[Maple Leaf]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow. Just wow.

---

45 fouls were called.  While they were evenly distributed between the teams, they disrupted the flow of the game and many were either bad calls or should have been no calls.  Usually in the tourney the refs let the teams play.  Not tonight.

Agree 100%. Zebras had way too much influence in this game.

---

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

A W is a W.

Whatever that tired cliche means. More specifically, a limping-to-the-finish W can ALSO be a harbinger of an ensuing disappointing L, in the sense that some bad habits revealed in the W can prove to be one's undoing a subsequent game's L. Face it, Stanford played HORRIBLY in Q4 and nothing Tara did stopped the collapse. We were outscored 30 to 13 in Q4! Where was the leadership of Haley or Anna or Lexie to rally the troops? Come to think of it, does this team actually have a leader (among its players)? I would have thought that Haley would have assumed that role by now.

Maryland does deserve some credit, they are very talented, but earlier on they had problems with Stanford's defense and offense schemes, it took Maryland 3/4's of the game to figure out what was going on and how to attack.

[Maple Leaf]

doesn't show up on the stat sheet, but anna wilson held katie benzan scoreless! benzan averages 10.6 a game.

(from the washington post)  “You look at their size from two through five, that length gave us fits,” Frese said. “And then you put Anna Wilson as that pest defensively. She gave Katie [Benzan] no open looks. Her defensive pressure and intensity was unbelievable."

Wow. Just wow.

---

45 fouls were called.  While they were evenly distributed between the teams, they disrupted the flow of the game and many were either bad calls or should have been no calls.  Usually in the tourney the refs let the teams play.  Not tonight.

Agree 100%. Zebras had way too much influence in this game.

---

Yeah, a win is a win, but the way we managed to turn a romp into a close game was really something.

I can think of many other less flattering characterizations than "really something." It is unacceptable for a team with championship aspirations. I have the sense that Stanford is not a particularly good foul shooting team. That could come back to bite us in any of the three-max remaining matchups where we will need every point we can get.

Is it unacceptable though? Consider: we won the championship last year by defeating each of our Final Four opponents by a single point after blowing decent 2nd half leads in both games. Would you give those games back?

We won. We held an exceptional offense to one of its lowest point totals of the season. Did we have a dismal 4th quarter? Yes. But we still won, and in fact never trailed the entire game.

A W is a W.

Whatever that tired cliche means. More specifically, a limping-to-the-finish W can ALSO be a harbinger of an ensuing disappointing L, in the sense that some bad habits revealed in the W can prove to be one's undoing a subsequent game's L. Face it, Stanford played HORRIBLY in Q4 and nothing Tara did stopped the collapse. We were outscored 30 to 13 in Q4! Where was the leadership of Haley or Anna or Lexie to rally the troops? Come to think of it, does this team actually have a leader (among its players)? I would have thought that Haley would have assumed that role by now.

Maryland does deserve some credit, they are very talented, but earlier on they had problems with Stanford's defense and offense schemes, it took Maryland 3/4's of the game to figure out what was going on and how to attack.