Preview:
Colorado is 13-4, rated 44th by Massey and 50th in RPI. If you believe those ratings it would be in the same ballpark as Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio State. It has beaten Wisconsin, Xavier, and USC and lost to UCLA by a single basket. It split two games with Utah. It lost to Oregon by almost 60 points and to Oregon State by a dozen. Their coach, JR Payne, inflicted one of our most embarrassing losses on us a few years back when we lost to Santa Clara at Maples in an ugly defensive, low scoring game.
Colorado has 4 consistent starters and then a platoon for the fifth slot. Among the four is their leading scorer, # 21 Mya Hollingshed, a 6’3” junior forward who was a starter all last year. She is averaging 14 ppg and 7 rpg. She also shoots threes well at 37%. I presume Nadia will defend her.
Overview:
First there was Gonzaga, and now there is Colorado. It is a sign of how things have changed that we were disappointed last fall when we had to go to overtime to beat Gonzaga, and now we are excited and grateful for the win when Colorado did the same. Of a roster of 15, 5 could not play tonight due to injury, including 3 who had started at some time earlier in the season. Our depleted, patched up unit--led by Lexie who had a career high in points, and freshman Prectel, managed to do just enough to win on their home floor. And the crowd, a pathetic 2800 after we returned from crowds of 12,000 in Eugene and 9,000 in Corvallis, screamed itself hoarse trying to help push our kids over the top. I think it may have helped just a little.
Flow of the game:
JR Payne coaches teams that play and often win ugly. She beat us at Maples as coach of Santa Clara in 2015--a game in which we scored 8 points in the first quarter. She has taken her aggressive philosophy to Colorado, where having a deep rotation permits her players to commit lots of fouls. Colorado out fouled us 24 to 13, and they probably should have been called for twice that number. Contending with this physical style of play is difficult at best, but in missing Dodson, Carrington, Jerome, and Jones we were missing 4 of our most physical players.
Colorado's defense discombobulated us--particularly Williams who started out 0/7. Meanwhile, Lacie could not keep glued on the Colorado freshman sensation Jaylyn Sherrod, who hit treys and also cut to the basket with a quickness that our bigs could not keep up with. The first quarter ended Colorado 21 Stanford 13, with neither our offense or our defense looking very good. Worst of all, we were being grossly outrebounded--Colorado had more offensive rebounds than we had defensive ones. They got 2 or 3 chances most trips down the floor.
Tara had us play zone in the second quarter, and it immediately showed results. Colorado was completely unprepared for it. Colorado did not make a basket in the quarter--though they eked out 4 points on free throws. Our offense was still not clicking--we managed 14 and finished up the half ahead 27-25. But in that quarter 4 of our players made one basket each, and with a few free throws, that was it. Colorado was doing a good job of cutting off all interior passes and swarming anyone who came into the paint, but they always seemed to be covering the three point shooters too. Jenna Brown got quite a bit of time in this quarter helping with the zone on the perimeter, and she seemed to acquit herself defensively quite well.
The third quarter did not go as well. Our offense was creeping along for the third straight quarter--we only managed 12 points--and Tara did not stick with the zone the whole quarter. Colorado scored 16, taking the lead back 41-39, when we went more than 5 minutes without scoring a point.
In the fourth the defenses both began to break down. We took the lead on a Jump trey, and through the middle of the quarter we traded baskets, with Lexie being our most reliable shooter. But by 3:27 Colorado had strung together more baskets than we had, and Aubrey Knight hit an off balance, defended trey to give Colorado a 7 point lead. I imagine most of us thought that was insurmountable, given how labored our offense had become. But Williams and Prechtel both hit treys, and Williams fed Lexie for a layup for a 1 point lead with 19 seconds left. I turned to my neighbor and bemoaned the clock. Of all the times we have run the clock down, and this time we left plenty of time for Colorado. Sure enough, Colorado hit an impossible trey with 2 seconds left for a 2 point lead and I felt ill.
Fortunately, in WBB you can advance the ball on a time out, and Tara did this. We had a pass-and-shoot situation. I and virtually everyone in Maples was watching the perimeter to see who would heave it from beyond the arc. But Lacie threw a perfect pass to Prechtel cutting to the basket, and she put in the layup to tie the game with .2 seconds left and send it to overtime.
