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WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - 81alum - 02-05-2017

Preliminary:

With the emotional win over Washington and the celebratory win over U.SC, we now turn to a very dangerous opponent coming at a time when we might be expected to be emotionally down.  Not a good combination at all.  UCLA is 17-5 after coming off of a tough loss at C.al in a game they were expected to win.  Our RPI is 9 and UCLA is 13.  UCLA is led by pg Jordin Canada and forward Monique Billings, who we would have liked to have at Stanford.  Each is averaging around 18ppg.  Canada is shooting 43%, 33% from three, and has a humongous assist/to ratio.  Billings shoots 49%, grabs 11 rpg and leads her team in blocks.

Overview:

For the first time this year, it was our defense that let us down, and not in the expected way.  Billings and Canada were each held to 50% or less, and we could have survived their onslaught.  But Kori Korver--who has not been having a particularly great shooting year, went 5/7 from three point range, with her bombs falling at critical moments, to decide the game.  Throw in a lackluster first quarter, add a decidedly sub-par free throw shooting night, and polish it off with Kaylee, Nadia, and McCall combining to shoot a horrendous 5/21, and you have a recipe for a loss, which we richly deserved.

Before the Game:

Kate was asked if it was hard to get the team motivated after the Washington heroics and the 1000 win celebration, and she replied no.  In fact, the team was nervous heading in to the SC game since they did not want to screw up the celebration, and getting that nervous energy out of the way was welcome.  She emphasized how athletic UCLA was and that we would have to bring a double on Billings.  UCLA also plays zone some of the time and we did not know how much of it we would see, but we had prepared for it.  Preventing turnovers, boxing out, and getting back on defense quickly were the keys to the game, since UCLA scores so easily in transition.

Flow of the game:

The first quarter was pretty dreadful--not as dreadful as last year or even as the last quarter against SC when we scored 6 points.  But it was still bad.  Karlie got us started well with a jumper and a trey and a free throw, but then we got stuck on 6 points as Billings and Canada combined to score 11 points to give UCLA a 17-6 lead.  Numerous Stanford shots rattled in and out, and each point we scratched out looked painful.  The quarter ended UCLA 22 Stanford 12, and UCLA was scoring fluidly and our points were pained.

The second quarter reversed the emotional lethargy that began the game for Stanford.  McPhee made two quick layups and Alanna made a trey, and just like that we were back to a three point game.  Half way through the quarter we had knotted the score at 25 and then, after losing the lead again, we went on a 7-2 run to close out the half up 40-37 on a Bri trey.

While it was great to have erased a 12 point deficit and be back on top, McCall was 1/6 for 4 points and sat the last few minutes with 2 fouls--the second of which was a completely bogus charge--the replay showed the defender's feet had barely landed on the wood and were certainly not set.  McCall was certainly discombobulated, and I rememberd Cori Close's defense against Chiney that held her to 4 points or somesuch in the Pac 12 tournament a few years ago.  Clearly this was their strategy--sell out to stop McCall and Samuelson and make others beat them.

In the second half, UCLA's FG % went up from 39% to 50%, while ours went down from 50% to 36%.  They shot better than we did when the game was on the line, and that is what cost us the game.  Why?  Billings began to hit fadeaway jumpers from short range that were indefensible--there is no way to defend that shot when it is falling.  Canada was driving and hitting ridiculous layups that always seemed to fall.  But those two were expected to score, and neither one of them did a Plum on us.  It was when Kori Karver hit 3/4 and unheralded Nicole Kornet hit 2/3 and then sank 7/7 free throws  that things turned uglier.  Bri ran smack into a screen and collapsed to the floor, seemingly stunned at the end of the 3rd quarter, and to add insult to injury Alanna was simultaneously called for a foul.  The third quarter ended UCLA 55 Stanford 51, but I did not sense a lot of energy or optimism in the house.

The fourth quarter gave us an opportunity, but we could not entirely close the gap.  We got some stops, but we also threw the ball away needlessly on two critical possessions.  So while overall turnovers were not bad at 5 in the second half, the turnovers by Britt at 3:36 and 3:08 were killers.  It is interesting that Britt got us the two critical defensive plays to win the game at Washington at almost the same time in the game as these two mistakes.  We never got closer than 5 points in the fourth quarter.  This is the first time in quite a while when numerous fans were leaving Maples before the final buzzer.  It was sad.

