Preview:
We play Cal twice this weekend. Cal is 8-5 but we should not take two wins for granted. Cal played UConn relatively close, with Sara Anastasieska going off on them for 25 points. They beat #20 Arkansas and lost to #14 Kentucky by 2 points after tying the game up with 9 seconds left. On the other hand, they have lost to Harvard, Washington, and Washington State. Inconsistent is the word--and that may be bad news for us, since Cal is not consistently bad, and when playing 2 games in one weekend, they might get a 25 point performance out of Anastasieska on one of those days. Massey has them at 75--they plunged 29 spots after being swept at home by the Washington schools. I imagine Charmin Smith, our own former player and former assistant coach, will get them turned around to compete.
About 20% of Cal's made shots are treys, but Cal doesn't have any player who averages more than about 1 a game.
Jaelyn Brown shoots them at 36% but is a well rounded 6'1" senior forward who leads the team in minutes and points (16.)
Alaysia Styles is a 6'3" junior forward who is their second leading scorer.
CJ West, who we discussed years ago in our recruiting thread, is a powerful 6'4" center who shoots 55% (all from inside) and leads Cal with rebounding. My memory of her is that she might be vulnerable in the fourth quarter if we run the floor and keep the pace high.
Anastasieska is a 5'11" redshirt senior guard from Australia who is only their 4th leading scorer and shooting a paltry 37%, but is obviously capable of "going off" against the likes of UConn.
Their fifth starter is 5'5" freshman point guard Lelani McIntosh who leads the team in assists.
Chen Yu has actually been playing 14 minutes a game--I don't think we have seen her play before. She is probably relieving CJ West. Yu is 6'7"
FRIDAY GAME
Overview:
Stanford played suffocating defense and Cal was not ready for it. After three quarters the score was 58-18, and Cal players were visibly upset. Only after Stanford sent in the third team did Cal manage to have a respectable offensive quarter.
Performances:
We led for the last 36 minutes of the game. Cal took a 5-4 lead on a free throw a few minutes in to the first quarter, and that was the last point they scored that quarter. By the end of it they were behind 20-5. For the game, we shot 47%, they shot 27%. Cal has been an awesome rebounding team, but today we out rebounded them 50-29.
As for individual leaders, Prechtel led everyone in efficiency, Fingall led in that other overall stat "usage percentage" (she had 4 steals) and Jones led in points with 17. Every player who could put on a uniform played, Moschkau had 7 minutes but everyone else had at least 10. It was a well balanced effort--every player except for Lacie scored, and Lacie was busy helping to hold Cal's leading scorer to 4 points.
Why did we do so well? We played our offense with a lot of motion and pace, and while it did not always result in a good look at the basket, it clearly wore Cal out trying to keep up. They are not deep. Jones was 7/10 and managed to score inside and around the Cal defense. Prechtel was even better at 6/7, and particularly heartening was that she used her dropstep to get around both West and Yue. But our close defense, combined with refs who called only 11 fouls on us, was what won the game. No Cal player got double digits.
Conclusion to the Friday game:
It is fun to watch games like this. My greatest worry, though, is that it can't help but promote overconfidence going into Sunday's game at Cal. I doubt that we will get a 40 point lead there. On a night that saw Oregon go down and Oregon State barely eek out a victory, it sure looks as if we are improving at the right time. Let's hope Sunday goes well and we can use some of this magic on next week's Oregon trip.
SUNDAY GAME
Overview:
Our defense was not as intense and Cal was not as incompetent, which allowed them to score 65 points. But we led the whole way and there was never much doubt about the outcome. Williams and Jone repeatedly slashed to the basket, allowing us to score 52 points in the paint, to which we added 54% three point shooting. Many pretty over the shoulder layups by Williams and an incredible pass half the length of the court to Jones by her. A satisfying offensive win.