In overtime it was an exchange of baskets for the first three minutes, but with two minutes left Prechtel put in a layup for a 1 point lead, then stole the ball back. Lexie made a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound (we needed more of those!) and we had a 3 point lead with 40 seconds left. The fouling game began, and we sank 5 free throws to win 76-68.
Performances:
As a team, we had many advantages on the stat sheet: we had 20 points off turnovers to their 10, 14 turnovers to their 21, 17 assists to their 9, and only 13 fouls to their 24. How could the game have been this close? The answer is in rebounding. Deep into the game we did not have a single offensive rebound. At the half we had 8 to their 13. We evened it up a lot in the 4th quarter, but even so Colorado outrebounded us. The 19 points we scored on free throws was clearly critical to our victory--so Colorado did pay a price.
This was Lexie's career night with 29 points. She was the only player I think who scored in every quarter, and she did a lot of other things well too.
Prechtel got a start tonight--only her second start. She played only 24 minutes--Belibi played 26. Prechtel scored 12, Belibi 11. Prechtel grabbed 4 rebounds Belibi 5 (4 of those offensive!) What was truly remarkable was that all 4 of Prechtel's rebounds came in the final 5 minutes of regulation. On paper they looked equal, but Belibi had long minutes early in the game when she was ineffective on offense. She got going much better later when she received the ball a little further from the basket and attacked, rather than trying to score from under the rim. Neither of them showed the ability to stop speedy little Sherrod or to block her shots.
Fingall and Williams both played over 40 minutes. Fingall finished with 6 points--two three pointers. While those were welcome, she did not score around the basket at all. Williams was 0/5 in the first half but had more success in the second half and overtime.
Lacie had 4 points, but she also led with 7 rebounds and 4 steals--all in 27 minutes. Jump, Brown, and Wilson had cameos with Brown's being the most significant at 15 minutes.
Conclusion:
The injury carnage has taken a toll, and I am revising my expectations for the season. But I am thrilled that despite all the injuries we found a way to pull this game out. If Lexie has a few more games like that, she will become a superstar, and Prechtel and Belibi are both making giant strides into the college game.
Colorado is 13-4, rated 44th by Massey and 50th in RPI. If you believe those ratings it would be in the same ballpark as Tennessee, Texas, and Ohio State. It has beaten Wisconsin, Xavier, and USC and lost to UCLA by a single basket. It split two games with Utah. It lost to Oregon by almost 60 points and to Oregon State by a dozen. Their coach, JR Payne, inflicted one of our most embarrassing losses on us a few years back when we lost to Santa Clara at Maples in an ugly defensive, low scoring game.
Colorado has 4 consistent starters and then a platoon for the fifth slot. Among the four is their leading scorer, # 21 Mya Hollingshed, a 6’3” junior forward who was a starter all last year. She is averaging 14 ppg and 7 rpg. She also shoots threes well at 37%. I presume Nadia will defend her.
Overview:
First there was Gonzaga, and now there is Colorado. It is a sign of how things have changed that we were disappointed last fall when we had to go to overtime to beat Gonzaga, and now we are excited and grateful for the win when Colorado did the same. Of a roster of 15, 5 could not play tonight due to injury, including 3 who had started at some time earlier in the season. Our depleted, patched up unit--led by Lexie who had a career high in points, and freshman Prectel, managed to do just enough to win on their home floor. And the crowd, a pathetic 2800 after we returned from crowds of 12,000 in Eugene and 9,000 in Corvallis, screamed itself hoarse trying to help push our kids over the top. I think it may have helped just a little.
Flow of the game:
JR Payne coaches teams that play and often win ugly. She beat us at Maples as coach of Santa Clara in 2015--a game in which we scored 8 points in the first quarter. She has taken her aggressive philosophy to Colorado, where having a deep rotation permits her players to commit lots of fouls. Colorado out fouled us 24 to 13, and they probably should have been called for twice that number. Contending with this physical style of play is difficult at best, but in missing Dodson, Carrington, Jerome, and Jones we were missing 4 of our most physical players.
