[i]Preview:[/i]
We head north to Spokane to play perennial mid major contender Gonzaga. The Zags beat us two years ago inside Maples, led by Laura Stockton (yes that Stockton) who is still with the team. Last year we beat them in the 1st round of the NCAAs, also in Maples, 82-68. This year the Zags are 7-1 with the sole loss being to Notre Dame. Their best win was a handy one over Rutgers 57-40. Their leading scorer is Zykera Rice (with the blue hair,) with 12 points a game, but watch out for three point shooter Katie Campbell who is 17/34 from beyond the arc. Gonzaga is the best team we have faced so far and they will be playing at home in front of a packed house. It will be a difficult game. On the other hand, maybe Lexie Lacey Hull can have a special game playing in front of her family and friends in her home territory.
Here is our thread from last spring:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...ht=gonzaga
Overview:
A very bad three quarters, with poor offense and awful defense, was followed up with a 32 point outburst in the 4th that brought us to within 3 points, with possession, three times, but still we fell short in the end.
Flow of the game:
The first quarter was typified with 7 Stanford turnovers and another Alanna foul that kept her on the bench. Gonzaga's defense was very active. Meanwhile we had no answers to their outstanding three point shooting. Gonzaga seemed to get open looks on the strength of crisp passing. The first ended with us down 17-22 to a very good Gonzaga team.
The turnovers continued in the 2nd, and Smith picked up a 2nd foul to keep her to 8 minutes in the first half. Gonzaga's young Campbell hit her first 4 three pointers in a row. It feels as if our team is very young, and playing in a hostile environment, and they are a little rattled. We closed the half down 32-43.
The third quarter showed improved defense but even worse offense--we scored only 9 for the quarter. Two more fouls by Alanna, bad free throw shooting (we were 14/24 for the game), and worst of all--bad rebounding against a shorter less athletic team. We were down by 18 points late in the third before closing it out 41-58.
The fourth was a major turnaround. Tara started a full court press and sent Alanna in with 4 fouls. Carrington and Lacie got some steals and we fought our way back from that gigantic deficit. After Carrington hit a breakaway layup-and-one the deficit was only 3 with 4:17 left to play and it seemed like a new game. At 2:37 Lacie missed a three pointer from the wing that would have tied the game up in front of her home town fans. When Townsend hit a trey immediately after at the other end for a 6 point lead it felt final. By 1:04 the lead for Gonzaga was up to 10 again. But a Smith three and a Carrington layup, a Fingall steal and another Carrington layup cut it down to 3 again with :37 left. The team was fighting hard to the end. And after giving up more two points at the other end, Williams made two free throws cut it to 3 a third time with :05 left. But the fouling game in the last seconds favored Gonzaga, and we lost our first of the season 73-79--a score that looks a lot more respectable than the first three quarters would have suggested.
Performances:
Kiana Williams led with 18 points but also had 4 turnovers. Alanna had 13 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out. Carrington to me gave the best performance with 13 points and 3 steals--but she needed to perform at that level for four quarters rather than one. Lacie played with energy, and had 3 steals and 9 points. Jerome hit a couple of treys in the first half that helped us stay in the game. Fingall and Dodson each shot 50% but they didn't seem to get many opportunities inside.
Now, as a team, here are the main reasons we lost, in my opinion:
Rebounding, Stanford 24 Gonzaga 38. To be grossly out rebounded by a shorter, less athletic team is bad. It is something can can be corrected with coaching. We went through a spell of that last fall too before turning our rebounding around.
Free throw shooting: Stanford 14/24, Gonzaga 19/22.
Three point percentage: Stanford 41%, Gonzaga 62%
Conclusion:
This looked like a young team that was learning what it is like to play under pressure, and they figured it out by the 4th quarter. By then it was too late. Credit to Gonzaga--they are a team that was respectable against Notre Dame and that handled Rutgers easily. We lost to a very good team, but I think we will beat them if we meet them again later in the year, and hopefully we learned something.
But now it is on to Baylor after the break. Not exactly an easy game to clean up the mistakes.
