Women’s college basketball is being played a little differently this season.
The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Committee approved changing the format of games from two 20-minute halves to four 10-minute quarters this season. The change is for women’s basketball only; men’s games will still be played with two 20-minute halves.
The idea behind this change is to improve the flow of play.
Since the quarter breaks are essentially timeouts, the number of timeouts coaches have at their disposal is four, one 60-second timeout and three 30-second timeouts.
“It’s pretty weird, but we’re getting used to it,” Peninsula College women’s basketball coach Alison Crumb said.
“I don’t mind it. It’s the same amount of basketball.”
The Pirates are off to a dominating start, winning their first three games by 22, 21 and 21 points, so they haven’t needed to call too many timeouts.
Not that they would have been stopping the action much had they been playing closer games.
“We really don’t want to [call timeouts],” Crumb said. “We just like to play fast.
“Even if they go on a little bit of a run, I like to see how we respond.
“If we pause the game, I feel like it gives the other team an advantage.
“And I try to leave some timeouts for the end.”
In Sunday’s 72-51 road victory over Lower Columbia, Peninsula led 21-11 after one quarter.
The Red Devils got within seven points, 22-15, early in the second quarter, but Crumb didn’t call a timeout.
“I still felt like we were in control of the game,” she said. “I felt like momentum was still on our side.”
She was right. The Pirates responded finished the first half with a 20-2 run, and led 42-17 at the break.
In the new four-quarter format, teams will begin shooting two free throws on the fifth team foul of each quarter.
Team’s used to shoot one-and-one on the seventh team foul of a half and two shots starting with the 10th team foul.
Fouls reset to zero at the beginning of each quarter, but if a team reaches the bonus in the fourth quarter, they would remain in the bonus in any additional overtime periods.
Another rule change in women’s basketball is that teams can advance the ball to half-court following a timeout called immediately after a made basket, rebound or change of possession in the final 59.9 seconds of the fourth quarter and all overtime periods.
This rule is intended to add more excitement to late-game offensive possessions.
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Sports Editor Lee Horton can be reached at 360-417-3525 or at lhorton@peninsuladailynews.com.
