From the 10-minute mark of the second half on, the Western women never looked like their were going to win at Southwest Baptist. For the record, the Griffons led three times after that point but just went into a shell, throwing the ball away indiscriminately, forcing bad shots and generally looking lost in a season-ending 76-66 loss.

It was a fitting way to end a dismal season. The startling thing is that 1,050 minutes into the campaign, the Griffons still looked as if they had no idea what they were doing on the floor, how to run the offense properly or even what defense they were in and who they were guarding. This season was a failure on just about all accounts, but I think this particular detail falls on the coaching staff.

And in their last hoorah, the Griffons revisited all their old haunts — poor rebounding, bad transition defense, stagnant offense and careless passes. Thankfully it’s over, and coach Lynn Plett is recruiting, as I write, to find some solutions. While he looks for new players, here are my grades for the 2008-09 season.

Coaching staff — D. All of Western’s impact players were Josh Keister recruits this season (Jessica Koch, Tierra Ford and Rachel Luteyn). Of Plett’s recruits, only London Houchin made a lasting impact in the lineup. On the floor, this team looked lost more often than not. Considering the circumstances under which Plett recruited this last season (NCAA investigation, etc.), I’ll give him a mulligan this year. I still believe he is a good coach and see the effectiveness of his system in brief spurts. But his players never seemed to fully grasp it or buy in this year.

The Players

B minus: Jessica Koch. She was Western’s best all-around player and made the transition from small forward to point guard well. Only a freshman, Koch developed into Western’s leader and was the only Griffon who seemed to want to ball down the stretch in close games. She will be a tremendous player before all is said and done.

C: Tierra Ford. She was Western’s toughest player and best rebounder. Ford was inconsistent and had a tendency to disappear, but she gave a soft team some grit in the paint.

C minus: Rachel Luteyn, London Houchin. Luetyn showed her potential with 24 points against Northwest. But she didn’t rebound well for a 6-2 player and still was hesitant to shoot in Western’s final game. She has much potential but almost seems too nice to dominate inside. Houchin was Western’s best shooter but was a liability on the boards and defense.

D plus: Colleen Schneider, Nikki Boone. Schneider did the dirty work, rebounding, getting put-backs and playing defense, and occasionally hit a 3. She isn’t real quick or athletic, wasn’t strong with the ball and turned it over far too frequently. But she always gave a good effort. Boone showed nice touch from the field and decent toughness inside but never could get out of Plett’s dog house.

D: Brittany Casady. Casady turned in a couple of solid performances despite playing on a bad knee. I look for her to be a solid player off the bench in the next couple of years.

D minus: Lauren Nolke. Western’s shooting guard has an aversion to taking the ball inside and spent too much time standing on the perimeter, waiting for a pass. An extremely streaky shooter, Nolke didn’t knock down enough 3s to compensate for the rest of her game.

F: Megan Gawatz, Brenna Saline, Kimberly Rickels, Jade Simmons, Taylor Lyons, Kristin Bush. Gawatz isn’t a good jump shooter and doesn’t look comfortable with the speed of the college game. Brenna Saline has nice form on her jump shot. But those attempts rarely fell, and she was a liability on defense. Rickels and Simmons turned the ball over far too much at the guard position and never found their touch from the floor, despite giving good efforts whenever they got in. Lyons has to be one of the biggest disappointments on this team. Plett thought the forward would be his best player, but she never got into game shape and languished at the end of the bench most of the year. And Bush looked a lot like Schenider the year before — uncertain, uncomfortable and a little lost.