Performances:
Unlike Friday, tonight we had 4 players who played in the mid 30 minutes, so the bench did not get a whole lot of time. The exception was Belibi, who started but played only 7 minutes. Most of her time went to Lacie Hull, who played 26 minutes despite leaving the game in the first half with a bloodied nose, and reappearing in the second half with a face mask. Prectel got only 8 minutes--and scored 11 points in that short stretch.
As a team, we shot 53%, but allowed Cal to shoot to shoot 38%. That is about Cal's average, up from Friday's woeful inability to hit the broad side of a barn. We gave up 17 turnovers, while they had 15--it was our turnovers in the first half that kept Cal in the game and prevented us from blowing them out like Friday. The other massive equalizer was that Cal had 18 points off free throws while we had 4. This is a big clue. My guess is that we tried to defend them the same way we did no Friday, and these refs called the game much more tightly--preventing our very close defense from having the same effect.
Individually, Kiana Williams looked like a ballet star out there, pirouetting around the basket, threading the needle with long assists, and accumulating 21 points and 5 assists.
Haley Jones was 9/15 also for 21 points, with 4 assists.
Fingall played 34 minutes--probably her longest game of the year, and only had 2 points, but contributed 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks.
Lexie was 7/14 for 17 points. I already mentioned Prechtel, who came in for a short stretch and promptly buried 11 points, going 3/3 from long range.
In terms of +/-, Williams was far and away the most outstanding player at 24. Lexie, Fingall, Jones, and Lacie all had good ratings in the mid teens. No one else--even Prechtel--came close to those five.
Conclusion:
I am glad that our freshmen had another hostile away game--this is really only their second. It won't prepare them for next week, but there were 7000 fans at Cal--double our own home crowds--so it gives them the faintest hint of what it will be like in Oregon. I'm also happy that Cal gets OSU first, and that Oregon got a win today. Best to face those two schools after they have wins rather than losses. How will we do? I don't have the faintest idea. But I think I am in agreement with Mary Murphy--next weekend will be clarifying one way or the other.
We play Cal twice this weekend. Cal is 8-5 but we should not take two wins for granted. Cal played UConn relatively close, with Sara Anastasieska going off on them for 25 points. They beat #20 Arkansas and lost to #14 Kentucky by 2 points after tying the game up with 9 seconds left. On the other hand, they have lost to Harvard, Washington, and Washington State. Inconsistent is the word--and that may be bad news for us, since Cal is not consistently bad, and when playing 2 games in one weekend, they might get a 25 point performance out of Anastasieska on one of those days. Massey has them at 75--they plunged 29 spots after being swept at home by the Washington schools. I imagine Charmin Smith, our own former player and former assistant coach, will get them turned around to compete.
About 20% of Cal's made shots are treys, but Cal doesn't have any player who averages more than about 1 a game.
Jaelyn Brown shoots them at 36% but is a well rounded 6'1" senior forward who leads the team in minutes and points (16.)
Alaysia Styles is a 6'3" junior forward who is their second leading scorer.
CJ West, who we discussed years ago in our recruiting thread, is a powerful 6'4" center who shoots 55% (all from inside) and leads Cal with rebounding. My memory of her is that she might be vulnerable in the fourth quarter if we run the floor and keep the pace high.
Anastasieska is a 5'11" redshirt senior guard from Australia who is only their 4th leading scorer and shooting a paltry 37%, but is obviously capable of "going off" against the likes of UConn.
Their fifth starter is 5'5" freshman point guard Lelani McIntosh who leads the team in assists.
Chen Yu has actually been playing 14 minutes a game--I don't think we have seen her play before. She is probably relieving CJ West. Yu is 6'7"
FRIDAY GAME
Overview:
Stanford played suffocating defense and Cal was not ready for it. After three quarters the score was 58-18, and Cal players were visibly upset. Only after Stanford sent in the third team did Cal manage to have a respectable offensive quarter.