Performances:

As a team, we did some of the things that Kate said we needed to do.  We kept our turnovers under control, we rebounded as well as UCLA, the number of fouls were about even--which means we had the advantage considering how many deliberate fouls we had to commit at the end.  We hit treys at roughly the same rate they did and the overall FG% for the game was within 1% of each other.  They had 3 more steals and 3 more blocks, while we had 3 more assists.  You won't find an obvious culprit in those overall game stats.  Here is one key to our loss:  UCLA scored 22 points off of free throws, while we scored 13.  That is actually the exact margin of the game.  ALL of their free throws were shot by Billings, Canada, and Kornet.  Some of the fouls were not justified, but some of them were, and while our defense held them down some, we did it by sending them to the line too often.

Individually, we would normally be happy to have 5 different players who each scored 12 or more points.  Karlie was outstanding with 15 points and 7 assists. 

Erica had 14 points on difficult 4/14 shooting and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes.

Alanna had 14 points on 6/12 shooting and 6 rebounds in 24 minutes.  The scoop layup with her left hand as she pivots around her defender worked several times in a row.

McPhee had 13 points on 6/11 shooting, but she only went 1/5 from the line, and had several critical turnovers.  She is such a terrific player but her consistency still seems to be an issue.  0/1 from three point range--until she starts shooting those with confidence the defenses are going to have a much easier job.

Kaylee started but played only 13 minutes, and Nadia played sparingly too.  Tara "went small" for much of the game rather than play either of them for many minutes.  I am not sure what is going on there, but it seems she trusted 6' Karlie to play the 4 rather than to put either of the taller posts in for more time than she could help.  Clearly she saw something in the matchups.

In the daily battle of the point guards, it is hard to say who came out on top.  Bri got hot--especially shooting the three towards the end when the outcome was hopeless, and wound up with 12 points on 4/6 shooting from three point range.  She also had 1 assist and 0 turnovers.  Marta's offense was challenged again--going 0/2 but 4/4 free throws.  But she had 5 assists to 2 turnovers. 

Conclusion:

This one hurt and will make it very difficult to win the Pac 12 regular season.  It is a little early to do the math, but to have a good chance of at least tying OSU for the conference title we need to win out, in my opinion, sweeping the Mountain schools, C.al, and then going to Oregon and beating both Oregon teams on their home courts.  That is a challenge.  Heck, C.al beat UCLA and we couldn't.  We have a whole bunch of challenging games ahead of us.




Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - TheFarm07 - 02-05-2017

The game will also be airing on ESPN2 as the last game of a slate of four Top-25 matchups on Monday evening.

#16 Miami @ #5 Florida State
#12 Louisville @ #7 N.D.
#11 Texas @ #2 Baylor <-- would be great for us if the Longhorns can pull off the upset

Then #15 UCLA @ #8 Stanford

With Oregon State sweeping the Arizona schools over the weekend and UW bouncing back to sweep Colorado and Utah, we must win to keep pace with the Beavers and stay ahead of the Huskies

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - mbdude - 02-06-2017

today's NCAA seeding committee reveal has Stanford as a 2 seed (no 8). Oregon st also 2 seed (no. 7), Washington 3 seed


Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - TheFarm07 - 02-06-2017

We are down 12-22 after one quarter. Early turnovers and a disjointed offense followed by some hot shooting by the Bruins has left us down early. Canada and Billings are converting, while we are now, as Tara tries to find some lineup to get our offense started, already subbing in Smith, Carrington and Fingall in various combinations, but to no avail, as the Bruin defense has kept us largely ineffective.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - BigEasyCard - 02-06-2017

Cardinal just down 1, 28-27 with 4:24 left in 2d.

Geaux Cardinal!

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - CompSci87 - 02-06-2017

Right out of the gate the 2nd quarter looked like a whole different game. Stanford quickly tied it up at 25. After that it was up and down, with the Cardinal up at halftime 40-37.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - BigEasyCard - 02-06-2017

Alanna Smith scores 10 points in 10 minutes.

Geaux Cardinal!

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - TheFarm07 - 02-06-2017

What a difference a quarter makes. We are up 40-37 at halftime thanks to 28 points in the second quarter on 12-16 (75%) shooting.

Brit's two early aggressive drives set the tone early as we seemed to gain more energy and confidence. Smith's presence also was an igniter as a 3-pointer got her going and she has 10 at the half. Karlie is the glue scoring 10 points, but also finding the open teammate as she leads the team with 5 assists.

We were able to cool the Bruins off slightly as well, limiting to 15 points, but our offense was the star of that quarter even as McCall had to sit for a large part of it as she had 2 fouls.

