12-03-2016, 11:30 PM
Preliminary:
We face off against a very good 5-1 UC Davis in our last home game for almost a month. Davis hasn't played anyone substantial, but they are a winning program with nothing to lose and Gonzaga should have taught us to take nothing for granted. Two years ago Bonnie hit 30 points to beat them, last year Bri and Alanna had good games.Â
Davis is led by Canadian Dani Nafekh, a 5'11" junior guard who is averaging 15 points and 61% of her three point tries, and by Morgan Bertsch, a 6'4" redshirt sophomore forward who is averaging 16 points on 58% shooting. The team is well balanced, however, with two other starters in double digits. This is the team that used to play that very odd zone, but I don't know if they still use it--box and 1 I think.
Overview:
A superb first quarter with crisp passing and numerous assists preceded a somewhat dreary 3 quarter grind-it-out with many fewer assists, as Stanford coasts to a win.
Flow of the Game:
Tara started the small lineup again, with McCall joined by Karli at the 4, Britt at the 3, Bri at the 2, and Marta at point. During the chalk talk Tempie explained that we had been using Karlie at the four whenever we felt there was a forward she could guard, since she gives us more experience and having an extra shooter helps to open up the offense at the other end. To me, that says that Tara is quite uncertain about the 4 position since Kaylee's injury. Kaylee should be back for Pac 12 play, we hope.
The first quarter was one of the prettiest quarters to watch in quite some time. We were passing fluidly, quickly, and assisting on numerous layups. Meanwhile, the defense was well prepared for Davis's offense. In the past Davis has been said to use the Princeton offense, but Tempie said to expect an offense where players were breaking to the basket constantly. We didn't see a lot of that. Our players were superbly prepared to cut off those breaks--I saw only a couple successful backdoor cuts all game.  Davis was flumuxed and had scored only 5 points until they hit a trey with seconds on the clock at the end of the first quarter. There were a couple of concerns in the first quarter--Karlie had missed all her threes, and everyone was missing free throws. Still, the quarter ended Stanford 20 Davis 8.
In the second quarter, our defense continued to play well and limited Davis to only 12 points. Our offense slowed down some, however, as Alanna and Nadia entered the game and we abandoned the small offense. Erica began converting some layups, Bri hit a three, and Britt took it to the basket and got a couple of layups, including one reverse, and an +1, although she failed to convert the free throw. The half ended Stanford 36 Davis 20. We hit only 1 of 8 treys, Karlie missing all 3 of her attempts, and we made only 1/8 free throws, which was a team effort. Tara had Karlie come out at the end of the half to practice her threes, and she even rebounded for her briefly. The message was clear.
The third quarter, however, was not good from the standpoint of offense, but our defense continued to smother Davis, giving up just 6 points. I guess the disadvantage of having a clever system is that when the other side "solves" it you have nothing to fall back on. But on offense it was a frustrating quarter. Our first basket came half way through the quarter by DiJonai after a Bri steal. We had some free throws prior to that, but missed layups, jumpers, and a turnover made us look inept compared with the first quarter. Other than free throws, two layups by DiJonai and one by McCall were the whole production. Stanford 47 Davis 26.
The fourth quarter was a time of experimentation and it seemed to work on offense but not on defense. Marta, Alanna, Alexa, Nadia all scored in the early going, but we also began to give up some jumpers. Alexa's shot looked good today, and she hit a three to put us over 60 and I sighed from relief. I hate defensive slugfests when the winning team is in the fifties.  We traded baskets and the clock ran out Stanford 68 Davis 42.
Performances:
I don't entirely trust wins when we simply overpower a smaller team, usually measured in a massive rebounding advantage--it is an advantage we will not have most of the rest of the year. And that was what happened today, where we collected 36 defensive rebounds to their 25, or a total of 54 rebounds to their 38. We held them to 23% shooting, while we shot 44%--should have been higher. Once again, our three point shooting was terrible, a horrific 16%, and our free throw shooting wound up at 38%. Those statistics will cost us games, perhaps beginning at Tennessee, if we don't straighten them out quickly.Â
As for individuals, Erica was reliable as always, with another double/double of 17 points and 13 rebounds. Tara even sent her back in late in the fourth quarter to steady the team of frosh and sophomores that were a bit shaky.