Performances:
We led for the last 36 minutes of the game. Cal took a 5-4 lead on a free throw a few minutes in to the first quarter, and that was the last point they scored that quarter. By the end of it they were behind 20-5. For the game, we shot 47%, they shot 27%. Cal has been an awesome rebounding team, but today we out rebounded them 50-29.
As for individual leaders, Prechtel led everyone in efficiency, Fingall led in that other overall stat "usage percentage" (she had 4 steals) and Jones led in points with 17. Every player who could put on a uniform played, Moschkau had 7 minutes but everyone else had at least 10. It was a well balanced effort--every player except for Lacie scored, and Lacie was busy helping to hold Cal's leading scorer to 4 points.
Why did we do so well? We played our offense with a lot of motion and pace, and while it did not always result in a good look at the basket, it clearly wore Cal out trying to keep up. They are not deep. Jones was 7/10 and managed to score inside and around the Cal defense. Prechtel was even better at 6/7, and particularly heartening was that she used her dropstep to get around both West and Yue. But our close defense, combined with refs who called only 11 fouls on us, was what won the game. No Cal player got double digits.
Conclusion to the Friday game:
It is fun to watch games like this. My greatest worry, though, is that it can't help but promote overconfidence going into Sunday's game at Cal. I doubt that we will get a 40 point lead there. On a night that saw Oregon go down and Oregon State barely eek out a victory, it sure looks as if we are improving at the right time. Let's hope Sunday goes well and we can use some of this magic on next week's Oregon trip.
SUNDAY GAME
Overview:
Our defense was not as intense and Cal was not as incompetent, which allowed them to score 65 points. But we led the whole way and there was never much doubt about the outcome. Williams and Jone repeatedly slashed to the basket, allowing us to score 52 points in the paint, to which we added 54% three point shooting. Many pretty over the shoulder layups by Williams and an incredible pass half the length of the court to Jones by her. A satisfying offensive win.
Performances:
Unlike Friday, tonight we had 4 players who played in the mid 30 minutes, so the bench did not get a whole lot of time. The exception was Belibi, who started but played only 7 minutes. Most of her time went to Lacie Hull, who played 26 minutes despite leaving the game in the first half with a bloodied nose, and reappearing in the second half with a face mask. Prectel got only 8 minutes--and scored 11 points in that short stretch.
As a team, we shot 53%, but allowed Cal to shoot to shoot 38%. That is about Cal's average, up from Friday's woeful inability to hit the broad side of a barn. We gave up 17 turnovers, while they had 15--it was our turnovers in the first half that kept Cal in the game and prevented us from blowing them out like Friday. The other massive equalizer was that Cal had 18 points off free throws while we had 4. This is a big clue. My guess is that we tried to defend them the same way we did no Friday, and these refs called the game much more tightly--preventing our very close defense from having the same effect.
Individually, Kiana Williams looked like a ballet star out there, pirouetting around the basket, threading the needle with long assists, and accumulating 21 points and 5 assists.
Haley Jones was 9/15 also for 21 points, with 4 assists.
Fingall played 34 minutes--probably her longest game of the year, and only had 2 points, but contributed 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 blocks.
Lexie was 7/14 for 17 points. I already mentioned Prechtel, who came in for a short stretch and promptly buried 11 points, going 3/3 from long range.
In terms of +/-, Williams was far and away the most outstanding player at 24. Lexie, Fingall, Jones, and Lacie all had good ratings in the mid teens. No one else--even Prechtel--came close to those five.
Conclusion:
I am glad that our freshmen had another hostile away game--this is really only their second. It won't prepare them for next week, but there were 7000 fans at Cal--double our own home crowds--so it gives them the faintest hint of what it will be like in Oregon. I'm also happy that Cal gets OSU first, and that Oregon got a win today. Best to face those two schools after they have wins rather than losses. How will we do? I don't have the faintest idea. But I think I am in agreement with Mary Murphy--next weekend will be clarifying one way or the other.