[TheFarm07]

I wish we can string together four of the fourth quarters we had in a game. The way we played in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter (before we emptied the bench) is the way we need to play when facing the Oregon schools and will give us plenty of comfortable wins against lesser competition. It gives me hope that we can get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament and compete for a national title this year.

The way we played in the first half is why we lost to Texas and nearly lost to Cal Baptist. Silly turnovers, missed easy shots. It makes me want to pull my hair out and is the reason why we could drop to a lower seed and lose again to a team we should beat.

I sure would like some consistency with this team.

Kiana played like an All-American in the second half, I really hope she can bottle that up and keep it with her for the rest of the season. When the play breaks down and time is running out, if Kiana can make something out of nothing, it would give us some much needed clutch points in key situations and critical games.

Hannah was great as usual from long range, but I am also encouraged that she made some mid-range jumpers as well. If she can diversify her offensive game to beyond hitting the three, she can become that much more dangerous. Defenders can't just sell out on the three when guarding her and if you give her an inch, she will make you pay.

Haley has shown that she has the talent to compete at the highest levels, but also has shown that she still is a freshman with some of the questionable decision-making, such as errant passes to no one or attempting an off balance shot when she has the opportunity for something else.

I am somewhat baffled why we haven't seen more of Prechtel in long stretches. She'll make an appearance or two for a couple minutes to relive someone else, but we haven't seen her getting any significant lengths of time on the floor lately. She has shown that she can score from both inside and having a nice jump shot, but maybe Tara is concerned about her defense? 

Great to see Lacie back and making the most of it, hitting some 3's and adding another player to include in the rotation for matchups and fresh legs. If we can get DiJonai back sooner than later, I am excited about Kiana and DiJonai leading this team again. Everyone on the team has made great contributions, but I feel like Kiana and DiJonai are the two options you go to in crunch time to facilitate the offense, they can make the jumper, but can also drive, but they also make the right decision.

Pretty much agree with your analysis, but as CompSci87 said, the coaches are using Prechtel situationally.  I thought she would be more effective on offense than Belibi in this game--Belibi repeatedly was stymied by the Washington 6'4" center--but I think it was defense they were concerned about.  Prectel seems like a good rebounder to me--she had 3 of them in only 5 minutes of time.  But in those five minutes she was supposed to defend the Washington center who shot 3/5 treys, and she was very late coming out to the perimeter to defend her--basically she gave up open shots.  Maybe that was the scheme and not her fault, but it looked plenty ugly and is largely the reason Washington got its brief lead in the 2nd quarter.

I see, thanks to you and CompSci87 on the reasoning behind Prechtel's limited minutes. 

If I may digress from this season for a bit, briefly looking ahead to next year, on paper, it looks like Cameron Brink has a similar game/position to Prechtel and as the #3 recruit in the country, you would tend to believe that she would be prepared from Day 1 to play minutes. It will be interesting to see if Prechtel's defense can develop over the rest of the season and over the summer. If Tara is hesitant to use her too much because of her defensive shortcomings and Brink can show that she can provide offense and defense early in her collegiate career then Prechtel might not be seeing too much playing time.

Anyway, it's a consideration/topic for the offseason as we still have the rest of this season coming up.

But re: Belibi's blocked shots. I think one of the options we lack on our roster right now is a back-to-the-basket post player that can match up one-on-one. Belibi potentially has the talent and hops to develop those moves, but as we saw today, she still has a long ways to go.

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Washington State breezed past Cal 96-75 today in Berkeley. The Bears could not stop Hristova or Molina. They were a combined 22/32 for 54 points. 

I hope Cal has similar trouble next weekend defending our players.

The Bears did have one stat they dominated despite the lopsided loss: 17 offensive rebounds compared to just 3 for the Cougars. We better limit their second chance opportunities.

[TheFarm07]

I wish we can string together four of the fourth quarters we had in a game. The way we played in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter (before we emptied the bench) is the way we need to play when facing the Oregon schools and will give us plenty of comfortable wins against lesser competition. It gives me hope that we can get a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament and compete for a national title this year.

The way we played in the first half is why we lost to Texas and nearly lost to Cal Baptist. Silly turnovers, missed easy shots. It makes me want to pull my hair out and is the reason why we could drop to a lower seed and lose again to a team we should beat.

I sure would like some consistency with this team.

Kiana played like an All-American in the second half, I really hope she can bottle that up and keep it with her for the rest of the season. When the play breaks down and time is running out, if Kiana can make something out of nothing, it would give us some much needed clutch points in key situations and critical games.

Hannah was great as usual from long range, but I am also encouraged that she made some mid-range jumpers as well. If she can diversify her offensive game to beyond hitting the three, she can become that much more dangerous. Defenders can't just sell out on the three when guarding her and if you give her an inch, she will make you pay.

Haley has shown that she has the talent to compete at the highest levels, but also has shown that she still is a freshman with some of the questionable decision-making, such as errant passes to no one or attempting an off balance shot when she has the opportunity for something else.

I am somewhat baffled why we haven't seen more of Prechtel in long stretches. She'll make an appearance or two for a couple minutes to relive someone else, but we haven't seen her getting any significant lengths of time on the floor lately. She has shown that she can score from both inside and having a nice jump shot, but maybe Tara is concerned about her defense? 

Great to see Lacie back and making the most of it, hitting some 3's and adding another player to include in the rotation for matchups and fresh legs. If we can get DiJonai back sooner than later, I am excited about Kiana and DiJonai leading this team again. Everyone on the team has made great contributions, but I feel like Kiana and DiJonai are the two options you go to in crunch time to facilitate the offense, they can make the jumper, but can also drive, but they also make the right decision.

Pretty much agree with your analysis, but as CompSci87 said, the coaches are using Prechtel situationally.  I thought she would be more effective on offense than Belibi in this game--Belibi repeatedly was stymied by the Washington 6'4" center--but I think it was defense they were concerned about.  Prectel seems like a good rebounder to me--she had 3 of them in only 5 minutes of time.  But in those five minutes she was supposed to defend the Washington center who shot 3/5 treys, and she was very late coming out to the perimeter to defend her--basically she gave up open shots.  Maybe that was the scheme and not her fault, but it looked plenty ugly and is largely the reason Washington got its brief lead in the 2nd quarter.

I see, thanks to you and CompSci87 on the reasoning behind Prechtel's limited minutes. 

If I may digress from this season for a bit, briefly looking ahead to next year, on paper, it looks like Cameron Brink has a similar game/position to Prechtel and as the #3 recruit in the country, you would tend to believe that she would be prepared from Day 1 to play minutes. It will be interesting to see if Prechtel's defense can develop over the rest of the season and over the summer. If Tara is hesitant to use her too much because of her defensive shortcomings and Brink can show that she can provide offense and defense early in her collegiate career then Prechtel might not be seeing too much playing time.

Anyway, it's a consideration/topic for the offseason as we still have the rest of this season coming up.

But re: Belibi's blocked shots. I think one of the options we lack on our roster right now is a back-to-the-basket post player that can match up one-on-one. Belibi potentially has the talent and hops to develop those moves, but as we saw today, she still has a long ways to go.

---

Washington State breezed past Cal 96-75 today in Berkeley. The Bears could not stop Hristova or Molina. They were a combined 22/32 for 54 points. 

I hope Cal has similar trouble next weekend defending our players.

The Bears did have one stat they dominated despite the lopsided loss: 17 offensive rebounds compared to just 3 for the Cougars. We better limit their second chance opportunities.