My observations on the game:
Overall:
Gonzaga was down to 7 players. Tennessee played them rough and they sustained two injuries in that game. Another player went out with a different injury. And apparently mono knocked out a couple players for today. So we were not playing a full strength Gonzaga team. Despite this, Gonzaga came to play and played us tight early on. Have to respect them for making it a close game (for a time) with half the players we had available.
Positives:
1. Brink played 31 minutes with only 1 foul. She was visibly restraining herself and more in control. As a result, she got a double double with 14 points and 16 rebounds against a physical zone offense that was giving up nothing in the paint.
2. Demetre had a break out game, scoring 17 points and at one point going 4/5 from three point range. Gonzaga was giving us the three point shot and it was Demetre who made them pay a high price for that stategy.
3. Jones had 6 assists and 0 turnovers--her most outstanding game for facilitation probably ever. She also had 12 points.
4. Jump had a terrific second half. Her first half was pedestrian, but she was 4/5 from three point range in the second.
5. Our second half defense on Kaylynne Truong was good--holding their hottest scorer to 2 points. Tara noted that fixing our defense on this "crafty, clever" player was a priority at halftime.
6. Our defense against Yvonne Ejim was excellent all game--holding their leading scorer to 8 points.
7. Rebounding was generally good.
8. 39 bench points.
9. We shot 54% from three point range and made a whopping 15 treys.
Negatives:
1. Defense on Kaylynne Truong in the first half was woeful. She scored from everywhere, including 4/7 treys, for 20 points. Tara sent Lepolo, Nivar, Emma-Nnopu to guard her and they all essentially failed in that half. As Tara said, they "all learned a lesson." Truong had techniques that shook her defenders and got her open over and over.
2. Lepolo had 3 assists and 3 turnovers, and seemed somewhat mortal, particularly in the first half when she could not stay with Truong. Part of the freshman learning curve.
3. Attendance at 3731 was about half what it was for South Carolina.
4. Points-in-the-paint. We had a 26-18 advantage. One might think that with our posts and Gonzaga's depleted team we should have done much better inside. Clearly we struggled to get it inside versus the zone. Gonzaga is not primarily a zone team--they may have installed it just for us, or perhaps they installed it once they knew they only had 7 players.
Conclusion:
A nice win that we should all be pleased to get. Hopefully it won't give us false confidence going forward considering we were playing 1/2 of a Gonzaga team. Tara seemed to think our players would learn some important lessons.
Now two weeks off for finals, then a very angry Tennessee and a superb Creighton and then Cal, all three within a few days.
Our highlights on Pac 12 site:
https://pac-12.com/videos/no-2-stanford-...23-gonzaga
Post game interview with Demetre. Both of her parents were athletes for Gonzaga!
https://pac-12.com/videos/stanfords-broo...23-gonzaga
Mary Murphy final commentary on the game.
https://pac-12.com/videos/mary-murphy-ev...23-gonzaga
Overall:
Gonzaga was down to 7 players. Tennessee played them rough and they sustained two injuries in that game. Another player went out with a different injury. And apparently mono knocked out a couple players for today. So we were not playing a full strength Gonzaga team. Despite this, Gonzaga came to play and played us tight early on. Have to respect them for making it a close game (for a time) with half the players we had available.
Positives:
1. Brink played 31 minutes with only 1 foul. She was visibly restraining herself and more in control. As a result, she got a double double with 14 points and 16 rebounds against a physical zone offense that was giving up nothing in the paint.
2. Demetre had a break out game, scoring 17 points and at one point going 4/5 from three point range. Gonzaga was giving us the three point shot and it was Demetre who made them pay a high price for that stategy.
3. Jones had 6 assists and 0 turnovers--her most outstanding game for facilitation probably ever. She also had 12 points.
4. Jump had a terrific second half. Her first half was pedestrian, but she was 4/5 from three point range in the second.
5. Our second half defense on Kaylynne Truong was good--holding their hottest scorer to 2 points. Tara noted that fixing our defense on this "crafty, clever" player was a priority at halftime.
6. Our defense against Yvonne Ejim was excellent all game--holding their leading scorer to 8 points.
7. Rebounding was generally good.
8. 39 bench points.
9. We shot 54% from three point range and made a whopping 15 treys.
Negatives:
1. Defense on Kaylynne Truong in the first half was woeful. She scored from everywhere, including 4/7 treys, for 20 points. Tara sent Lepolo, Nivar, Emma-Nnopu to guard her and they all essentially failed in that half. As Tara said, they "all learned a lesson." Truong had techniques that shook her defenders and got her open over and over.
2. Lepolo had 3 assists and 3 turnovers, and seemed somewhat mortal, particularly in the first half when she could not stay with Truong. Part of the freshman learning curve.
3. Attendance at 3731 was about half what it was for South Carolina.
4. Points-in-the-paint. We had a 26-18 advantage. One might think that with our posts and Gonzaga's depleted team we should have done much better inside. Clearly we struggled to get it inside versus the zone. Gonzaga is not primarily a zone team--they may have installed it just for us, or perhaps they installed it once they knew they only had 7 players.
Conclusion:
A nice win that we should all be pleased to get. Hopefully it won't give us false confidence going forward considering we were playing 1/2 of a Gonzaga team. Tara seemed to think our players would learn some important lessons.
Now two weeks off for finals, then a very angry Tennessee and a superb Creighton and then Cal, all three within a few days.
Our highlights on Pac 12 site:
https://pac-12.com/videos/no-2-stanford-...23-gonzaga
Post game interview with Demetre. Both of her parents were athletes for Gonzaga!
https://pac-12.com/videos/stanfords-broo...23-gonzaga
Mary Murphy final commentary on the game.
https://pac-12.com/videos/mary-murphy-ev...23-gonzaga