MILWAUKEE, Wis. – As a team composed of nine freshmen and just two sophomores, Milwaukee Area Technical College head women's basketball coach Arom Murrell understands that his team will have to experience some growing pains during the first half of the season.

Unfortunately for the Stormers, those growing pains continued Saturday night when they suffered a 58-47 home loss to Prairie State during their ninth game of the season.

"Tonight was the perfect example of being young," Murrell said. "Not capitalizing on opportunities, slow start. I mean, it was just a perfect storm for a loss. First and foremost, it really is even all about what we did. I mean, Prairie State came in here and handled business. They came in with a short roster, they were aggressive, they were assertive, and they played their style of ball…so really we got to give credit to them."

MATC's offense struggled out of the gate and it never quite found its rhythm. The Stormers quickly found themselves scoreless over the first four and a half minutes of action, leaving them to trail 6-0 early and never recover. As a team, MATC's offense was held to 25.4 percent shooting (18-of-71) from the field and just 13.6 percent from beyond the arc (3-of-22).

Prairie State took a 16-10 lead into the second quarter and managed to extend its lead to 28-21 by halftime despite the Stormers' ability to win the turnover battle 13-9 at the break. Facing a seven-point deficit at the midway point, MATC still had a chance to turn things around.

However, that hope didn't last long as Prairie State completely dominated the third quarter. The Pioneers outscored the Stormers 18-10 in large part to their defense, which held MATC to only four made baskets throughout the first 10 minutes of the second half.

"Unfortunately, that's kind of been our pattern," Murrell said of his team's performance in the third quarter. "We've been able to overcome some of those slow starts, but it takes a lot of energy and then we run a lot of gas again. I think that's a combination of what happened tonight as well. Slow starts definitely don't don't help. It was close enough for us to still get back into the game, but again, we didn't capitalize on those opportunities, and that's pretty much the tell of the tape."

Saturday's defeat moves the Stormers to 3-6 overall and 0-2 at home.

"Hopefully moving forward with a young group like this at some point it will click and kick in," Murrell said.

STAT BOOK
Freshman Makayla Carney recorded a double-double with 13 points, 15 rebounds (six offensive rebounds), five blocks and three steals to help pace the Stormers. Freshman Chloey Bynum tallied 13 points, four rebounds and three steals. Freshman Arlinda Roundtree finished with nine points, five rebounds, two steals, one assist and one block.

UP NEXT
MATC (3-6) will travel to McHenry County College at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday.