03-10-2019, 08:16 AM
(This post was last modified: 03-10-2019, 09:05 PM by CompSci87.
Edit Reason: Final score
)
Overview:
In Tara's own words "this game was won with defense" Kate Paye's scouting report was superb and helped us build a 14 point lead early in the 3rd quarter, but after Smith and Dodson both went to the locker room with ankle issues, Oregon stormed back. Fortunately they returned to the game but not in time to prevent Oregon taking a 48-51 at 5:39 in the fourth. But the last five minutes were magical. Smith hitting a trey to tie it, Carrington poked the ball away from Cazorla for a fast break layup, and Williams buryied a trey to build a lead big enough to survive. Graves admitted that when the nation's best offensive team shoots 34% it is going to lose. Stanford shot 40%.
Flow of the Game:
From the start, it was clear that this was not going to be a repeat of our 40 point shellacking last month at Maples. In the first quarter we chained numerous stops and managed to convert with our own offense more often than not. Smith opened by cutting to the basket for a layup, and then buried a trey for a 5-0 lead. Carrington followed with a trey to give us an 8-0 lead before Oregon scored. For the most part, we prevented Hebard from getting close to the basket during the first half. Also critically important to the win was our ability to switch and defend after the pick and rolls--forcing Oregon to take mid range jumpers rather than continuing on to the basket the way they did at Maples. After one, we were up 18-11.
Tara told the team "you've one the first 10 minutes, now you need to win the next 10 minutes." And we did, although not as clearly. Carrington really poured it on with 4 layups in the quarter, Wilson buried a trey. We made to halftime up 33-24. I was shocked that Oregon--Oregon--had by far their worst offensive half of the season. The third quarter started well but soon turned south. Smith and Dodson both landed awkwardly and rolled their ankles. Smith was in pain and went to the locker room, Dodson soon followed. Both came back and reentered the game later, seemingly undeterred. But while they were out Oregon put on a run and took the lead 41-42 by the end of the quarter. It could have been worse except for an emphatic block of a Sabally last second shot by Smith.
The fourth quarter seesawed over the first first five minutes with every basket seeming to change the lead or tie it up--7 times in fact--leaving the score 51-51 at the media timeout at 4:02. Coming out of the timeout Carrington made a layup, then stole the ball for another layup, and we were up 55-51 at 3:11 and Graves took a timeout. We fouled Hebard who made 1/2, then Williams turned it over and Boley missed. Williams brought the ball up and drained a trey, with ice in her veins. With a 58-52 lead with 1:28 left the fouling game began. Ionescu scored 5 more points, but Williams and Smith made 6/6 free throws, and the game was over 63-57 Stanford.
Performances:
Carrington was my hope for beating the Oregon zone, as McPhee did last year, and she did not disappoint. Not only did she score 22 points, she grabbed 6 O-boards, made 2 assists, 1 block, and one so very important steal.
Smith was critical, as became clear when she was absent for a few minutes. Tara wisely called a time out and also used the media time out to give her a chance to get taped up (or whatever they did) and get back in the game. She wound up playing 37 minutes, scored 20 including 4/11 from three point range, grabbed 14 rebounds, made 3 assists, added a steal and 3 blocks while keeping her fouls down to 2.
Williams played all 40 minutes and has every right to be the most tired person on the team. She scored 16 points and made 6 assists while playing frenetic defense.
Dodson played 29 minutes which is probably one of her longer stretches. She was on Hebard all night, and managed to help limit her to 4 baskets while picking up just 2 fouls. Tara was asked how she did it--what was the secret, and she would only say that others would have to watch the tape to figure it out, but that we wanted to make her do things she didn't like to do. Standard scouting report defense, in other words, but I was shocked that Dodson was able to hold the 75% shooter to 4/10.
Tara called out Anna Wilson for her defense on Ionescu. The Hulls just picked up too many fouls too quickly trying to guard her, and Anna stayed glued to her for 27 minutes. True, Ionescu had 27 points, but they were not efficient points, coming on 10/26 shooting.