McPhee did quite well with 11 points, but they were not especially efficient. She missed both of her three point attempts, made 3/5 free throws, and was most effective making layups while crashing into blocking defenders. One of the replays showed pretty clearly that McPhee should have been called for charging. She is fearless but needs to avoid being reckless.
No one else was in double digits. Bri was having a superb game in the first half with 7 points, but then not another point from her. Karlie shockingly ended up with 2 points--both early in the first half. It was a nice basket--she faked the three and got her defender to jump up in the air, then calmly went around her to swoosh a mid range jumper. But other than that, she was 0/5, had only 1 rebound, and a couple of assists. She did not seem like her normal self.
As for the other bigs, Alanna was 2/2 with 7 rebounds and 1 foul in 18 minutes. Before the game Tempie noted that Alanna had gained confidence this year and was learning the American system. There were some physical moves that are quite acceptable in international play that get called fouls often in American play. That was the hardest adjustment for her--she has mostly learned but still sometimes relapses. It is hard to change many years of training.
Nadia was 3/8 with 8 rebounds and 2 fouls in 18 minutes. Before the game Tempie said that Nadia was coming along and she would not be surprised if she got a start before the end of the year. But she did many things for her high school team and has to learn to work more within the Stanford system, where she needs to be more specialized and play on the blocks. She can make threes, but we have other people to do that. Tempie was pretty clear that they don't want to see her shooting threes, even though she can be successful. Well, this game Nadia was 0/2 from three point range.
Both point guards distributed fairly well. Marta had 5 assists to 3 turnovers, one or two overly aggressive passes. Bri had 3 assists to 1 turnover. However, there were several times when Marta was open for a three and she passed up the chance. Perhaps it was too early in the shot clock. On the other hand, she let the clock wind down on a couple of occasions and took it to the basket herself at the last second. Sadly, only 1 of 6 such efforts went in.
Conclusion:
It is hard for me to believe that Tara will start a small lineup against Tennessee, which has many talented large players. Will it be Alanna or Nadia? Either way, we simply have to get our guards to shoot threes better than this, and we have to sink at least the majority of our free throws, if we expect to return from our coming road trip with even a single win.Â
We face off against a very good 5-1 UC Davis in our last home game for almost a month. Davis hasn't played anyone substantial, but they are a winning program with nothing to lose and Gonzaga should have taught us to take nothing for granted. Two years ago Bonnie hit 30 points to beat them, last year Bri and Alanna had good games.Â
Davis is led by Canadian Dani Nafekh, a 5'11" junior guard who is averaging 15 points and 61% of her three point tries, and by Morgan Bertsch, a 6'4" redshirt sophomore forward who is averaging 16 points on 58% shooting. The team is well balanced, however, with two other starters in double digits. This is the team that used to play that very odd zone, but I don't know if they still use it--box and 1 I think.
Overview:
A superb first quarter with crisp passing and numerous assists preceded a somewhat dreary 3 quarter grind-it-out with many fewer assists, as Stanford coasts to a win.
Flow of the Game:
Tara started the small lineup again, with McCall joined by Karli at the 4, Britt at the 3, Bri at the 2, and Marta at point. During the chalk talk Tempie explained that we had been using Karlie at the four whenever we felt there was a forward she could guard, since she gives us more experience and having an extra shooter helps to open up the offense at the other end. To me, that says that Tara is quite uncertain about the 4 position since Kaylee's injury. Kaylee should be back for Pac 12 play, we hope.
The first quarter was one of the prettiest quarters to watch in quite some time. We were passing fluidly, quickly, and assisting on numerous layups. Meanwhile, the defense was well prepared for Davis's offense. In the past Davis has been said to use the Princeton offense, but Tempie said to expect an offense where players were breaking to the basket constantly. We didn't see a lot of that. Our players were superbly prepared to cut off those breaks--I saw only a couple successful backdoor cuts all game.  Davis was flumuxed and had scored only 5 points until they hit a trey with seconds on the clock at the end of the first quarter. There were a couple of concerns in the first quarter--Karlie had missed all her threes, and everyone was missing free throws. Still, the quarter ended Stanford 20 Davis 8.
