01-16-2015, 11:16 PM
Overview:
We beat the worst team in the Pac 12 rather handily and earned lots of playing time for the bench. I thought there were three notable developments:
1) The breakout of Erica McCall, who came off the bench to score 12 on 6/8 shooting and began to show glimpses of her true talent level, plus she grabbed 16 rebounds for a double-double, and had three blocks;
2) The continued development of Bri Roberson, who played substantial minutes and was excellent on defense as well as going 4/5 on some nifty moves as well as 4/4 on free throws;
3) What I hope is the end of Karlie's slump--she hit 4/5 three point shots and did not seem to be afraid to shoot.
Before the Game
Kate talked to the boosters and answered a few questions. The mood was upbeat after the two wins in Washington, although she says they told the team that they don't have to make their games quite so exciting! There was not a lot new revealed. She stated what is obvious--our defense is doing rather well, our offense is behind. She thought the defense played well against the two Washington schools despite the relatively high scores, considering the quality of the opposition guard play.
There was a question about when we would see Kaylee and Erica McCall play together, and we got the familiar answer about the stretch four. The other teams were planting two posts in the paint and using them to guard and block our penetrating guards, ignoring our posts. The stretch four gives us more shooters to create space for drives. She did say there would be teams when we would need two "bigs" for defense, but Arizona, which plays three guards, was not one of them.
Flow of the Game
Tara seems to have really dialed in on the starting lineup of Kaylee (5), Bonnie (4), Karlie (3), Lili (2), and Amber (1). By four minutes into the game we led 10-4 on the strength of a Bonnie trey and a very welcome Karlie trey. Kaylee picked up two fouls relatively early and Erica came in and got quite a lot of time, and generally acquitted herself well. Arizona bench forward Breanna Workman proved difficult to defend and got around both Kaylee and McCall from time to time. But 7 minutes in Arizona was still stuck on 4--our defense was working extremely well--and we were up to 17. Arizona never threatened, and the lead stretched to thirty points at times. In the second half we had four bench players playing with Lili or Amber for long stretches, and for the last five minutes it was Tess, E Payne, Rooks, Alex, and Bri for a while. In short, this was a blowout from start to finish and felt much more like our typical games of a year ago.
Performances
I mentioned the 3 most notable in the overview. In addition, Bonnie led all scoring with 14 on 5/8 shooting. She drained several treys on inside-out passes when standing all along at the top of the arc.Â
Kaylee seemed to be playing well but got relatively few minutes because of foul trouble--creating opportunity for McCall. Her stat line was quiet.
Lili scored 12 points but missed all 4 of her trey attempts. She had some spectacular steals and missed the layups at the other end. She pounded the floor in frustration after the second of them.Â
Amber scored 7 and had 5 assists and 2 steals to go with 1 turnover. An efficient game.
Taylor Greenfield seemed to get quite a lot of time but she seems extremely reluctant to shoot the ball. She passed up a couple of open looks from three. She did have a couple of assists and some rebounds to go with no points.
Brittany McPhee got quite a bit of time but continues to have problems shooting the ball. She was 1/5 but had a couple of rebounds, an assist, and a block. She seems to always give max effort, but her instinct to take it to the rim whenever possible may need to calm down a bit. She has the reputation of being a superb jump shooter--she needs to take a few more jump shots.Â
Kailee Johnson got only a couple of minutes at the very end. I mention this because she was thought to be a strong candidate to be a starter. Now Kaylee and Erica are fighting for a single slot most of the time and Kailee has few opportunities. I think that will change next year--it is clear that our guards are further along than our posts just now and I expect to see more from our posts as they mature.
As a team we shot 51%. Hallelujah! We held Arizona to 36%. I think this team's personality is typified by defense.Â
We were 9/19 from three point range. We won't lose many games when we shoot like that. Not only did we make 10/13 free throws, Arizona only got 3 free throws--another sign of good defense from us. We had the edge in rebounding, but we had 20 assists! How long has it been since we had twenty assists?
A look ahead
Monday's game against ASU is critical. If we are going to host the NCAAs we have to beat good teams. Beating the likes of Arizona won't help our RPI a bit, but beating Arizona State would. But we have to beat them first...they just defeated C.al over at Haas. They shot 52% and his 7/13 treys. We will have to defend them better than C.al did if we expect a win.
