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WBB: Stanford 72 Utah 54 - Printable Version

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WBB: Stanford 72 Utah 54 - 81alum - 02-21-2016

Overview:

Chalk this win up to our posts--both their defense and offense, as McCall with 18 points and 7 blocks provided the highlights.  But our perimeter offense looked anemic--1/11 from three point range won't get it done against the tough competition that is on the way.

Preliminary

Utah is a quality team, but like Washington State, they have never beaten Stanford.  We can win our 999th game as a program today.  Emily Potter is a superb forward, but we doubled her and held her to 9 points in the game at Maples.  They will be ready for that doubling today, which will mean Potter passing to someone who is open.  That could be Paige Crozen, who was 4/5 from three point range against us last time.  Utah is the 104th offensive team and the 243rd defensive team in the country--making it an above average Division 1 team.  Its leading stats are mostly about rebounding and also free throws made.  They don't force a lot of bad shots, but they don't give up many offensive rebounds.  Their best win this year was probably beating Washington.  They have swept C.al, Arizona, and Colorado but lost to the top half of the conference.

Flow of the Game

I am trying to remember the last time we took an early first quarter lead and kept it....it was not this game.  We started slow in the first half but eventually tied it at 9 when Lili made a layup-and-one.  From that point forward we held our own but have not been able to decisively break away.  Erica McCall has hit some notable jumpers, including one from nearly the three point line.  Kaylee showed a wonderful counter-spin move for a back to the basket layup off the block.  Lili, alas, has only made that one basket and continues cold, Karlie is 1/4 from three and that is our only trey.  Utah's offense is evenly distributed so hard to key just on Potter, who has been held to 7.  We have shot 38% to their 33%, but most of the other stats are about even.  I noticed Kaylee was gulping air during the first half--although she is from Wyoming I fear she has Palo Alto lungs now. 

In the second half, we held Utah scoreless from 2:09 in the third quarter until 6:26 in the fourth--an great defensive performance complete with 11 blocks and 8 steals for the game.  Utah's second half shooting sank like a stone and pulled them to 26% for the game.  Our offense performed reasonably well despite stone cold guard play from Bri, who was 0-1, and Lili, who came up with 10 points but most of them not until long after the game was decided.  Marta drove 9 times and got 4 layups--a welcome sight.  But after Emily Potter was called for a flagrant 1 early in the fourth quarter, the life seemed to go out of Utah. 

Performances

Erica McCall set a personal record with 7 blocks today.  Add to that 18 points on 8/13 shooting, and 9 rebounds.  Particularly impressive to me was her jump shot--she was extending her range nearly to the arc, and most of her jump shots hit only net.  Her accuracy was impressive today.  Erica is a bit short to play the 5, so it is wonderful to see that jump shot developing.

Kaylee started and showed why today.  She had 13 points on 5/13 shooting and 8 rebounds.  She had one fast break layup and also showed how far she has come in a year with a superb back-to-the-basket counter move off the low block. 

Karlie was 1-5 from three point range but rarely had open shots.  Bri took only one shot.  Lili, as mentioned, was cold until late in the game.  We did not get a lot of help from guards today on offense.  Bri and Karlie each had 3 assists, though, and Karlie impressively had 3 steals.  The best guard on offense, perhaps, was Marta, who showed the willingness to take it to the rim repeatedly.  A few of them were hopeless, and she never did get the foul.  But she made 4 baskets.

Alanna Smith got quite a lot of time today, especially when McCall rested with multiple fouls.  Alanna was inconsistent at 3/10 but showed her talents.  She missed a few in-close layups--she needed a softer touch--but then she made one or two very difficult ones.  Her jumper just needs to start falling the way Erica's has begun to fall--one swooshed net but most of her jumpers clanked iron. 

Britt only had 1 basket but her aggressive play was rewarded with 3 free throws and six rebounds.  She has to be one of our best rebounders, inch for inch, on the team.  And somehow she got a couple of blocks.

Conclusion:

This weekend brought good results, although we have yet to have a game when all of our offensive threats are active at the same time.  The next two games are going to be far more competitive and difficult, even though they are at Maples.  OSU is plain good, but this time at least we get to face them on the Friday.  Oregon for our last home game could turn out to be critical.  If we beat OSU there may be a tendency to let down against the second team, especially since we prepare less well for Sundays.  But if we lose to OSU than it will be critical to beat Oregon to keep our NCAA host argument alive.  I hope that everyone is able to get to Maples for our final two home games.