In the second quarter, our defense continued to play well and limited Davis to only 12 points. Our offense slowed down some, however, as Alanna and Nadia entered the game and we abandoned the small offense. Erica began converting some layups, Bri hit a three, and Britt took it to the basket and got a couple of layups, including one reverse, and an +1, although she failed to convert the free throw. The half ended Stanford 36 Davis 20. We hit only 1 of 8 treys, Karlie missing all 3 of her attempts, and we made only 1/8 free throws, which was a team effort. Tara had Karlie come out at the end of the half to practice her threes, and she even rebounded for her briefly. The message was clear.
The third quarter, however, was not good from the standpoint of offense, but our defense continued to smother Davis, giving up just 6 points. I guess the disadvantage of having a clever system is that when the other side "solves" it you have nothing to fall back on. But on offense it was a frustrating quarter. Our first basket came half way through the quarter by DiJonai after a Bri steal. We had some free throws prior to that, but missed layups, jumpers, and a turnover made us look inept compared with the first quarter. Other than free throws, two layups by DiJonai and one by McCall were the whole production. Stanford 47 Davis 26.
The fourth quarter was a time of experimentation and it seemed to work on offense but not on defense. Marta, Alanna, Alexa, Nadia all scored in the early going, but we also began to give up some jumpers. Alexa's shot looked good today, and she hit a three to put us over 60 and I sighed from relief. I hate defensive slugfests when the winning team is in the fifties.  We traded baskets and the clock ran out Stanford 68 Davis 42.
Performances:
I don't entirely trust wins when we simply overpower a smaller team, usually measured in a massive rebounding advantage--it is an advantage we will not have most of the rest of the year. And that was what happened today, where we collected 36 defensive rebounds to their 25, or a total of 54 rebounds to their 38. We held them to 23% shooting, while we shot 44%--should have been higher. Once again, our three point shooting was terrible, a horrific 16%, and our free throw shooting wound up at 38%. Those statistics will cost us games, perhaps beginning at Tennessee, if we don't straighten them out quickly.Â
As for individuals, Erica was reliable as always, with another double/double of 17 points and 13 rebounds. Tara even sent her back in late in the fourth quarter to steady the team of frosh and sophomores that were a bit shaky.
McPhee did quite well with 11 points, but they were not especially efficient. She missed both of her three point attempts, made 3/5 free throws, and was most effective making layups while crashing into blocking defenders. One of the replays showed pretty clearly that McPhee should have been called for charging. She is fearless but needs to avoid being reckless.
No one else was in double digits. Bri was having a superb game in the first half with 7 points, but then not another point from her. Karlie shockingly ended up with 2 points--both early in the first half. It was a nice basket--she faked the three and got her defender to jump up in the air, then calmly went around her to swoosh a mid range jumper. But other than that, she was 0/5, had only 1 rebound, and a couple of assists. She did not seem like her normal self.
As for the other bigs, Alanna was 2/2 with 7 rebounds and 1 foul in 18 minutes. Before the game Tempie noted that Alanna had gained confidence this year and was learning the American system. There were some physical moves that are quite acceptable in international play that get called fouls often in American play. That was the hardest adjustment for her--she has mostly learned but still sometimes relapses. It is hard to change many years of training.
Nadia was 3/8 with 8 rebounds and 2 fouls in 18 minutes. Before the game Tempie said that Nadia was coming along and she would not be surprised if she got a start before the end of the year. But she did many things for her high school team and has to learn to work more within the Stanford system, where she needs to be more specialized and play on the blocks. She can make threes, but we have other people to do that. Tempie was pretty clear that they don't want to see her shooting threes, even though she can be successful. Well, this game Nadia was 0/2 from three point range.
Both point guards distributed fairly well. Marta had 5 assists to 3 turnovers, one or two overly aggressive passes. Bri had 3 assists to 1 turnover. However, there were several times when Marta was open for a three and she passed up the chance. Perhaps it was too early in the shot clock. On the other hand, she let the clock wind down on a couple of occasions and took it to the basket herself at the last second. Sadly, only 1 of 6 such efforts went in.
Conclusion:
It is hard for me to believe that Tara will start a small lineup against Tennessee, which has many talented large players. Will it be Alanna or Nadia? Either way, we simply have to get our guards to shoot threes better than this, and we have to sink at least the majority of our free throws, if we expect to return from our coming road trip with even a single win.Â
