Well, perhaps it was a good thing that the Cardboard was down for our most ignominious defeat of the season. Yes, it was a defeat without Brink able to play, but the odds were so much worse for Arizona. Arizona had only 7 players dressed for the game, and they were missing their top player too. Brink being out was no excuse for the performance that happened, even if it was a partial explanation. This defeat will go down with Western Illinois and Santa Clara as being among the worst on our home court, ever.
The Arizona defense was far more effective than in our last game, in which we scored 96 points against them. We did give up 64 points in that game, which (allowing for the deliberate fouls last night) was pretty much the same as last night. So, defensively we did more than well enough to win, especially without our defensive-player of the year on the court.
No, this defeat was a result of an offensive break down. Arizona plays a very close defense and contests every pass and hand off. They want to make it very hard to keep the offensive system running smoothly and they succeeded, much as USC did, in discombobulating us--shaking our confidence.
The way to defeat this kind of defense is with points in transition, with offensive rebounding, with back door cuts, and with drives to the basket--all those scoring opportunities that do not depend on multiple passes and which can catch defenders beyond the point of recovery. We certainly tried those things, but did not execute them very well. We had a couple of back door cuts that were things of beauty, but an equal number of would-be back door cuts that wound up becoming turnovers.
Now it is true that Arizona also had some luck. They banked in two three point shots in the waning minutes of the game--lucky shots that were not the result of bad defense. But the point is that they should never have been allowed to be in the position where a couple of lucky shots could win the game. If we had 96 points who would care about a couple of banked threes by the other side?
With a couple of minutes left in the third we went on a 10 point run to break open a 35-35 tie and grab a 10 point 45-35 lead. The crowd got loud, and a feeling of relief was palpable. Finally we had worn them down and were beginning to put the game away. But the timeout Adia Barnes called may have been the best timeout of her career. We wound up losing the 4th quarter 31-16, after holding them to 9 points in the first quarter. This was fed by untimely turnovers and an offense that went stagnant, seemingly unable to know what to do in crunch time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuPAgV5C6Kg
Tara cites turnovers and "our inability to move the ball."
"We led for 35 minutes but did not do enough to finish. We gave up 14 O-boards and only had 9."
"We did not take care of the ball. We did not run offense. It was disappointing."
Tara said she did not know that Cam would not play until gameday morning. She had not practiced all week. "She's been sick."
In case you can bear to watch, here are the highlight. I haven't seen them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raea1liOUm4
The Arizona defense was far more effective than in our last game, in which we scored 96 points against them. We did give up 64 points in that game, which (allowing for the deliberate fouls last night) was pretty much the same as last night. So, defensively we did more than well enough to win, especially without our defensive-player of the year on the court.
No, this defeat was a result of an offensive break down. Arizona plays a very close defense and contests every pass and hand off. They want to make it very hard to keep the offensive system running smoothly and they succeeded, much as USC did, in discombobulating us--shaking our confidence.
The way to defeat this kind of defense is with points in transition, with offensive rebounding, with back door cuts, and with drives to the basket--all those scoring opportunities that do not depend on multiple passes and which can catch defenders beyond the point of recovery. We certainly tried those things, but did not execute them very well. We had a couple of back door cuts that were things of beauty, but an equal number of would-be back door cuts that wound up becoming turnovers.
Now it is true that Arizona also had some luck. They banked in two three point shots in the waning minutes of the game--lucky shots that were not the result of bad defense. But the point is that they should never have been allowed to be in the position where a couple of lucky shots could win the game. If we had 96 points who would care about a couple of banked threes by the other side?
With a couple of minutes left in the third we went on a 10 point run to break open a 35-35 tie and grab a 10 point 45-35 lead. The crowd got loud, and a feeling of relief was palpable. Finally we had worn them down and were beginning to put the game away. But the timeout Adia Barnes called may have been the best timeout of her career. We wound up losing the 4th quarter 31-16, after holding them to 9 points in the first quarter. This was fed by untimely turnovers and an offense that went stagnant, seemingly unable to know what to do in crunch time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuPAgV5C6Kg
Tara cites turnovers and "our inability to move the ball."
"We led for 35 minutes but did not do enough to finish. We gave up 14 O-boards and only had 9."
"We did not take care of the ball. We did not run offense. It was disappointing."
Tara said she did not know that Cam would not play until gameday morning. She had not practiced all week. "She's been sick."
In case you can bear to watch, here are the highlight. I haven't seen them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raea1liOUm4