Also, 4 of the Bruins' starters have 2 fouls each. Hopefully we can capitalize on that and continue to be aggressive in the second half.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - TheFarm07 - 02-06-2017

And the roller coaster continues. After an explosive second quarter, we came out with a whimper in the second half missing our first TEN shots and UCLA regains the lead heading into the final ten, 55-51.

Bri ran into the Billings screen with 5 seconds left and hit the ground hard, forcing her exit. Hopefully, she'll be ok. To add insult to injury, Smith was called for her 3rd foul shortly afterwards and Canada, as all premiere guards do, hits a buzzer beating jumper to extend the Bruins lead to 4 as time expires.

McCall is 2-10, missing jumpers and shots left and right, but she is competing on the glass and getting us second opportunities.

Korver is killing on the three, showing NBA-range from downtown

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - Leftcoast - 02-06-2017

72-66 with 3 minutes to go.  UCLA is rolling on O and Stanford needs some defensive stops.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - Leftcoast - 02-06-2017

Final: 85-76 Bad guys.

According to the announcers UCLA earned their first win at Maples since 1999.

Post 1K let down or just more of this team's inconsistency during an up-and-down season?

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - neya - 02-06-2017

was there any play at all to get karlie open? i feel that the 2nd qtr was a success because of her passing and she got more touches in that quarter too.they tried too much on involving mcCall they forgot karlie. tough loss

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - TheFarm07 - 02-06-2017

(02-06-2017, 09:03 PM)leftcoast link Wrote:Final: 85-76 Bad guys.

According to the announcers UCLA earned their first win at Maples since 1999.

Post 1K let down or just more of this team's inconsistency during an up-and-down season?

I don't think it was a letdown, I think it was just another indication that even though we are ranked #8 nationally, we are an inconsistent team. Elite teams don't go 13-20 from the free throw line, elite teams don't have their second leading scorer make two critical turnovers in the 4th quarter after the opposition turns it over themselves with two unforgivable passes that should not have been attempted, elite teams don't go cold for long stretches of the game including 0-10 from the field to start the 3rd quarter

Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - chimera - 02-06-2017

The horrid first quarter was a killer.  Even though we fought back, fighting back like that takes a toll.  Bird had a tough shooting game, a tough game handling the ball, and a tough time with the refs.  Her second foul was not a charge, not even close.  Looking at the box score, there was a lot of good.  Karlie played well.  Alanna was great until she got tired and started fouling.  In fact, for a time she was our best offense.  Bri had a nice shooting game.  We had maybe 6 turnovers in the first 6 or 7 minutes maybe but not that many the rest of the game...until a couple of crucial blown possessions when we could have pulled even late or gotten close enough to scare them.  Brit had some good moments but that late pass into a triple team that got stolen hurt a lot.  Marta does need to shoot, but aside from that (big aside) she kept the turnovers down and got some assists.  Kaylee is struggling a lot.  She looks pretty lost on offense right now.  Nadia too.  She has fallen off a lot from her 60% shooting early in the season.  P-12 is not joke for a freshman.  Our bench is not helping us enough.  On the one hand they are not getting into the game much.  OTOH, nobody who is not playing much is making much of a case for more time when she does get in.  I'm disappointed we are getting so little from our freshmen at this point in the season.

Gotta give it to UCLA  - great game by them.  They played tough defense.  Whenever we got close they made a key three or drew a foul.  Canada and Billings were probably the two most talented players on the court and tonight they played like it while the shooters all went off on us.  They played like they were expect to play when picked as the favorite for the conference.  Too bad we were the victims.  We are not out of the conference race.  UCLA still has to play OSU again I think.  I forget if they have to play UW again too.  I don't know why UCLA was able to get open for so many threes but it was just their night to hit them I guess.

Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - 81alum - 02-06-2017

The post-mortem is done at the top.

Re: WBB: Stanford vs. UCLA 6pm Monday - neya - 02-06-2017

(02-06-2017, 10:06 PM)TheFarm07 link Wrote:[quote author=leftcoast link=topic=16557.msg188279#msg188279 date=1486440239]
Final: 85-76 Bad guys.

According to the announcers UCLA earned their first win at Maples since 1999.

Post 1K let down or just more of this team's inconsistency during an up-and-down season?

