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SBU Turns Season Around, Makes Tournament
By David Boyce
Several times in mid January, Southwest Baptist senior Rachel Graves could have looked at the eight new players on the squad and let frustration seep in.
The Bearcats were 1-10 in the MIAA with hopes of reaching the conference tournament looking very grim.
Who would blame Graves for thinking her senior season shouldn't end this way? She put in four solid seasons, including starting the last three years.
Every senior on all 11 conference teams want to reach Kansas City for the MIAA Basketball Championship Tournament. Only the top eight teams advance.
"I wouldn't want to end my season any other way," said Graves, who leads the team in scoring at 13.7.
And it is not. Southwest Baptist made one of the most amazing turnarounds in MIAA women's basketball history.
The Bearcats won seven of their last nine games and earned the final spot. They will face No. 1 seed Washburn at noon Thursday at Municipal Auditorium.
After what the Bearcats pulled off just to reach the MIAA Tournament they have confidence they can beat a Washburn team that ended the season on a 10-game winning streak.
"We are not just going to play a game and be happy we are there," Graves said. "We are going there to win. There is no other way about it."
Southwest Baptist has every right to feel this way. During the latter stages of the losing streak, they suffered a 79-74 loss at Northwest Missouri followed by a 75-74 loss at home to Missouri Western.
The Bearcats' 10th conference loss was also at home, falling 71-68 to Central Missouri.
"I kept telling my players that I really believed we were about to turn the corner," Southwest Baptist coach J.C. Carter said. "We were really starting to play better and with a lot of confidence."
Carter's belief in his players was a key, Graves said. Team chemistry, especially during the tough times was also very important.
"It's very easy to go against each other. We just stayed together not only on the floor but off the floor," Graves said. "I did my best to keep this team together and push everybody every single day. And Coach is very consistent. He did not stop believing in the players.
"It's very easy for a coach when you start off 1-10 to just give up on your team. Because he didn't give up on us it was easy for us to keep going and stay positive. As long as we know our coach is behind us we are going to be OK.
"We just stuck together. There were times we wanted to point fingers, but we didn't. We stuck together the whole way."
As the season progressed, the younger players gained better understanding of what it takes to win in the rugged MIAA.
The Bearcats depended on freshmen, like Chasity Prince, who ranks fourth on the team in scoring at 8.4.
"In this conference you need five threats on the floor," Carter said. "It took a little time for our freshmen to gain confidence and understand the system we are trying to play."
The Bearcats also learned how to play with a lead. Carter said the change came after the loss to Central Missouri.
Southwest Baptist led throughout against Missouri Southern and won 55-50. It snapped a seven-game losing streak.
But the real test for the Bearcats came when they had to go to Pittsburg State. After soundly beating the Gorillas 76-57, Southwest Baptist was proving it was now playing at a higher level.
Southwest Baptist won its third in a row and then dropped two straight, losing to Emporia State and Washburn, the top two teams in the MIAA.
The Bearcats' confidence wasn't shaken, but they had to win it out to have a chance to make the MIAA Tournament.
"There was some pressure," Graves said. "We just tried to come out and compete every single day. That's when it started turning around for us. We didn't stop believing. We saw how well we could play. We realized all the hard work we put in would eventually pay off."
It definitely did.
Southwest Baptist won its final four regular-season games all by double-digits. And two of those wins came on the road against Nebraska-Omaha and Missouri Western.
"I'm glad I can be the part of helping to take this team to the tournament and showing them what it is about," Graves said. "It will also prepare them for next year."
Carter wants his team to take full advantage of this opportunity. The younger players will learn that postseason tournament basketball is different than regular-season games.
Even though the Bearcats played with the pressure of having to win their last few games to extend their season, the pressure is still a little different for lower seeds in the MIAA Tournament.
Washburn and Emporia State already have a spot locked up for the NCAA Division II Tournament. If they lose at the MIAA Tournament, the players know they have at least one more game left.
Teams like Southwest Baptist have to win the conference tournament to advance.
"There is just an added dimension if you lose you are done," Carter said. "We have to make sure we embrace it. We can't take that as a negative. We have to take it as a positive and let's go out and compete."
To reach David Boyce, contributing writer for the MIAA, e-mail dboyce@themiaa.com.
