Women's Basketball takes down COD in Winston's coaching debut

The Triton College women's basketball team had on-court larceny in their hearts in pre-season workouts.

But in their season opener Nov. 5 against College of DuPage at the Collins Center, the Trojans proved practice can make almost perfect production. They provided a post-graduate course in thievery, racking up 26 steals among 37 overall forced turnovers in totally throttling the Chaparrals 66-36 in interim head coach Drew Winston's debut.

The women proved once again that merciless defense can make up for spotty offense. Despite shooting just 26 percent in the first half, the Trojans spread the fast hands among the entire roster with 15 steals to lead 33-14 at intermission.

Freshman guard Shamiyah Godfrey had an amazing overall performance in her collegiate debut. Tying fellow freshman Queen Baker with a team-leading six steals, Godfrey had a Trojans-high 14 points – including a trio of three-pointers – and five rebounds.

"I just move my feet," said Godfrey. "I just slide and put in the defense. Work-- that's all."

Winston had drilled his roster in the concept of forcing turnovers in continuing the philosophy of predecessor Marcus Hatch. He was pleased to no end at the execution in the opener.

"It's a pleasure to work with those girls," Winston said. "They're defensive-minded. Our defense is our best offense. We try to take it from you."

"We preach it. It was a kind of sloppy (offensive performance). We got over-zealous at times. We tried to make it back on the defensive end."

Triton led 18-10 after the first quarter as several of the newbies got their feet wet on the statistical end. But the offense went scoreless for the first 5 ½ minutes of the second quarter, until Godfrey nailed Triton's first three-pointer of the season.

Yet over the same time, the sticky-fingered brigade also pitched a shutout against College of DuPage. By the time the hosts found their shooting range again, they led 28-12. The momentum continued into the third quarter with Triton building a commanding 41-14 lead – a 28-4 run.

Triton got in top rhythm despite being short three players, including heavy minutes consumers Linarys Burnett-Romero and Destine Lovett, due to injuries. On-court leader Monraia Wilson stepped up to tie Godfrey with high-point honors with 14 along with five steals and four assists.

Collegiate rookie Trinity Barnes has a solid debut with 13 points and three steals. Meanwhile, Jalyn Jimenez was active off the bench with a pair of three-pointers, totaling eight points, along with seven rebounds and four steals.

One of two new Triton "bigs," Canadian Dana Walcott was impressive inside with a team-leading 15 rebounds to go with 10 points.

The Chaparrals' Mykah Berkompas was game-high scorer with 19 points.

Winston's post-game challenge was to bottle the defensive artistry for rival Lake Land College, the Trojans' next opponent on Friday, Nov. 11, at the Collins Center to open the Dan Hull Memorial Classic. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

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(Story by tritonathletics.com contributor George Castle)