Dons rising above in face of adversity
LAS VEGAS — Anna Seilund was in the middle of answering a question about her dazzling 28-point performance in a quarterfinal win over Loyola Marymount on Thursday when Molly Goodenbour interrupted.
“She was going for a doubledouble with turnovers,” the USF head coach said.
Seilund had nine turnovers on top of her six assists and six three-pointers, and her coach made sure she knew about it.
“These guys are tough. Sometimes they don’t realize how tough they are, because I’m fairly hard on them,” Goodenbour said. “But they’re a
physically and mentally tough team. They’re resilient. They’ve showed that they can compete with subs on the floor or starters on the floor. They can compete against big players or small players.”
USF (16-14) has had to be resilient this season. Two players left before the season started and two others suffered season-ending injuries.
During one early segment of the Dons’ quarterfinal victory, Kalyn Simon was seeking medical treatment and Michaela Rakova was in foul trouble — leaving USF with six available players.
At one point in the third quarter Thursday, Seilund asked for a sub. Instead, Goodenbour called a timeout and let her take deep breaths for 30 seconds.
“You get used to it,” the senior guard from Denmark said. “You do feel it on the court sometimes, but in monumental plays, you just tell yourself to get through it. Once you get through it, it’s just like any other game.”
Shannon Powell, who had 24 points and seven rebounds
in 40 minutes against Loyola Marymount, said: “To me, it’s all mental. … We’ve just got to push through it.”
Now comes a semifinal meeting with top-seeded Gonzaga (25-5), a team that beat opponents by an average of 14 points per game during the regular season and that was up by 34 during its quarterfinal victory over Pepperdine on Friday.
Despite the daunting next opponent, Goodenbour said the coming days should feel like a vacation. With only eight active players, four of whom played at least 37 of 40 minutes in the quarterfinal, having three days between games will be key for recovery.
USF took Friday off and planned light practices Saturday and Sunday before playing Gonzaga at noon Monday.
“That’s the hard thing about playing with such a short bench: You do need a couple days in between. We need some time to recover,” Goodenbour said. “At this point in the year, you’re not going to get a whole lot better by banging against each other. We just need to stay sharp.”
That’s a far cry from the regimen the Dons used during the regular season, when a posse of collegiate men was brought in to train against the women’s team.
“Practice is fantastic,” Goodenbour said. “… Sometimes we have more boys than girls at our practices. We do have a really good group of practice guys. They make a real difference for us, because they have to play against bigger, faster, stronger guys every day.
“Our boys do a great job of challenging them in the right ways.”
Maybe they remind the players about turnovers, even on 28-point nights.