Re: WBB: Stanford @ Utah 1pm pacific - BobK - 02-21-2016

Emily is a Center.  A real Center.  She will post up with 8 feet every play. 😄



Re: WBB: Stanford @ Utah 1pm pacific - CompSci87 - 02-21-2016

(02-21-2016, 08:46 AM)BobK link Wrote:Emily is a Center.  A real Center.  She will post up with 8 feet every play. 😄

An arachnid center sounds pretty formidable!

Re: WBB: Stanford @ Utah 1pm pacific - BobK - 02-21-2016

Lol.  I try to bring fun to this board.

Re: WBB: Stanford @ Utah 1pm pacific - 81alum - 02-21-2016

(02-21-2016, 08:46 AM)BobK link Wrote:Emily is a Center.  A real Center.  She will post up with 8 feet every play. 😄

I go crazy with the inconsistent way teams list positions and heights.  Utah lists her as a Forward.

http://www.utahutes.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/utah-w-baskbl-mtt.html

6'6" with moves makes me think that before she is done she will be better than Hamblin.  Maybe she already is.

But if she really has eight feet, doesn't she get called for traveling a lot?

Re: WBB: Stanford @ Utah 1pm pacific - FarmDad.01 - 02-21-2016

Not if she lifts seven of 'em on each move.

Re: WBB: Stanford 72 Utah 54 - chimera - 02-21-2016

She spidered her way to a lot of blocks against us but to no avail.  Utah is not a great team, but again, a blowout conference road win is always, always a good showing.  Not all the shots fell.  At least we were fairly aggressive on offense, maybe too aggressive on defense with a lot of fouls.  I thought the refs tightened up their calls a lot late when the game was getting too physical.  Bird was the key to it all.  She is our go-to player now.  Nice game from Kaylee too.  That one move was a new one for her.  She had a couple of nice moves inside.  We did keep turnovers down.  Nice job by Marta.  This was her best offensive game, points and assists together, so far.  Alanna had some very good moments too, on offense and defense.  I believe her shots will start falling eventually.  She just doesn't get enough playing time right now to be totally in sync out there. 

Re: WBB: Stanford 72 Utah 54 - TheFarm07 - 02-21-2016

I was pleasantly surprised that Erica's range has increased so much. It was so nice to see her make those long-range jumpers time after time. If she can continue that type of shooting prowess and continue her skills in the paint, she can be a big offensive force down the stretch. I also love her hustling down the floor after a defensive rebound to set herself up to receive a possible outlet pass.

Kaylee also pleased me with a couple of back to the basket moves herself. She showed some agility and patience a couple times in the paint to score.

I would like some of our short-range jumpers and layups to fall, we left probably half a dozen points on the floor with misses on high-percentage shots.

Frustrated to see Utah grab 24 offensive rebounds. It seemed like they had 2 or 3 chances off every miss on their end of the floor.

I like that Marta is more aggressive to the basket, but she seems completely allergic to making any jumpers. Did she not make any jump shots in high school? I don't think I've seen a D1-level guard be so reluctant to make a jump shot. She needs to add that to her skillset over the summer or she may have Anna Wilson knocking on her door for playing time next year.

Lili is so frustrating to watch sometimes and I know we've addressed it on the board, but I know she is a better shooter than the 1/7 performance she had to start the game. I thought it was from feeling the pressure to score, but with us playing better on the offensive end, she still continues to struggle mightily at times shooting the ball.

Only 8 turnovers and 2 of them during the waning minutes of the game are a good sign, but we still have a negative turnover margin on the season (409 to 395).

Re: WBB: Stanford 72 Utah 54 - pepper1 - 02-21-2016

Great to see the offensive improvement in the last three games by Marta and Kaylee.  Marta occasionally gets trapped too far under the basket on her drives but has also converted a number of those drives, a big step forward from earlier in the year.  With the potential to be a superb floor-general point guard in the style of Jamila Wideman, it is exciting to see her coming of age ... now if she can only get a semi-credible outside shot.  As others have noted, Kaylee showed some versatile offensive moves today that I had not seen before and continues to be toughly competitive with sublime rebounding skills -- her potential is also very exciting.

With the development of these two, I believe it has given Erica more of an opportunity to realize her star potential.  She was able to lead the Cardinal today to a comfortable road victory against a pretty good team, even with the Cardinal backcourt pretty much MIA on offense.  I find myself becoming cautiously optimistic about the trajectory of the team's improvement going down the homestretch of the season.  Next Friday against the Beavers will be a good measuring stick.