College basketball: Lady Falcons want to take step forward

Right after the UTPB women’s basketball season ended last year, Adam Collins hit the recruiting trail with one goal in mind.

To upgrade the Lady Falcons’ athleticism.

Slowly but surely, Collins found players who fit the bill. Miesha Blackshear, a 5-foot-7 scorer from Howard College to pair in the backcourt with star point guard Tammy Acosta.

Pasha Cornish, a Permian graduate with the ability to play inside. Dominique Haywood, a 5-11 inside presence from New Mexico Junior College with the speed to play in Collins’ system.

Throw in junior college transfers Andrea Chavez, Micaela Jackson, UT-Arlington transfer Maurin Strambler and freshman Christina Lira, and Collins accomplished his mission.

“We’re like 10 times more athletic than last year,” returning forward Callie Norris said. “Right now, our biggest struggle is putting it together as a team.”

Finding chemistry on the court might hinge on the team developing chemistry off the court.

And the Lady Falcons have found plenty of ways to hang out during the preseason. On Halloween, the entire roster volunteered to work at the Night of Light at CrossRoads Fellowship, a carnival that drew more than 7,000 people. Making T-shirts together another night helped.

Simply hanging out has brought the girls closer together.

“When you’re friends off the court, I think it helps you play together on the court,” Norris said.

But the Lady Falcons are still searching for chemistry between the whistles.

UTPB lost 65-52 in an exhibition tuneup against Wayland Baptist last week. Considering that Collins would like to hold opponents to less than 50 points per game, the Lady Falcons were disappointed with their performance.

“We have talent,” Collins said. “But we don’t have the effort that it takes to be where we want to be yet.”

Under Collins, the Lady Falcons became one of the Heartland Conference’s most disciplined teams last season. Powered by a defense that routinely held opponents to low point totals, the Lady Falcons finished 7-19, a raucous improvement over a team that struggled to pick up any win the two previous years.

But Collins isn’t content with simply making it to seven wins, and the Lady Falcons have to find the same level of defensive discipline to make noise in the Heartland Conference race this year.

So far, UTPB hasn’t been able to reach that same level of consistency despite a roster that is physically better suited to Collins’ attacking defensive style.

“To me, it’s a travesty for us to be worse defensively than what we were last year,” Collins said. “Top to bottom, there is more talent.”

At times the Lady Falcons struggled on offense last season. Forced to rely on Acosta and Norris almost exclusively at the beginning of the season, those two — especially Acosta, a freshman at the time — had to hit almost every night for UTPB to be successful.

Blackshear might change all of that this season.

A scorer at Howard College, Blackshear is the perfect running mate to Acosta, a speedy point guard with a pass-first attitude.

“Playing with Tammy is fun for me,” Blackshear said. “I’ve never played with a point guard that’s as fast as me and does things as quick as I do.”

UTPB has plenty of pieces.

Now, the Lady Falcons have to come together.