The Wayne State College women’s basketball team has suffered seven straight losses, but they still plan on making a run in the tournament. The Wildcats are going through a slump as they haven’t had a victory since Dec. 18.

The Wildcats are a young undersized fast-paced team whose record doesn’t define them. They collected seven wins in their first 11 games, but every team goes through a slump. The also had two winnable games be canceled because of COVID.

A lot of pressure is on the shoulders of point guard Kylie Hammer to help the team rise above this slump as she is the only senior on the roster. She has scored over 350 points this season and is without a doubt the leader of this team.

Leading by example and lots of positive encouragement is what assistant coach Kacie O’Connor is doing during these losses to pick the team up.

“I just let them know that they are doing good work and they are playing hard,” O’Connor said. “I put myself in their shoes, I’ve been there I’ve been through slumps.”

O’Connor is in her second year (2021-22) as an assistant women’s basketball coach at WSC. She returned to WSC after spending last season (2019-20) as a graduate assistant coach at Northwestern College in Iowa, helping the Red Raiders women’s basketball team to a 17-11 overall record, while coaching four players to All-GPAC honors.

O’Connor played four seasons (2014-18) of basketball and track and field at WSC. During her time as a Wildcat, O’Connor scored 754 points leading the Wildcats in three-point shooting as a junior and senior. She was also a two-time NSIC All-Academic honoree, while serving as team captain for two years.

“I try to get in the gym with them rebound for them,” O’Connor said. “Whatever they’re struggling with I like to work with them one on one. See if we can get some confidence going and forget about their previous mistakes. I think you got to coach every kid differently, not every kid responds to yelling or things like that, have different relationships with each kid.”

O’Connor has many goals for the rest of the season.

“Since Christmas break, we’ve struggled a little bit so I think the goal for the rest of the season is to make the Conference tournament and make a run late in the season and see where we can go,” O’Connor said.

Women’s Basketball against St. Cloud State – January 21, 2022

Photos by Whitney Winter

Women’s Basketball against Minnesota Duluth – January 22, 2022

Photos by Whitney Winter