The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Megan Brownell photojournalist
While most students went home over winter break, the women’s basketball team stayed in Pitt and had a stretch of games going 5-2 during the one month period.
Sophomore guard Sydney Holmes commented on how she feels the break went for the team.
“I feel like we did a good job over break going 5-2 and played some of the toughest teams in the league,” Holmes said. “We were working really hard since we didn’t have school which gave us some extra time in the gym.”
During the span, they first took on the University of Central Missouri on Dec. 17, and lost to the no. 17 Jennies 75-82. They then played a non-conference game against Tabor College and won 84-69. They next took on no. 9 Missouri Southern State university, where they took an upset win 87-79 to close the Joplin rivals.
Holmes mentioned how great the game went and how it felt from the players perspective.
“It was a great fast paced game against our rival school so it felt amazing to beat them especially since they are one of the top teams as well,” Holmes said. “ We as a team were all very well connected and everyone contributed to the win, starts and the bench all got to come in and play great minutes.”
After that win, they turned around to play no. 22 University of Nebraska Kearney and could not pull a second upset for a 55-70 loss. They did bounce back for a win against Fort Hays State University 87-65, which was another big win as they had not beaten them in a long time.
“I think this was a major highlight from these games as it was a big one for the community and the team, we had a long drive, and we still went in and jumped on them from the start,” Holmes said. “ We were up big at half and just kept taking it to them.”
They were also able to take away and finish the break with two wins at Emporia State University 82-61 and then followed by one against Washburn University 74-55. Holmes also mentioned these wins as a highlight from the winter break games.
“It also felt good to beat Emporia and Washburn as it always does whenever we can get wins against them,” Holmes said.
Currently the team is sitting at 13-4 overall with an 8-3 conference record going into about the second half of the season. Holmes mentioned how the team is currently 4th in the conference and how she feels the team will finish out the season.
“We are all motivated and with our conference standing it gives us more motivation to keep pushing and working hard everyday,” Holmes said. “We end the season with some tough games but that’s when we should be playing our best basketball, so our confidence is there and we are a super close team and I think that’s what we rely on in games.”
The women’s team will continue the season with two away conference matchups starting with Rogers State University Thursday Jan 19th at 5:30 p.m. and then at Northeastern State University Saturday Jan. 21., at 1:30 p.m.