Privateers women’s basketball set for season added depth, offensive potential

NEW ORLEANS – The New Orleans Privateers women’s basketball team opens their 2022-23 regular season next Monday in West Texas against UTEP.

The contest in El Paso begins a 28-game slate that features different styles, different venues and a UNO squad that, according to head coach Keeshawn Davenport, is poised to have more of an offensive mindset than recent Privateer squads.

The lineup starts with the core of young ladies who return from last season. Four Privateers – DeArica Pryor, Nahja Scott, Tiana Gipson and Zoe Cooper – started at least 15 of UNO’s 23 games last season. Along with Kyla Davis, Tomyree Thompson, Justice Ross and Brianna Ellis plus the addition of Jayla Kimbrough (who redshirted last season), the Privateers have a strong mix of talent that played its best basketball late in a COVID interrupted season that saw them lose seven scheduled games.

“It’s really good to have some familiar faces and experience to help lead the newcomers,” said Coach Keeshawn Davenport. “Of course we lost Jomyra (Mathis) but I feel like we brought back the core of who we are back. It’s been pretty competitive and looks good out there.”

Add to that a mix of size, scoring ability at multiple levels and experience from a class of newcomers that features four transfers and one freshman. All told, the offense has a chance to shine even more this season, although defense has always been the calling card for Davenport’s UNO teams.

“One of the strengths of our team is going to be depth,” said Davenport, who enters her 12th year as head coach at her alma mater. “I can go at least three deep at almost every position and we have a scorer’s mentality. I think opponents are having to go deeper into the scouting report against us.”

The Privateers were selected to finish ninth in the Southland after a 5-18 season last year but through the rocky road of that campaign, the team persevered and won the first Southland Conference Tournament game in program history against Northwestern State in Katy, Tex. to cap a strong finish for a short-handed squad.

New Orleans will play eight of their 10 non-conference games on the road. The only home tilts before Southland play begins are against South Alabama (Nov. 14) and Mississippi Valley State (Dec. 14) at Lakefront Arena. The conference opener will take place at HCU on Dec. 31.

Opponents will present UNO with challenges against a mix of different styles, something Davenport has always been sought out in scheduling.

“I think our league just got stronger with Lamar coming back and Texas A&M-Commerce coming in. With all of that in mind, we had to put together a schedule that’s going to test us on the road and with different systems and things that we’ll see in conference that I don’t want it to be the first time we see it.”

The regular season opener at UTEP tips at 8 p.m. Central time Monday, Nov. 7.

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