I don't think it was a letdown, I think it was just another indication that even though we are ranked #8 nationally, we are an inconsistent team. Elite teams don't go 13-20 from the free throw line, elite teams don't have their second leading scorer make two critical turnovers in the 4th quarter after the opposition turns it over themselves with two unforgivable passes that should not have been attempted, elite teams don't go cold for long stretches of the game including 0-10 from the field to start the 3rd quarter
[/quote]

looking at Mcphee's stat 6/11 FG 7 rebs, not bad if you looked at it but those 5 missed shots could have been less and at least 2 assts more if she learn to pass on bad situation and not forced it.i think she is a very talented player but  she needs to involve her teamates more.and she has more TO than assists..

Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - 81alum - 02-06-2017

Quote:"I'm disappointed but I'm not discouraged," VanDerveer said.

"We didn't take advantage of the free throws -- we left seven points there at the free throw line," VanDerveer said. "We were a step slow on defense. We didn't just miss the and-1s, we missed point-blank layups. We did not have the overall energy, it wasn't the same bench that was at Washington, it wasn't the same bench that was at USC. I don't mean just the bench, it wasn't the same team."

"This is a game about finishing. You don't get any style points," VanDerveer said.
http://www.espn.com/ncw/recap?gameId=400913978

Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - Viking_Guy - 02-06-2017

I have to say at this point I do not want Marta on the floor for long stretches against good teams. Not just 0-2, but that Stanford is playing 4 on 5 in any half court offense. And with Johnson, who we really need for post defense and rebounding, it's 3 on 5. 81A, I think that's the explanation for Johnson's limited minutes, but we had Alanna at the 4 for the most part (doing the 4 on offense, 3 on defense thing at points.)

Ucla ignored Sniezek whenever she didn't have the ball in hand; late in the game, she was standing in the right corner when the ball was on the left side; "her" defender was 5 feet from doubling McCall on the left block. Every Bruin defender was either in or on the near side of the lane.

And at one point in the fourth quarter, Stanford, still in the game, had a 3 on 2 break with their PG with the ball in her hands attacking the left wing. The two defenders split - one going with Samuelson to the left corner, the other fronting McCall on the far block.

Sniezek stopped at the three point line - with NO ONE guarding her or stepping into her path - and passed the ball to a guarded Samuelson.  You have to drive there - draw the defender on McCall and dish, or finish the layup if she backs off.  Instead, they end up playing half court offense against a recovered UCLA d.

It would also be another thing if her defense made up for it. But while she has lightning-quick hands, she has to get tight on defense for them to be effective - and then gets blown by into the lane far too easily. Not to mention going under picks far too readily.

And defense was the difference tonight.  The offense, while intermittent, scored 76 points.  That should be enough to win.  A constant inability to deny penetration, leading to fouls, or defenses rotating to help and leaving shooters, killed us.  Guards going under screens and ending up three feet behind Canada was not a good look.  If you go under the screen, you better be able to get in front of the player driving, because you're conceding the jumper.

Tara - why no zone against a team with one or maybe 1.5 good outside shooters, especially when no one could stay in front of Canada?  Why did our posts never hedge against Canada driving to her left off a pick? And why oh why such a short bench? I would've loved to have seen more of Carrington for energy, or more of Fingall, who actually had an effective run of play against the zone the Bruins showed.

I hope Bri is okay, because I think she needs to play the bulk of the minutes at the point against good teams from now on.

VG

Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - Viking_Guy - 02-07-2017

A few more temperate thoughts:

UCLA is an example of a team we will have trouble with - sides that can effectively single-cover McCall with a long, athletic post player.  When she doesn't draw help defense as often, shooters and drivers are more closely defended on the perimeter.  We got into trouble last night with passes on the perimeter that are normally not nearly as hotly contested.

Bob or anyone who's been tracking, is it still possible for Anna to get an injury hardship year?  Because I'm hoping she would've played last night unless that was a consideration.  And I still would've loved to have seen more of DiJonai, especially given how much foul trouble the Bruins were in and her willingness to both shoot and drive.  Having both her and Karlie in on the wings might be an interesting look.

Would like to see what Karlie could do initiating more of the offense from up top, rather than on the wing; it feels like when she runs the pick play with McCall in that area, things get too crowded.  Especially given that she seems to be by far our best passer off the drive right now.

VG


Re: WBB: UCLA 85 Stanford 76 - BobK - 02-07-2017

VG great point on the crowded point.   
At a chalk talk Tempie said to my question lol that Anna at that time was eligible for a redshirt.      It seems unlike Football there is no rule about playing past the half way point.  I researched can't dispute her.    Plus you know they have discussed it.  Â