Preview:
I believe I read somewhere that Tara intended to play a game in Toronto for the benefit of our Canadian players, but logistics kept them in the US, and Buffalo is in the greater Toronto area so the Jeromes and Brewers can hopefully attend the game. That makes it sound as if the Buffalo team is just a convenient patsy, but far from it. The Massey rankings have Buffalo at 43, which put them on par with half of the Pac 12. They are 7-2, with one of those losses a 102-82 loss at Oregon. They have beaten Georgetown and the always dangerous South Dakota State--so they are not a team to be taken lightly. They have four players--all seniors and juniors--who are in double digits, but senior guard Cierra Dillard (5'9") is averaging 26 ppg and shooting 40% from three, and junior forward Summer Hemphill (6'1") is averaging 23 ppg--all from inside. Last year they were 29-6 and lost a squeaker in the MAC championship, but were invited to the NCAAs anyway where they won their first two rounds (South Florida and Florida State) before losing to South Carolina 79-63 in the sweet 16. In short, this could be a very dangerous team, playing at home, while our team is traveling thousands of miles into bad weather after an elating couple of victories. We have everything to lose and little to gain in this game, and it strikes me as a recipe for a let-down.
Overview:
A very gritty, physical game--too physical by my preference--resulted in an ugly, turnover ridden, low scoring game through 3 quarters. Alanna was the bulk of our offense with 30 and Nadia finally began to get the ball down low and convert, and we pulled away from only a 2 point lead to close out the game.
Flow of the Game:
Buffalo played a very quick, 3-2 zone, and for much of the game it was very difficult to get the ball inside. Many entrance passes resulted in turnovers. Meanwhile our 3 point shooting went cold after Alanna hit an initial trey, and points were very hard to come by. Compounding the defensive nature of the game were the refs who allowed a lot of reach-ins and arm hacks. Our defense was even more suffocating for Buffalo who had only two players who scored in the first quarter. The first quarter ground to a 16-9 lead for Stanford.
The second quarter and the third were much the same, only worse--we scored only 11 in the 2nd and 12 in the 3rd. Turnovers and sometimes-poor rebounding contributed to a very ugly game. Midway through the third Buffalo cut the lead to 4, and at 7:32 in the 4th Dillard cut it to 2 (43-41) on a trey. From this point forward the character of the game changed. Tara called a timeout and we began to feed Fingall inside at the low post, and she put a couple in. Then we finally found the "hole" in the Buffalo 3-2 zone--the corners--and Alanna got her three point shot going from the corner and canned two of them. With two minutes to go we had expanded the lead to 12, and after some back and forth and the fouling game we snuck out with a 7 point win.
Performances:
This one was Alanna's game. She scored 30 on 12/22 shooting, including 4/9 from three point range. She also had 13 rebounds and 2 assists. In her case, the referee's "anything goes" attitude probably helped--she had only 2 fouls for the game and this allowed her to stay in the game and collect her rhythm.
I'd also single out Fingall. She was not much of a factor in the first half, but she proved to be an effective zone-breaker in the 4th quarter when we needed her most. She had 12 points on 5/9 shooting.
Three point shooting was pretty bad. Everyone not named Alanna was 1/11. Kiana's 7 assists and Carrington's 10 rebounds deserve praise. We made only 23 FGs and 18 were assisted. 19 turnovers and 39% shooting gave our offense a decidedly disjointed look. It is probably useful to point out that this was NOT the Princeton since we were up against a zone the entire game--and a somewhat different kind of zone than we are used to playing. Let's hope we will now know how to solve this zone if we should ever meet it again.
Conclusion:
We escaped with a win, no one was injured, and we persevered despite the perils of a trap game. Let's hope our team grows from this experience. It could have been another Gonzaga--except it wasn't.
I believe I read somewhere that Tara intended to play a game in Toronto for the benefit of our Canadian players, but logistics kept them in the US, and Buffalo is in the greater Toronto area so the Jeromes and Brewers can hopefully attend the game. That makes it sound as if the Buffalo team is just a convenient patsy, but far from it. The Massey rankings have Buffalo at 43, which put them on par with half of the Pac 12. They are 7-2, with one of those losses a 102-82 loss at Oregon. They have beaten Georgetown and the always dangerous South Dakota State--so they are not a team to be taken lightly. They have four players--all seniors and juniors--who are in double digits, but senior guard Cierra Dillard (5'9") is averaging 26 ppg and shooting 40% from three, and junior forward Summer Hemphill (6'1") is averaging 23 ppg--all from inside. Last year they were 29-6 and lost a squeaker in the MAC championship, but were invited to the NCAAs anyway where they won their first two rounds (South Florida and Florida State) before losing to South Carolina 79-63 in the sweet 16. In short, this could be a very dangerous team, playing at home, while our team is traveling thousands of miles into bad weather after an elating couple of victories. We have everything to lose and little to gain in this game, and it strikes me as a recipe for a let-down.
Overview:
A very gritty, physical game--too physical by my preference--resulted in an ugly, turnover ridden, low scoring game through 3 quarters. Alanna was the bulk of our offense with 30 and Nadia finally began to get the ball down low and convert, and we pulled away from only a 2 point lead to close out the game.
Flow of the Game:
Buffalo played a very quick, 3-2 zone, and for much of the game it was very difficult to get the ball inside. Many entrance passes resulted in turnovers. Meanwhile our 3 point shooting went cold after Alanna hit an initial trey, and points were very hard to come by. Compounding the defensive nature of the game were the refs who allowed a lot of reach-ins and arm hacks. Our defense was even more suffocating for Buffalo who had only two players who scored in the first quarter. The first quarter ground to a 16-9 lead for Stanford.
The second quarter and the third were much the same, only worse--we scored only 11 in the 2nd and 12 in the 3rd. Turnovers and sometimes-poor rebounding contributed to a very ugly game. Midway through the third Buffalo cut the lead to 4, and at 7:32 in the 4th Dillard cut it to 2 (43-41) on a trey. From this point forward the character of the game changed. Tara called a timeout and we began to feed Fingall inside at the low post, and she put a couple in. Then we finally found the "hole" in the Buffalo 3-2 zone--the corners--and Alanna got her three point shot going from the corner and canned two of them. With two minutes to go we had expanded the lead to 12, and after some back and forth and the fouling game we snuck out with a 7 point win.
Performances:
This one was Alanna's game. She scored 30 on 12/22 shooting, including 4/9 from three point range. She also had 13 rebounds and 2 assists. In her case, the referee's "anything goes" attitude probably helped--she had only 2 fouls for the game and this allowed her to stay in the game and collect her rhythm.
I'd also single out Fingall. She was not much of a factor in the first half, but she proved to be an effective zone-breaker in the 4th quarter when we needed her most. She had 12 points on 5/9 shooting.
Three point shooting was pretty bad. Everyone not named Alanna was 1/11. Kiana's 7 assists and Carrington's 10 rebounds deserve praise. We made only 23 FGs and 18 were assisted. 19 turnovers and 39% shooting gave our offense a decidedly disjointed look. It is probably useful to point out that this was NOT the Princeton since we were up against a zone the entire game--and a somewhat different kind of zone than we are used to playing. Let's hope we will now know how to solve this zone if we should ever meet it again.
Conclusion:
We escaped with a win, no one was injured, and we persevered despite the perils of a trap game. Let's hope our team grows from this experience. It could have been another Gonzaga--except it wasn't.