Lady’Backs look to get back on track against visiting Auburn

BY JOE WEST Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008

URL: http://www.wholehogsports.com/nwat/62115/

First-year Lady Razorback basketball coach Tom Collen isn’t letting his team buy into the “ but they’re bigger than us” excuse.

But size definitely mattered in Arkansas’ 72-58 home loss to No. 24 Georgia on Thursday. Towering Lady Bulldogs Megan Darrah (6-3 ), Tasha Humphrey (6-3 ) and Angel Robinson (6-5 ) combined to score 46 points and pull down 18 rebounds against Lady’Back forwards Whitney Jones (6-0 ) and Sarah Pfeifer (6-0 ).

Ever since the Lady Razorbacks’ best player, 6-3 center Lauren Ervin, went down with a season-ending injury in the SEC opener against LSU on Jan. 10, Arkansas’ smallish post players have found themselves looking up at most conference competition.

“ Now our targets are 5-11 kids and it just doesn’t make a lot of sense for us to post up 5-11 kids on 6-5 and pound the ball in to them, ” Collen said. “ What we’ve tried to do is pull our post players out of the lowblock area, put them in the short corners and let them face up from 15 feet. ”

Collen knows his team will have to make the most of its shots from here on out.

“ We have to shoot a higher percentage and the bad thing is we haven’t been shooting a higher percentage since all this happened, ” Collen said. “ Early in the year, there was so much focus on Lauren and Lauren was such a good inside-out passer that she found ways to get our shooters the ball in relaxed situations and in a rhythm.

“ Right now we’re not getting those kinds of looks. Our looks are a little bit more rushed and we’re just not knocking down the shots when we get them consistently. ”

The Lady’Backs’ smallest starter could have the biggest impact down the stretch. Senior 5-7 point guard Brittney Vaughn did her best to keep Arkansas in the game with Georgia, scoring a team-high 16 points while adding six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

With Arkansas being out-manned on the inside, more of the load falls to Vaughn and the Lady Razorback backcourt.

“ Sometimes I come down and I want to pass the ball in, but I know it’s not the right decision because they’re just outsized, ” Vaughn said. “ We just have to find other ways to score. ”

Points will again be at a premium today when the Lady’Backs (17-6 ) host the Auburn Lady Tigers (15-7 ) at 2 p. m. at Bud Walton Arena.

Though Auburn doesn’t sport the tremendous height advantage over Arkansas that Georgia held, the Lady Tigers still field a couple of 6-feet-plus starters in 6-1 forward Jordan Greenleaf and 6-4 guard / forward DeWanna Bonner.

The tall-and-slender Bonner is a rarity in women’s college basketball, a 6-4 wing player. Fans of Arkansas men’s basketball might think of her as a female version of Vincent Hunter.

Whether scoring from inside or out, Bonner is always effective, with a team-leading 17. 5 points per game. She’s also shown the ability to track down both long and short rebounds, with an SEC-leading 10. 0 boards per game.

Bonner is in the only player in the SEC currently averaging a double-double.

“ She’s probably, besides [Tennessee’s ] Candace Parker, the most versatile player in the league, ” Collen said.