Getting Defensive: Women’s basketball team takes pride in forcing turnovers

Hornet senior forward No. 34 Megan Kritscher attempts to block a shot against North Dakota on Thursday in the Nest.

Hornet senior forward No. 34 Megan Kritscher attempts to block a shot against North Dakota on Thursday in the Nest.

State Hornet Staff

Aggressiveness has been the key focus for Sacramento State women’s basketball, as head coach Jamie Craighead has implemented a full-court style defense on her team.

Full-court pressure is a special man-to-man coverage involving high endurance used to break down the other team by forcing turnovers.

Although Craighead chooses to execute a full-court method of defense, she said offense is what wins games, which is why her players press the ball to have offensive possession as much as possible.

“It’s a way to speed the game up, get more possessions and cut that shot clock in half, so that’s really why we do it,” Craighead said. “I’m all about offense and in order to get the ball back you need to get other teams to turn the ball over.”

This full-court strategy is not unfamiliar to Craighead as it brought her plenty of success back in her high school days at Elma High School.

“Our team averaged 92 (points) a game my senior year and led the state of Washington,” Craighead said.

Since Craighead was named head coach in 2009 and applied full-court pressure, the Hornets have been the Big Sky leaders in rebounding every season.

Senior forward and UC Santa Barbara transfer Megan Kritscher is second on the Hornets in total rebounds

“I’ve never played like this,” Kritscher said. “Our endurance is pretty high; it has to be, and we’ve conditioned like crazy for it. I think with the personalities we have, if we play the slower place we wouldn’t get it. We get bored really easily.”

Craighead said she has noticed no other team in the Big Sky uses this type of full-court defensive strategy.

“They’ll press once in awhile, but they don’t press for 40 minutes like we do,” Craighead said.

Sac State is currently No. 1 on the conference charts for offensive scoring, blocked shots, assists and steals and second in defensive rebounds as a whole.

Junior guard Se’nyce Parrish has significantly contributed to these statistics and is second in conference with 31 steals and second on the team with 51 steals overall.

“I kind of feel like I gravitate to the ball on defense,” Parrish said. “I feel like it takes more focus and I have more confidence on defense.”

Craighead said she runs all full-court drills from the beginning of the season and will rarely enforce half court drills on her team.

“She definitely introduced (full-court defense) to us and she’s trained us to be that type of player,” Parrish said. “The way she’s trained us – the way she’s helped us work with our conditioning and our endurance – all of that plays into the way she’s trained us.”

Parrish said she is not the player Craighead looks at to make points, but to come through defensively.

“It’s always being active on defense and our presses, getting the steals, just (playing defense on) their offensive player up or whoever I’m on,” Parrish said. “She expects that from everyone so it’s a collective team. Just get after it and do what you can as an individual.”

Parrish is also second on the team in offensive rebounding and third in blocked shots behind teammates Kritscher and senior forward Kylie Kuhns.

Kritscher is second in the nation in blocked shots with 90 total blocks so far this season. This makes her only 10 blocks away from the Big Sky single-season block record.

“She’s 6-foot-4 and she’s got a long wingspan,” Craighead said. “She’s done a really good job of reading it out of people’s hands and I just think it’s something that’s part of her basketball ability. It’s not something we work on with her – it’s just something she has naturally and brought to our team.”

The fast-paced style defense the Hornets are utilizing is working to their advantage as the team sits at 9-6 in Big Sky Conference play and 14-10 overall.

“It’s a lot of hard work,” Craighead said. “You’ve got to be in great shape, but I think they’ve seen a lot of success since we’ve done this, so for us that’s what it’s been about.”

Sac State women’s basketball will continue with this style of play as it approaches the end of season and conference championships.