Women’s basketball team faces UMES tonight

Back-to-back wins would typically indicate upward momentum within a conference. An overtime victory against Coppin State almost immediately followed by a win against Delaware State and the women’s basketball team should look like the team to beat heading into the finals stretch of the season.A game tonight against the Maryland-Eastern Shore Lady Hawks could derail everything. The women defeated the Lady Hornets, but after playing what the team described as “sloppy” basketball. The Lady Rattlers scored 52 points but committed a season-high 27 turnovers and shot 36 percent from the field.“It wasn’t anything they (the Lady Hornets) were doing,” forward Qiana Donald said. “It about us making the small mistakes and not controlling the ball. They didn’t do anything special though.”The Lady Hawks took down the Lady Rattlers once in a 47-43 game in the Al Lawson Center. The Lady Rattlers were coming off five days of rest after a victory over Norfolk State. As a team, the Lady Rattlers committed nine fewer turnovers, and everyone who took a shot scored.The Lady Rattlers are going to Eastern-Shore with less preparation (only two days) and with a game they would like to put out of their minds. The situation, while less than favorable, does not worry the team.“We just have to do what we do best. The last time we played them we didn’t really play our game,” Donald said. “We have a much better chance to win than we did last time. People are back from injury, everybody’s ready.”There are six games, including tonight’s, left in the season for the Lady Rattlers and four of them are against teams above them in the conference standings. Four are also against teams they have lost to during the season.Tonight’s game against the Lady Hawks is pivotal. A win puts the team at 7-5 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic conference, still in the mix with Bethune-Cookman, Morgan State and Howard for third place. The team also still has games against Bethune-Cookman and Howard remaining on its schedule.A loss would drop the team to 6-6, a full game behind fifth place. The difference between a top seed and a bottom finish rests with the Lady Hawks tonight in the W.P Hytche Athletic Center.