The Olds College Broncos women's basketball team ended their first two Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference games with a win and a loss on the weekend on their home court.
The Broncos were dumped on Friday 100-81 by the King's University College Eagles while they rebounded against the Grande Prairie Regional College Wolves 86-54 on Saturday.
Reg Carrick, the team's head coach, said a combination of tightness and over-confidence led to the team's downfall against the Eagles.
Carrick said while the Broncos had seen them play against other teams in the pre-season when the Eagles weren't at full strength, four of the Eagles' starters are in their fifth year.
“By the time it was sunk in that they were a good team, I think that we were already in the hole. A lot of this is a learning experience,” he said, noting that the Broncos have three first-year starters.
The Eagles employed an aggressive defence, not allowing the Broncos easy access up the floor. Carrick said that was the toughest zone defence the Broncos had seen thus far. The Broncos trailed 56-44 at the end of the first half.
“We have to be more prepared for that (aggressive zone defence). We practise our zone offence … but unless you see live bullets, it's hard to be really ready for it, so I think that just having the opportunity to play against two teams will help,” he said, noting the Wolves employed the same defence.
On Saturday, Carrick said some of the starters weren't playing as well as they could and as a result, some of the bench players stepped up and played well.
“That was probably the difference. We were kind of playing with Grande Prairie. We were up 10, we were up 12 and we were in control but we weren't playing as good as we could. We went with a really young lineup for a good portion of that third quarter and the early fourth quarter and they came with a whole bunch of energy and it was really nice to see,” he said.
Carrick said the team needs to get tougher inside, have more confidence playing against zone defence and not take any opponent lightly in order to build on its first two games.
Meanwhile, the men's results were reversed, coming out with a two-point advantage, 75-73 against the Eagles and a 72-65 loss against the Wolves.
The teams' next contests are against the Concordia University College Thunder Friday at home. The women tip off at 6 p.m. while the men start at 8 p.m.
