WBB handles Wisconsin in foul fest

By: Dan Durkin – Staff Writer

The Dayton Flyers women’s basketball team took on Wisconsin Sunday afternoon at UD arena, winning 87-64.

The Flyers led Wisconsin from start to finish, hitting a season-high 11 3-point field goals in the process. The Flyers jumped off to a fast start in the first quarter and did not look back, hitting 6 of 11 3-pointers to get out to a 28-14 lead.

Wisconsin couldn’t recover, and the Flyers continued to extend the lead.

Even though Dayton won by 23 points, head coach Jim Jabir knows his team still has some work ahead.
“I thought today we played spotty,” Jabir said. “I thought there were times where we played inspired then thought there were times where we played lazy, not with a lot of intensity.”

Jabir also sees the need for improvement on defense.

“We made shots today, but I thought we gave up a lot of shots as well,” he said. “I know they shot 53 percent in the first half. I don’t know what they shot in the second half, but I think we need to be really proud of our defensive effort. I thought today we were up and down.”

Three Flyers scored in double figures to lead UD. Senior center Jodie Cornelie-Sigmundova and senior guard Kelley Austria each had 16 points. Austria added a season-high eight steals, while Cornelie-Sigmundova pulled down five rebounds.

The offense managed to score 87 points.

“I thought we did a good job pushing the ball on offense and looking to get open shots, especially in the opening couple of minutes,” freshman forward Maddy Dennis said. “I think, though, there is a lot of stuff that myself and we all need to work on, but there’s a lot of good stuff to build on.”

The Flyers have had some success in recent years recruiting players from different countries, like Canada, Croatia, Australia and France. Cornelie-Sigmundova and Dennis hail from France and Australia, respectively. Juniors Andi Cvitkovic and Saicha Grant-Allen are from Croatia and Canada, respectively.

Cornelie-Sigmundova, a usual starter, came off the bench Sunday and Wednesday against Vanderbilt, while Dennis has taken her place in the starting lineup and made her second career start Sunday.

With a new season, comes new rule changes to which coaches and teams must adapt: a change in the timing of games going from two halves to four quarters and referees emphasizing certain foul calls or rules.

There were over 50 fouls called on Sunday, and Jabir wants to see more discipline from his team.

“We didn’t adapt very well today,” Jabir said. “Fifty-five fouls called…just a lot of calls. And I was talking to one of the officials on the court during a foul shot, and [they said] the intent was to speed the game up and reward the offense. We scored 80-some points today, but it was boring watching a foul shooting contest, so we have to clean it up somehow. But I don’t know if this is the right way.”

This has been a popular theme among a lot of coaches in both the men’s and women’s game this year, on how the rule changes have played out so far. How teams will end up adapting to the rules, or whether the referees will choose to call as many fouls as the season wears on, will be a storyline to follow.

The Flyers’ next game is Friday against Maine as part of the Gulf Coast Showcase in Naples, Florida. With Sunday’s win, the Flyers moved to 3-0 on the season.

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