Overview:
Miraculously, Tara's defense came up big for 2 1/2 quarters and we led Notre Dame in a low scoring defensive game until 2:10 in the third quarter. But Notre Dame's Jackie Young figured out that we could not defend her off a curl around a screen and she scored most of her 25 points in rapid succession to take the lead for Notre Dame. A 45% three point shooting night could not overcome 15 minutes of defensive collapse against one of the best offenses in WBB history, and the season comes to an end after a very respectable game.
Flow of the Game:
Somehow, Tara managed to make Notre Dame play our low scoring defensive game for 2 1/2 quarters, holding them to their worst half of any game this season. We were up 13-11 after one quarter--it should have been 13-9 but Jackie Young was awarded a couple of free throws after a fake foul. We were up 33-26 at the half and the halftime announcers were marveling at Tara's job. Despite our lead we left a lot of points on the floor that we could have had, with numerous missed layups. I felt the refs were letting us play a little rough and it was a good thing. Alanna got only one foul in the first half and scored most of her point in the first half. Notre Dame plays man after they miss and zone after they make, and so all their misses allowed us to run the Princeton against their man and we got quite a few open looks. Kiana began to hit some treys to break out of her shooting funk, and at halftime I was surprised and pleased. Nevertheless, I had the feeling that we needed to create more than a 7 point margin given how well the first half had gone.
The second half started reasonably well, too. Lacie Hull and Maya Dodson scored to keep pace with Notre Dame, and at 5:33 Kiana Williams sank a trey to extend out lead back out to 7. That, unfortunately, was about when the Jackie Young show started. She made 5 layups or midrange jumpers in the next 5 minutes and dished a couple more assists in the same stretch. Meanwhile, our shooting went cold except for a couple more Kiana Williams jumpers. By the time the last five minutes of the quarter had ticked away, we had moved from a 7 point lead to a 6 point deficit, and the game was essentially over.
The fourth quarter was more of the same. Kiana Williams kept making shots, Alanna Smith did not get many opportunities, and Jackie Young made four layups and some free throws to go along with the rest of her team as Notre Dame lead stretched to 14 by mid way through the quarter. We played hard up until the last minute but our three point shooting heroics didn't help when we gave up baskets at the other end every time. In the end, our defense let us down, not our offense.
Performances:
After holding Notre Dame to 25% shooting in the first half we gave them something like 70% shooting in the second. That stat explains just about everything you need to know. We shot 40% overall but 46% from three point range, going 10/22. We missed a lot of layups which could have something to do with Notre Dame's posts but also some lack of execution on our part. Smith was 3/6 inside--so not a lot of chances, but Dodson was 2/9. After out rebounding Notre Dame in the first half we did not in the second half, and Notre Dame wound up with a whopping 19 O boards. We kept our turnovers down to 12 but Notre Dame kept theirs down to 7. And we had only 1 block to Notre Dame's 5. Smith had 10 points in the first half but was held to 4 in the second--all after the game was out of reach.
Individually, Kiana Williams was our brightest star tonight, coming our of her dreadful 0/11 three point shooting last game and shooting 4/8 tonight. Overall she had 20 points.
Carrington had 18 points on 7/17 shooting. Smith wound up with 14. Lexie Hull showed some moxie in the second half, coming in and draining two treys to try to get the game back in range. Maya Dodson was 2/9 with those 7 misses mostly being layups of differing levels of difficulty.
Conclusion:
If anyone has asked me before the season whether I would be satisfied with winning the Pac 12 tourney, going 31-5 and making it to the elite 8, being the only team to beat Baylor and revenging Oregon--and doing all of this after losing Nadia and Marta--I would have taken it in a heartbeat. Tonight I went into this game principally being worried about being humiliated--and we certainly were not. It feels a lot better than our loss to Louisville last year.
But now we say good bye to Alanna Smith and Shannon Coffee, and possibly Marta Sniezek. This year's seniors, which originally included Alexa Romano, were not a highly rated recruiting class, nor did they blossom quickly. But they each had their moments, and Alanna made dramatic improvements each season. They helped our program get through something of a down spell, if you can call elite eight, final four, sweet sixteen, and elite eight a down spell. They all provided me with many hours of enjoyment and happiness as I watched them over the course of their four years, and I wish them all well.
Preview:
A long awaited match up with Notre Dame has in fact materialized. We have met each repeatedly in recent NCAA tournaments. This year it is the most daunting task of all. Notre Dame is last year's championship team, and they have 5 players who all could be drafted into the WNBA after this season, depending on whether Jackie Young comes out a year early or stays. Seniors Brianna Turner and Jessica Shepherd give them superb offensive bigs, and senior Arike Ogunbowale is one of the most gifted offensive scorers to play the game. Guard Marina Mabrey rounds out their professional-level talent.
Offensively, all five players average well into double digits. Not as frequently remarked, 4 out of 5 of them have well over 100 assists--they pass the ball well among themselves and all of them can creatively score. They score inside and they score from three. They have no offensive weaknesses, meaning that a scouting report defense is usually not effective.
Notre Dame plays a lot of zone on defense. We will have to hit our three point shots if we expect to loosen that up.
Given our poor performance and Notre Dame's much better performance recently, I would ordinarily not give us much of a chance. But I do have two very small hopeful thoughts. First, we layed such an egg today that the Notre Dame players just wont be able to avoid taking us a little lightly. Second, the last time we beat Notre Dame and knocked them out of the tournament, Notre Dave was heavily favored. McPhee scored 27, Ogunbowole scored 25 and we won by a point when Erica McCall blocked a last second Ogunbowale shot. We have defied the odds before.
