CSU women look to avenge only loss in PBC tourney opener
The Lumpkin Center will see a postseason basketball doubleheader on Saturday.
The Columbus State men’s and women’s teams will host USC-Aiken in the first round of the Peach Belt tournament. The women tip off at 1:30 p.m.
It may read like a regular-season doubleheader against an opponent, but it’s not.
Regardless of the outcome, Saturday will mark the final PBC home games of the season at CSU. The final four teams in each bracket will play the semifinals and championship game at the home court of the highest remaining Eastern Division women’s seed.
Columbus State suffered its only loss of the season at USC-Aiken on Jan. 7, 78-67.
“It’s funny, because after we lost to them, we were upset that we weren’t going to get to play them again,” said Lady Cougars head coach Anita Howard. “When the chips started falling to where we saw we might get to play them in the tournament, I was excited that we could redeem ourselves. We didn’t play our best basketball that day, and to have them here at Lumpkin is the icing on the cake.”
The CSU women have defended home court better than anyone in the Peach Belt as of late. Their regular-season home winning streak will stand at 39 games heading into next season.
“I’ve always said to be a champion, you have to win on the road, but if you take care of business at home, it makes it that much easier,” Howard said. “We’ve played well here, so to open it up at home is a good kickstart.”
As for any modifications to the game plan, Howard says if it’s not broken, don’t fix it.
“I can’t tell you our secrets,” Howard said with a laugh. “But really, you don’t go away too much from what got you here, but our defense is our staple. We want to make sure we fine tune our defensive rotation to make sure we’re able to play aggressive defense without fouling. We fouled them way too much and put them on the line. We need to make them beat us from the field and not give them extra chances from the line. We need our key players to not get in foul trouble and also not give the other team easy points. I’m pretty happy where we stand.
“We were ‘Space Jam’ down there at Aiken. They’re going to be ready to play. One thing we have in our favor is to be in front of our fans. That’s one thing a scout team can’t dictate. I think we’re better defensively since that game, and some of the stuff I was implementing was still new to them.”
For the Lady Cougars, coming into the weekend ranked No. 6 in Division II, Howard hopes the PBC tournament is also a springboard to a great showing in the NCAA tournament.
“A lot of the teams in the region haven’t seen us, so they’ll get a chance to see Columbus State first and up close,” Howard said. “They haven’t seen our defensive pressure. We tell our girls to go super hard at practice, because it’s one thing to see our defense on film, but it’s another to go against that monster we try to bring on defense every night.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2017 at 9:38 PM with the headline "CSU women look to avenge only loss in PBC tourney opener."