TWIN FALLS, Idaho — It was a roller-coaster regular season for the CSI Lady Golden Eagles. But now the team is knocking on the door of a fifth consecutive SWAC title, hosting the region 18 tournament in Twin Falls.
"It's one and done. You don't win, it's done, and the season's over,” said CSI Head Coach Randy Rogers.
RELATED: The CSI Lady Golden Eagles started the season ranked 11th in the NJCAA preseason polls.
But a tough schedule, including dropping 4 out of 5 games halfway through conference play, saw the Golden Eagles fall from the rankings.
"We started 5-0 in conference play, and then in the middle of that conference, we just had some tough home losses. We stopped scoring, our defense was just okay, not great, and we lost some home games that we shouldn't have lost,” said Rogers.
After those disappointing losses, the Golden Eagles went on a 5-game redemption run to end the regular season, with a clean sweep of conference foes. In doing so, they secured hosting rights to the Region 18 tournament.
"We changed some things up. Started trying to play a little bit faster and stopped putting our opponents on the line so much,” said Rogers.
This year, the team is looking for their 5th consecutive SWAC title, and 5th consecutive trip to the national tournament.
Their 23-7 season record is the most losses for the program since the 2019/2020 season. But head coach Randy Roger says this is one of the hardest working and selfless teams he's ever coached.
"I haven't coached a team like this in a long time. This is not my most talented team I've had, but man, they sure play hard, and they play together, and they support each other,” said Rogers. “They come every day; they work every day. You start back in August, and its March now, and they still come like it's the first day of practice."
Team leading scorer, Sophomore Kennedy Gillette, is coming into the tournament putting up 13.6 points per game.
"My teammates are really good at finding me and getting me the ball,” said Gillette.
Gillette says that the mid-season slump gave them the motivation they needed, and now, the Lady Golden Eagles are on the doorstep of yet another SWAC title.
"We're just so grateful for everything we've received so far this season. We've had a ton of fans come out. It's going to be a bunch of really good games; it's just good basketball,” added Gillette. "So, totally come and support us."
The four-team tournament, which kicks off on Thursday, is single elimination with CSI taking on rival Salt Lake in the first round, with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.
Snow College and North Idaho College tip-off is at 5 p.m. The championship game is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.
