to Mississippi State.
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