We head north to Spokane to play perennial mid major contender Gonzaga. The Zags beat us two years ago inside Maples, led by Laura Stockton (yes that Stockton) who is still with the team. Last year we beat them in the 1st round of the NCAAs, also in Maples, 82-68. This year the Zags are 7-1 with the sole loss being to Notre Dame. Their best win was a handy one over Rutgers 57-40. Their leading scorer is Zykera Rice (with the blue hair,) with 12 points a game, but watch out for three point shooter Katie Campbell who is 17/34 from beyond the arc. Gonzaga is the best team we have faced so far and they will be playing at home in front of a packed house. It will be a difficult game. On the other hand, maybe Lexie Lacey Hull can have a special game playing in front of her family and friends in her home territory.
Here is our thread from last spring:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...ht=gonzaga
Overview:
A very bad three quarters, with poor offense and awful defense, was followed up with a 32 point outburst in the 4th that brought us to within 3 points, with possession, three times, but still we fell short in the end.
Flow of the game:
The first quarter was typified with 7 Stanford turnovers and another Alanna foul that kept her on the bench. Gonzaga's defense was very active. Meanwhile we had no answers to their outstanding three point shooting. Gonzaga seemed to get open looks on the strength of crisp passing. The first ended with us down 17-22 to a very good Gonzaga team.
The turnovers continued in the 2nd, and Smith picked up a 2nd foul to keep her to 8 minutes in the first half. Gonzaga's young Campbell hit her first 4 three pointers in a row. It feels as if our team is very young, and playing in a hostile environment, and they are a little rattled. We closed the half down 32-43.
The third quarter showed improved defense but even worse offense--we scored only 9 for the quarter. Two more fouls by Alanna, bad free throw shooting (we were 14/24 for the game), and worst of all--bad rebounding against a shorter less athletic team. We were down by 18 points late in the third before closing it out 41-58.
The fourth was a major turnaround. Tara started a full court press and sent Alanna in with 4 fouls. Carrington and Lacie got some steals and we fought our way back from that gigantic deficit. After Carrington hit a breakaway layup-and-one the deficit was only 3 with 4:17 left to play and it seemed like a new game. At 2:37 Lacie missed a three pointer from the wing that would have tied the game up in front of her home town fans. When Townsend hit a trey immediately after at the other end for a 6 point lead it felt final. By 1:04 the lead for Gonzaga was up to 10 again. But a Smith three and a Carrington layup, a Fingall steal and another Carrington layup cut it down to 3 again with :37 left. The team was fighting hard to the end. And after giving up more two points at the other end, Williams made two free throws cut it to 3 a third time with :05 left. But the fouling game in the last seconds favored Gonzaga, and we lost our first of the season 73-79--a score that looks a lot more respectable than the first three quarters would have suggested.
Performances:
Kiana Williams led with 18 points but also had 4 turnovers. Alanna had 13 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out. Carrington to me gave the best performance with 13 points and 3 steals--but she needed to perform at that level for four quarters rather than one. Lacie played with energy, and had 3 steals and 9 points. Jerome hit a couple of treys in the first half that helped us stay in the game. Fingall and Dodson each shot 50% but they didn't seem to get many opportunities inside.
Now, as a team, here are the main reasons we lost, in my opinion:
Rebounding, Stanford 24 Gonzaga 38. To be grossly out rebounded by a shorter, less athletic team is bad. It is something can can be corrected with coaching. We went through a spell of that last fall too before turning our rebounding around.
Free throw shooting: Stanford 14/24, Gonzaga 19/22.
Three point percentage: Stanford 41%, Gonzaga 62%
Conclusion:
This looked like a young team that was learning what it is like to play under pressure, and they figured it out by the 4th quarter. By then it was too late. Credit to Gonzaga--they are a team that was respectable against Notre Dame and that handled Rutgers easily. We lost to a very good team, but I think we will beat them if we meet them again later in the year, and hopefully we learned something.
But now it is on to Baylor after the break. Not exactly an easy game to clean up the mistakes.