The Taft College women’s basketball team is trying to re-invent itself because head coach Tyrone Taylor dislikes two things – players who fail in the classroom and players who fail to come to practice.
Those two elements have reduced his roster by 40 percent.
Two players – one of them his starting point guard – didn’t make the grade when fall semester report cards came out.
Four others did fine in the classroom but chose to skip practice.
As a result, all six checked in their uniforms.
Those missing links have thrown things off balance and cost the team dearly in its last two Central Valley Conference games, resulting in a one-point loss to Merced last Wednesday and a 64-55 loss to College of the Sequoias Saturday night in Visalia.
Both were games Taylor felt his team could have – and should have – won.
“We were way out of sync without a point guard,” he said minutes after the frustrating loss to COS when his team was unable to reel in the Giants despite drawing them close throughout the game.
“We are trying to find out who we are,” he said. “We are trying to figure out who can do what. Right now we have our two biggest scorers (Theresa Henderson and Christine Taylor) trying to handle the ball more.”
Henderson, a 5-10 sophomore forward averaging 17 points a game, has taken on the role of point guard in addition to her usual job of scoring and rebounding.
She had 22 points to lead the Cougars. Taylor, who scored 14 three nights earlier, finished with seven.
“We’ll just have to try to get it together in the second half of conference and regroup,” the coach said.
Freshman center Jasmine Green was more active Saturday and needs to continue to step up.
The Cougars (1-4 CVC, 7-14) travel to Reedley (3-2, 11-10) Wednesday to open the second half of conference play and then to Fresno Saturday to take on the conference-leading Rams (5-0, 18-6), the No. 1 team in northern California.
COS jumped out to a 12-4 lead by sandwiching 6-0 runs around two Cougar baskets.
The lead was six (21-16) when Henderson, Crystal Clark and Green scored buckets to get even before COS finished the half with a 12-6 spurt for a 33-27 bulge.
The Giants quickly pushed the cushion to 10 (41-31) in the first 3:19 of the second half and kept the Cougars at bay the rest of the way.
Taft closed to within three (50-47) and then five (56-51) on back-to-back Henderson jumpers, the last with 4:10 remaining that turned out to be the last field goal of the game.
The Cougars were forced to foul, sending COS to the line seven times. The Giants were able to cash in 8-of-14.
Taft’s only points during that span were four free throws from Henderson.
TC also lost Taylor and Baylee Day to fouls.
Green scored eight points, Day seven, Dawnisha Perry six and Clark five.
The win helped the Giants (3-2, 13-9) cling to a share of second place in the conference with Reedley (3-2, 11-10).
