Coming off a Western Junior College Athletic Conference title and a national tournament appearance, the Odessa College women’s basketball team is hungry for more this season.
However, they’ll need to fill some empty shoes if they want to give an encore performance.
The Lady Wranglers enter the 2024-25 season ranked No. 8 in the preseason NJCAA poll after going 30-5 last year which included a share of the WJCAC regular season title with New Mexico Junior College.
Coached by Franqua Bedell, last spring featured the first time in four years that the Lady Wranglers qualified for the NJCAA national tournament.
Odessa College ended up losing to Wabash Valley College 83-81 in the elite eight at the national tournament in March.
While four players return from last year, the Lady Wranglers will have to find replacements for 2023-24 NJCAA All-Americans Ivana Krajina and Sarengbe Sanogo who are both now playing Division I basketball at Texas Tech.
Still, coming off a national tournament appearance, expectations have returned to their normal high settings for the Lady Wranglers.
“It’s exciting but it’s also a little bit nervous,” Bedell said of going into this season. “But last year is last year. Now, you’re trying to find out who your team is. You have a lot of new faces. You don’t have that experience with starters last year like when we had Ivana coming back. I’m really excited. I think we have a chance to do something special. If we grow, if we mature and we get disciplined and if all that happens quickly, I think we’ll have a chance to do something special.”
The Lady Wranglers will begin their season with a game against Barton Community College at 5 p.m. Friday in Hobbs, N.M.
They’ll face Trinidad State College at 1 p.m. Saturday at the same location before playing their home opener against Dodge City Community next week at 6 p.m. Nov. 7 in the Wrangler Classic at the OC Sports Center.
With the first month of the season featuring 10 games on the schedule, Bedell talked about what he will be looking for from his players during these upcoming weeks.
“Just how hard we play,” Bedell said. “How disciplined we are and are we mentally focused and taking care of ourselves. On the floor, are we taking care of the ball and rebound? And can we do the little things? It’s not so much the big things but the little things over and over that’ll help us. We’re just trying to build that so that when we walk into conference play, we’ll be mentally tough.”
The Lady Wranglers bring back Aisha Amaral Dos Santos, Juliet Esomchukwu, Pa’Shawna Wheeler and Mireia Mustaros.
“We have four back,” Bedell said. “One that started quite a few games but you don’t have the alpha leader that Ivana was so we’re going to have to do it by committee and everyone’s going to have to figure out how to do things and have extreme ownership in a lot of areas.”
As far as what this year’s team’s strength can be, Bedell is excited about the Lady Wranglers’ inside play.
“We have some good inside players,” Bedell said. “I think we have a really good wing player that can really stand out but overall, Juju has gotten better. Aisha has gotten better and if our four returners can lead and create and shape the culture that was last year, then I think we’ll be good … but I think our strength will be our defense like last year. If we can score the basketball because we have people that can score and attack the rim, I think we’ll be really good.”
Odessa College will begin conference play against Midland College on Jan. 6 at the OC Sports Center.
New Mexico Junior College once again appears to challenge for the WJCAC title as the Lady Thunderbirds enter the season ranked No. 7 in the nation.
Despite going 14-17 last year, South Plains College (led by former Lady Wrangler head coach Ara Baten) will likely bounce back this year and challenge for the WJCAC title as well.
Bedell also thinks Howard College will be tough to beat this year.
“Our conference is going to be really special,” Bedell said. “I feel like we stand out as the best conference in the nation. This conference added some new coaches. We have a coach at Howard College who is really good (Al Davis). He’s going to play an up-tempo game. Gerald Ewing at Frank Phillips College and Austin Mefford at New Mexico Junior College and Ara Baten at South Plains, they’re going to be really good. Western Texas College will be really good. I think we have the best coaches in the best conference in the NJCAA and you’re going to have to battle each night because they can all coach. I’m happy to be in this league.”