Colorado's defense discombobulated us--particularly Williams who started out 0/7. Meanwhile, Lacie could not keep glued on the Colorado freshman sensation Jaylyn Sherrod, who hit treys and also cut to the basket with a quickness that our bigs could not keep up with. The first quarter ended Colorado 21 Stanford 13, with neither our offense or our defense looking very good. Worst of all, we were being grossly outrebounded--Colorado had more offensive rebounds than we had defensive ones. They got 2 or 3 chances most trips down the floor.
Tara had us play zone in the second quarter, and it immediately showed results. Colorado was completely unprepared for it. Colorado did not make a basket in the quarter--though they eked out 4 points on free throws. Our offense was still not clicking--we managed 14 and finished up the half ahead 27-25. But in that quarter 4 of our players made one basket each, and with a few free throws, that was it. Colorado was doing a good job of cutting off all interior passes and swarming anyone who came into the paint, but they always seemed to be covering the three point shooters too. Jenna Brown got quite a bit of time in this quarter helping with the zone on the perimeter, and she seemed to acquit herself defensively quite well.
The third quarter did not go as well. Our offense was creeping along for the third straight quarter--we only managed 12 points--and Tara did not stick with the zone the whole quarter. Colorado scored 16, taking the lead back 41-39, when we went more than 5 minutes without scoring a point.
In the fourth the defenses both began to break down. We took the lead on a Jump trey, and through the middle of the quarter we traded baskets, with Lexie being our most reliable shooter. But by 3:27 Colorado had strung together more baskets than we had, and Aubrey Knight hit an off balance, defended trey to give Colorado a 7 point lead. I imagine most of us thought that was insurmountable, given how labored our offense had become. But Williams and Prechtel both hit treys, and Williams fed Lexie for a layup for a 1 point lead with 19 seconds left. I turned to my neighbor and bemoaned the clock. Of all the times we have run the clock down, and this time we left plenty of time for Colorado. Sure enough, Colorado hit an impossible trey with 2 seconds left for a 2 point lead and I felt ill.
Fortunately, in WBB you can advance the ball on a time out, and Tara did this. We had a pass-and-shoot situation. I and virtually everyone in Maples was watching the perimeter to see who would heave it from beyond the arc. But Lacie threw a perfect pass to Prechtel cutting to the basket, and she put in the layup to tie the game with .2 seconds left and send it to overtime.
In overtime it was an exchange of baskets for the first three minutes, but with two minutes left Prechtel put in a layup for a 1 point lead, then stole the ball back. Lexie made a layup after grabbing an offensive rebound (we needed more of those!) and we had a 3 point lead with 40 seconds left. The fouling game began, and we sank 5 free throws to win 76-68.
Performances:
As a team, we had many advantages on the stat sheet: we had 20 points off turnovers to their 10, 14 turnovers to their 21, 17 assists to their 9, and only 13 fouls to their 24. How could the game have been this close? The answer is in rebounding. Deep into the game we did not have a single offensive rebound. At the half we had 8 to their 13. We evened it up a lot in the 4th quarter, but even so Colorado outrebounded us. The 19 points we scored on free throws was clearly critical to our victory--so Colorado did pay a price.
This was Lexie's career night with 29 points. She was the only player I think who scored in every quarter, and she did a lot of other things well too.
Prechtel got a start tonight--only her second start. She played only 24 minutes--Belibi played 26. Prechtel scored 12, Belibi 11. Prechtel grabbed 4 rebounds Belibi 5 (4 of those offensive!) What was truly remarkable was that all 4 of Prechtel's rebounds came in the final 5 minutes of regulation. On paper they looked equal, but Belibi had long minutes early in the game when she was ineffective on offense. She got going much better later when she received the ball a little further from the basket and attacked, rather than trying to score from under the rim. Neither of them showed the ability to stop speedy little Sherrod or to block her shots.
Fingall and Williams both played over 40 minutes. Fingall finished with 6 points--two three pointers. While those were welcome, she did not score around the basket at all. Williams was 0/5 in the first half but had more success in the second half and overtime.
Lacie had 4 points, but she also led with 7 rebounds and 4 steals--all in 27 minutes. Jump, Brown, and Wilson had cameos with Brown's being the most significant at 15 minutes.
Conclusion:
The injury carnage has taken a toll, and I am revising my expectations for the season. But I am thrilled that despite all the injuries we found a way to pull this game out. If Lexie has a few more games like that, she will become a superstar, and Prechtel and Belibi are both making giant strides into the college game.