Women’s basketball defeats Bethany

The Pitts State women’s basketball team defeated Bethany College Friday, Nov. 23 with a final score of 81-48. The Gorillas have now won three games in a row.  

Head Coach Amanda Davied believes the team played well against Bethany.  

“One thing we really talked about was getting to the free throw line more and we got there three times, but getting there three times we made 83 percent of them, which was awesome,” Davied said. “We didn’t shoot a goal from the three-point line, but I think we shot well overall and had some kids really go in and shoot great percentages. Shelby Lopez, Athena Alvarado, and even our freshman Megan Scott really shot it well. We are just going to continue to move the ball around as much as we can and try to shoot good percentages and I think our outside game and three-point shots will come along with that.”  

Despite playing well, the team still has room for improvement, according to Davied.  

“We are going to continue to work on our rebounding and it will be an interesting stretch probably the whole year just because we are not very big, but we play with a lot of heart,” she said. “Then of course we are getting ready to gear up for the MIAA play, which is obviously really tough, so we will start at home with two games (against) Northeastern State and Central Oklahoma. So we will continue to work (on) ball-securing defense and motion defense and hopefully our defense will get (better for) these next two games.” 

In the game against Bethany College, junior Athena Alvarado made five field goals, senior Shelby Lopez and freshman Megan Scott made four field goals apiece, and junior Meghan Maher made three. Sophomore Maya Williams and Lopez each made one three-point field goal apiece. Lopez contributed eight free throws, Williams made five, freshman Kaylee DaMitz made four, and Alvarado added three. Scott had seven rebounds total, Alvarado made six, freshman Tristan Gegg added five, and DaMitz four.  

Several players on the team stood out to Davied during the game against Bethany, including Lopez, Alvarado, Scott, Williams, and DaMitz.  

“Shelby Lopez and Athena Alvarado, two upperclassmen, really came through with 17 and 13 points, but even more than that, just their defense and continuing to be leaders on the floor,” Davied said. “Megan Scott came in and she had seven rebounds and 11 points in 13 minutes, it was pretty impressive. We had another solid game from Maya Williams, and Kaylee DaMitz is always solid. So we are finding people that we think are getting comfortable with the rotations and in their roles and I think we will continue to see more good things from those guys.”  

Davied hopes to start the conference matches well and continue their winning streak.  

“… Everybody wants to win and so I hope that we are playing at our best,” she said. “We have a few days off here, so we are going to get some rest, but we are also really going to go hard the next week and get ready for conference play. We want to start off obviously undefeated as everybody is and then we will do finals week, then go out to Vegas for our trip out there.”  

The gorillas will go head-to-head with Northeastern State University and the University of Central Oklahoma in two MIAA home matches Wednesday, Dec. 5 and Saturday, Dec. 8.