Robert Hearons: Zanoguera’s big night masks UT’s issues

RJ Hearons

The entire University of Toledo women’s basketball team was credited with Saturday’s win over Idaho in the first round of the Glass City Classic.

However, you would be hard pressed to find somebody in attendance at Savage Arena Saturday who wasn’t aware of the real reason the Rockets came away with the win.

With 20 points, and a career-best and program-record 21 rebounds, senior Inma Zanoguera did a lot of Toledo’s heavy lifting.

Zanoguera continued to enjoy success playing at point guard, a position she only began playing three games ago.

From the way she played against the Vandals Saturday, however, it proved difficult to identify what position she actually even occupied.

Carrying the ball up the floor as a point guard, launching mid-range jumpers like a 2 guard and rebounding down low like a tenacious power forward, Zanoguera seemed very comfortable doing a little bit of everything.

The eye-popping stat of 21 rebounds aside, it can’t be missed that Zanoguera led the entire team in the other two major stat categories, dishing out 6 assists and notching 20 points.

The thing is, when one player leads the team in the three major stat categories it doesn’t always translate to victories or reflect well on the rest of the squad. Head coach Tricia Cullop and crew need to ensure that stat lines at the end of games don’t become too lopsided, or the results might not be too favorable when facing opponents in the Mid-American Conference that have seen Zanoguera for the past three seasons.

If and when Zanoguera is double teamed during the course of MAC conference play, it is essential her teammates will be there to bail her out. It’s understood that this is a young team but the overall goals are the same as a veteran unit.

If Zanoguera was not able to suit up on Saturday, the Rockets would have been forced to replace a ridiculously big portion of their production. It certainly couldn’t have been done by one player alone.

The rest of the team combined might not have even done it.

Center Sophie Reecher, for example, had a tough time rebounding the ball Saturday, finishing with six but leaving many more on the floor.

She, along with others who play the 4 and 5 positions, will need to improve greatly, as it is unlikely Zanoguera will be pulling 20 off the glass on a nightly basis.

What needs to be addressed regardless of a win and Zanoguera’s stellar performance is the turnover situation. In four of the past five games, the Rockets as a team have registered more turnovers than assists.

It is vital that UT dish the ball out to teammates rather than opponents. Even though the team played better as a whole Saturday, the Rockets still finished with 17 turnovers.

Zanoguera really put on a show for the fans at Savage Arena Saturday afternoon, and more than likely this won’t be the last time she does so.

But if the Rockets want the good times to continue, they need to fix the flaws now while the blemishes are masked by their team captain’s dominant stat lines.