Miraculously, Tara's defense came up big for 2 1/2 quarters and we led Notre Dame in a low scoring defensive game until 2:10 in the third quarter. But Notre Dame's Jackie Young figured out that we could not defend her off a curl around a screen and she scored most of her 25 points in rapid succession to take the lead for Notre Dame. A 45% three point shooting night could not overcome 15 minutes of defensive collapse against one of the best offenses in WBB history, and the season comes to an end after a very respectable game.
Flow of the Game:
Somehow, Tara managed to make Notre Dame play our low scoring defensive game for 2 1/2 quarters, holding them to their worst half of any game this season. We were up 13-11 after one quarter--it should have been 13-9 but Jackie Young was awarded a couple of free throws after a fake foul. We were up 33-26 at the half and the halftime announcers were marveling at Tara's job. Despite our lead we left a lot of points on the floor that we could have had, with numerous missed layups. I felt the refs were letting us play a little rough and it was a good thing. Alanna got only one foul in the first half and scored most of her point in the first half. Notre Dame plays man after they miss and zone after they make, and so all their misses allowed us to run the Princeton against their man and we got quite a few open looks. Kiana began to hit some treys to break out of her shooting funk, and at halftime I was surprised and pleased. Nevertheless, I had the feeling that we needed to create more than a 7 point margin given how well the first half had gone.
The second half started reasonably well, too. Lacie Hull and Maya Dodson scored to keep pace with Notre Dame, and at 5:33 Kiana Williams sank a trey to extend out lead back out to 7. That, unfortunately, was about when the Jackie Young show started. She made 5 layups or midrange jumpers in the next 5 minutes and dished a couple more assists in the same stretch. Meanwhile, our shooting went cold except for a couple more Kiana Williams jumpers. By the time the last five minutes of the quarter had ticked away, we had moved from a 7 point lead to a 6 point deficit, and the game was essentially over.
The fourth quarter was more of the same. Kiana Williams kept making shots, Alanna Smith did not get many opportunities, and Jackie Young made four layups and some free throws to go along with the rest of her team as Notre Dame lead stretched to 14 by mid way through the quarter. We played hard up until the last minute but our three point shooting heroics didn't help when we gave up baskets at the other end every time. In the end, our defense let us down, not our offense.
Performances:
After holding Notre Dame to 25% shooting in the first half we gave them something like 70% shooting in the second. That stat explains just about everything you need to know. We shot 40% overall but 46% from three point range, going 10/22. We missed a lot of layups which could have something to do with Notre Dame's posts but also some lack of execution on our part. Smith was 3/6 inside--so not a lot of chances, but Dodson was 2/9. After out rebounding Notre Dame in the first half we did not in the second half, and Notre Dame wound up with a whopping 19 O boards. We kept our turnovers down to 12 but Notre Dame kept theirs down to 7. And we had only 1 block to Notre Dame's 5. Smith had 10 points in the first half but was held to 4 in the second--all after the game was out of reach.
Individually, Kiana Williams was our brightest star tonight, coming our of her dreadful 0/11 three point shooting last game and shooting 4/8 tonight. Overall she had 20 points.
Carrington had 18 points on 7/17 shooting. Smith wound up with 14. Lexie Hull showed some moxie in the second half, coming in and draining two treys to try to get the game back in range. Maya Dodson was 2/9 with those 7 misses mostly being layups of differing levels of difficulty.
Conclusion:
If anyone has asked me before the season whether I would be satisfied with winning the Pac 12 tourney, going 31-5 and making it to the elite 8, being the only team to beat Baylor and revenging Oregon--and doing all of this after losing Nadia and Marta--I would have taken it in a heartbeat. Tonight I went into this game principally being worried about being humiliated--and we certainly were not. It feels a lot better than our loss to Louisville last year.
But now we say good bye to Alanna Smith and Shannon Coffee, and possibly Marta Sniezek. This year's seniors, which originally included Alexa Romano, were not a highly rated recruiting class, nor did they blossom quickly. But they each had their moments, and Alanna made dramatic improvements each season. They helped our program get through something of a down spell, if you can call elite eight, final four, sweet sixteen, and elite eight a down spell. They all provided me with many hours of enjoyment and happiness as I watched them over the course of their four years, and I wish them all well.
Preview:
A long awaited match up with Notre Dame has in fact materialized. We have met each repeatedly in recent NCAA tournaments. This year it is the most daunting task of all. Notre Dame is last year's championship team, and they have 5 players who all could be drafted into the WNBA after this season, depending on whether Jackie Young comes out a year early or stays. Seniors Brianna Turner and Jessica Shepherd give them superb offensive bigs, and senior Arike Ogunbowale is one of the most gifted offensive scorers to play the game. Guard Marina Mabrey rounds out their professional-level talent.
Offensively, all five players average well into double digits. Not as frequently remarked, 4 out of 5 of them have well over 100 assists--they pass the ball well among themselves and all of them can creatively score. They score inside and they score from three. They have no offensive weaknesses, meaning that a scouting report defense is usually not effective.
Notre Dame plays a lot of zone on defense. We will have to hit our three point shots if we expect to loosen that up.
Given our poor performance and Notre Dame's much better performance recently, I would ordinarily not give us much of a chance. But I do have two very small hopeful thoughts. First, we layed such an egg today that the Notre Dame players just wont be able to avoid taking us a little lightly. Second, the last time we beat Notre Dame and knocked them out of the tournament, Notre Dave was heavily favored. McPhee scored 27, Ogunbowole scored 25 and we won by a point when Erica McCall blocked a last second Ogunbowale shot. We have defied the odds before.