We beat the worst team in the Pac 12 rather handily and earned lots of playing time for the bench. I thought there were three notable developments:
1) The breakout of Erica McCall, who came off the bench to score 12 on 6/8 shooting and began to show glimpses of her true talent level, plus she grabbed 16 rebounds for a double-double, and had three blocks;
2) The continued development of Bri Roberson, who played substantial minutes and was excellent on defense as well as going 4/5 on some nifty moves as well as 4/4 on free throws;
3) What I hope is the end of Karlie's slump--she hit 4/5 three point shots and did not seem to be afraid to shoot.
Before the Game
Kate talked to the boosters and answered a few questions. The mood was upbeat after the two wins in Washington, although she says they told the team that they don't have to make their games quite so exciting! There was not a lot new revealed. She stated what is obvious--our defense is doing rather well, our offense is behind. She thought the defense played well against the two Washington schools despite the relatively high scores, considering the quality of the opposition guard play.
There was a question about when we would see Kaylee and Erica McCall play together, and we got the familiar answer about the stretch four. The other teams were planting two posts in the paint and using them to guard and block our penetrating guards, ignoring our posts. The stretch four gives us more shooters to create space for drives. She did say there would be teams when we would need two "bigs" for defense, but Arizona, which plays three guards, was not one of them.
Flow of the Game
Tara seems to have really dialed in on the starting lineup of Kaylee (5), Bonnie (4), Karlie (3), Lili (2), and Amber (1). By four minutes into the game we led 10-4 on the strength of a Bonnie trey and a very welcome Karlie trey. Kaylee picked up two fouls relatively early and Erica came in and got quite a lot of time, and generally acquitted herself well. Arizona bench forward Breanna Workman proved difficult to defend and got around both Kaylee and McCall from time to time. But 7 minutes in Arizona was still stuck on 4--our defense was working extremely well--and we were up to 17. Arizona never threatened, and the lead stretched to thirty points at times. In the second half we had four bench players playing with Lili or Amber for long stretches, and for the last five minutes it was Tess, E Payne, Rooks, Alex, and Bri for a while. In short, this was a blowout from start to finish and felt much more like our typical games of a year ago.
Performances
I mentioned the 3 most notable in the overview. In addition, Bonnie led all scoring with 14 on 5/8 shooting. She drained several treys on inside-out passes when standing all along at the top of the arc.Â
Kaylee seemed to be playing well but got relatively few minutes because of foul trouble--creating opportunity for McCall. Her stat line was quiet.
Lili scored 12 points but missed all 4 of her trey attempts. She had some spectacular steals and missed the layups at the other end. She pounded the floor in frustration after the second of them.Â
Amber scored 7 and had 5 assists and 2 steals to go with 1 turnover. An efficient game.
Taylor Greenfield seemed to get quite a lot of time but she seems extremely reluctant to shoot the ball. She passed up a couple of open looks from three. She did have a couple of assists and some rebounds to go with no points.
Brittany McPhee got quite a bit of time but continues to have problems shooting the ball. She was 1/5 but had a couple of rebounds, an assist, and a block. She seems to always give max effort, but her instinct to take it to the rim whenever possible may need to calm down a bit. She has the reputation of being a superb jump shooter--she needs to take a few more jump shots.Â
Kailee Johnson got only a couple of minutes at the very end. I mention this because she was thought to be a strong candidate to be a starter. Now Kaylee and Erica are fighting for a single slot most of the time and Kailee has few opportunities. I think that will change next year--it is clear that our guards are further along than our posts just now and I expect to see more from our posts as they mature.
As a team we shot 51%. Hallelujah! We held Arizona to 36%. I think this team's personality is typified by defense.Â
We were 9/19 from three point range. We won't lose many games when we shoot like that. Not only did we make 10/13 free throws, Arizona only got 3 free throws--another sign of good defense from us. We had the edge in rebounding, but we had 20 assists! How long has it been since we had twenty assists?
A look ahead
Monday's game against ASU is critical. If we are going to host the NCAAs we have to beat good teams. Beating the likes of Arizona won't help our RPI a bit, but beating Arizona State would. But we have to beat them first...they just defeated C.al over at Haas. They shot 52% and his 7/13 treys. We will have to defend them better than C.al did if we expect a win.