As a team, the stats were similar for Stanford and Oregon in many categories, except that we shot 41% to their 34%. We also had 8 blocks to their 2.
Conclusion:
I am very proud of this team and the greatest turnaround in one season from a bad loss to a sweet victory that I can remember. This felt like a bigger win than against Baylor, to me, although after Baylor destroyed us last year that game was also sweet revenge. But the team now has a definite personality--it is the best defensive team in the Pac 12 and has enough offensive weapons to win games when the score is kept within reason. We still will probably have just a 2 seed, but hopefully we are improving enough to have a shot at a deep NCAA run.
Preview:
Well, we are back to where we wanted to be--playing in the finals. And we are up against the team that delivered the worst defeat in Tara Vanderveer's career just weeks ago. That was not a fluke, either. Oregon strangled us in the finals last year, holding us to 7 points in one quarter, and the last time we beat them was with McPhee's miracle second half breakout performance in Eugene more than a year ago.
In my view, the main problem is not the Oregon offense. That offense can be counted on to score plenty, but if the game is tight Tara will find a way to slow it down slightly. The main problem the last few times we have played them has been our offense. The Oregon zone defense seems to affect us even more than other teams like UCLA. We need to score better than 70 points and that means not having any poor quarters of offensive output. If we can continue to shoot 42% from three as we did last night we will have a chance.
When we are on defense, I imagine Coffee and Dodson will be working to push Hebard out of the paint--we have been able to reduce her performance in some past games. But we have not been able to shut down Oregon's three point shooting. Making the game respectable will depend on it. And as Carrington said in the post game interview last night, solving the Oregon pick and roll play better than we did last time out is also critical.
To our advantage, Oregon was pushed to the limit last night in an overtime game, and UCLA might have shown our players that Oregon is beatable. We need another McPhee like performance from somebody to prevail tonight. To our disadvantage--just like the last time we played them (right after Oregon State on a Friday-Sunday gap), we have no significant time between games and so there is no time to implement a new scouting report defense. And whatever we used on the last scouting report didn't work.
In Tara's own words "this game was won with defense" Kate Paye's scouting report was superb and helped us build a 14 point lead early in the 3rd quarter, but after Smith and Dodson both went to the locker room with ankle issues, Oregon stormed back. Fortunately they returned to the game but not in time to prevent Oregon taking a 48-51 at 5:39 in the fourth. But the last five minutes were magical. Smith hitting a trey to tie it, Carrington poked the ball away from Cazorla for a fast break layup, and Williams buryied a trey to build a lead big enough to survive. Graves admitted that when the nation's best offensive team shoots 34% it is going to lose. Stanford shot 40%.
Flow of the Game:
From the start, it was clear that this was not going to be a repeat of our 40 point shellacking last month at Maples. In the first quarter we chained numerous stops and managed to convert with our own offense more often than not. Smith opened by cutting to the basket for a layup, and then buried a trey for a 5-0 lead. Carrington followed with a trey to give us an 8-0 lead before Oregon scored. For the most part, we prevented Hebard from getting close to the basket during the first half. Also critically important to the win was our ability to switch and defend after the pick and rolls--forcing Oregon to take mid range jumpers rather than continuing on to the basket the way they did at Maples. After one, we were up 18-11.
Tara told the team "you've one the first 10 minutes, now you need to win the next 10 minutes." And we did, although not as clearly. Carrington really poured it on with 4 layups in the quarter, Wilson buried a trey. We made to halftime up 33-24. I was shocked that Oregon--Oregon--had by far their worst offensive half of the season. The third quarter started well but soon turned south. Smith and Dodson both landed awkwardly and rolled their ankles. Smith was in pain and went to the locker room, Dodson soon followed. Both came back and reentered the game later, seemingly undeterred. But while they were out Oregon put on a run and took the lead 41-42 by the end of the quarter. It could have been worse except for an emphatic block of a Sabally last second shot by Smith.
