The season is winding down, but the Maroons are still battling. They will have to be at their best as the women’s basketball team goes on the road this weekend to play NYU and Brandeis. There are only three games remaining on their schedule, so they will have to make these two contests count.
Chicago is coming off an up-and-down weekend where they split a pair of games. Last Friday the South Siders lost a heart breaker to Carnegie Mellon 93–90 in overtime. Despite this loss, they were able to bounce back and beat Case Western on Sunday by a score of 59–45. It has been that type of season for the Maroons. They have had some tough breaks, but have shown a lot of resilience when their backs are against the wall.
The Maroons will need to be at their best as they play two of their last three games of the season this weekend. These are the games that will determine whether this season will be seen as successful. However, as the season winds down the team will have to over come the fatigue they are feeling from playing a full schedule. Yet second-year guard Madison Dunbar says the team isn’t feeling the grind of their full athletic and academic schedule.
“As the season is winding down we are feeling the opposite of fatigued. We have been putting in a lot of work to finish the season strong,” Dunbar said.
Hopefully one of the goals is to beat NYU. The Violets are currently ranked No. 22 in the country, and defeated the Maroons earlier this season by a score of 71–55. Chicago is well aware of this result and they are fully prepared to get revenge this Friday. The squad has made defense their primary focus this week in practice.
“After our previous loss to NYU, we are definitely looking to get back to our defensiveprinciples. We need to deny passing lanes and have ample ball pressure to contain their offense,” Dunbar said.
Their other opponent, Brandeis, will be trying to seek the same type of revenge. Chicago beat Brandeis earlier this season 73–59. The Maroons will need to be on their toes to make sure this conference foe does not get the best of them on Friday.
The key for the South Siders in these last two weeks of the season will be their focus and commitment to accomplishing the goal of finishing strong. “We have been putting in hours outside of practice to put ourselves in the best possible position to win these last three games. We all agree we owe that to our three seniors who have done so much for this program the past four years,” Dunbar said.
We will see if the Maroons have what it takes. They fly to New York to play NYU on Friday at 5 p.m. Then the team will travel to Brandeis on Sunday for a noon tip-off. After this weekend, Chicago will finish their season against rival Wash U at home on Saturday, February 27.