The fourth quarter seesawed over the first first five minutes with every basket seeming to change the lead or tie it up--7 times in fact--leaving the score 51-51 at the media timeout at 4:02. Coming out of the timeout Carrington made a layup, then stole the ball for another layup, and we were up 55-51 at 3:11 and Graves took a timeout. We fouled Hebard who made 1/2, then Williams turned it over and Boley missed. Williams brought the ball up and drained a trey, with ice in her veins. With a 58-52 lead with 1:28 left the fouling game began. Ionescu scored 5 more points, but Williams and Smith made 6/6 free throws, and the game was over 63-57 Stanford.
Performances:
Carrington was my hope for beating the Oregon zone, as McPhee did last year, and she did not disappoint. Not only did she score 22 points, she grabbed 6 O-boards, made 2 assists, 1 block, and one so very important steal.
Smith was critical, as became clear when she was absent for a few minutes. Tara wisely called a time out and also used the media time out to give her a chance to get taped up (or whatever they did) and get back in the game. She wound up playing 37 minutes, scored 20 including 4/11 from three point range, grabbed 14 rebounds, made 3 assists, added a steal and 3 blocks while keeping her fouls down to 2.
Williams played all 40 minutes and has every right to be the most tired person on the team. She scored 16 points and made 6 assists while playing frenetic defense.
Dodson played 29 minutes which is probably one of her longer stretches. She was on Hebard all night, and managed to help limit her to 4 baskets while picking up just 2 fouls. Tara was asked how she did it--what was the secret, and she would only say that others would have to watch the tape to figure it out, but that we wanted to make her do things she didn't like to do. Standard scouting report defense, in other words, but I was shocked that Dodson was able to hold the 75% shooter to 4/10.
Tara called out Anna Wilson for her defense on Ionescu. The Hulls just picked up too many fouls too quickly trying to guard her, and Anna stayed glued to her for 27 minutes. True, Ionescu had 27 points, but they were not efficient points, coming on 10/26 shooting.
As a team, the stats were similar for Stanford and Oregon in many categories, except that we shot 41% to their 34%. We also had 8 blocks to their 2.
Conclusion:
I am very proud of this team and the greatest turnaround in one season from a bad loss to a sweet victory that I can remember. This felt like a bigger win than against Baylor, to me, although after Baylor destroyed us last year that game was also sweet revenge. But the team now has a definite personality--it is the best defensive team in the Pac 12 and has enough offensive weapons to win games when the score is kept within reason. We still will probably have just a 2 seed, but hopefully we are improving enough to have a shot at a deep NCAA run.
Preview:
Well, we are back to where we wanted to be--playing in the finals. And we are up against the team that delivered the worst defeat in Tara Vanderveer's career just weeks ago. That was not a fluke, either. Oregon strangled us in the finals last year, holding us to 7 points in one quarter, and the last time we beat them was with McPhee's miracle second half breakout performance in Eugene more than a year ago.
In my view, the main problem is not the Oregon offense. That offense can be counted on to score plenty, but if the game is tight Tara will find a way to slow it down slightly. The main problem the last few times we have played them has been our offense. The Oregon zone defense seems to affect us even more than other teams like UCLA. We need to score better than 70 points and that means not having any poor quarters of offensive output. If we can continue to shoot 42% from three as we did last night we will have a chance.
When we are on defense, I imagine Coffee and Dodson will be working to push Hebard out of the paint--we have been able to reduce her performance in some past games. But we have not been able to shut down Oregon's three point shooting. Making the game respectable will depend on it. And as Carrington said in the post game interview last night, solving the Oregon pick and roll play better than we did last time out is also critical.
To our advantage, Oregon was pushed to the limit last night in an overtime game, and UCLA might have shown our players that Oregon is beatable. We need another McPhee like performance from somebody to prevail tonight. To our disadvantage--just like the last time we played them (right after Oregon State on a Friday-Sunday gap), we have no significant time between games and so there is no time to implement a new scouting report defense. And whatever we used on the last scouting report didn't work.
