(11-20-2022, 05:09 PM)chimera Wrote: This was a woulda, coulda, shoulda game. Should have won it in regulation. Had a nice lead for much of the game but went stale and cold late. Jones was fine in the first half, but the second was one of her worst halves against a good team maybe in her career. I'm not sure if she was trying to do too much because she often makes the shots she was missing, even against good defenders. If we get just a D half from Jones instead of an F, we win. If she makes that one FT we probably win. That was the major downer of the game, that we did not see the best from Haley. The turnovers hurt too, but they were generally not the awful kind where SC is just heading toward their basket with the ball after a steal.
To the good, we rebounded pretty well, though not always when it was critical. Lepolo was good in her first big time game. Prechtel was not great in her first stint on the floor but after that she was excellent on defense and got some key rebounds. Brink had an excellent game even with the fouls. Iriafen settled down and played better after a tough start.
The end of the game was a mess in every way, enough said about that. I thought Tara needed to put in more shooters to spread the floor a bit when the offense was struggling late, like put in Demetre with Jump and see if we can't get one of them an open look, maybe from a Jones drive and dish. Jones did not drive and dish enough, was too focused on her own shot. That's great if they go in, but when they aren't... I wouldn't have minded seeing a bit more of Betts too. Some fresh legs late maybe could have helped.
Long term I don't think this is a crushing loss. They should have won, really. SC is a great team but we had them down and just did not finish it out. There were a few tough calls in there late too. This should piss the team off, and get the coaches scheming ways to improve the offense. No pressure of being number 1, SC can have that. Keep in mind SC is a very experienced team. They started four seniors or fifth year and I think the other one was a junior or something, not s frosh. We started two seniors, one junior, one soph, and one frosh. We should get a lot better.
I also don't think seeding is going to be a big deal this season. We just played the team that is the consensus #1 and deserves it given that they won it all last year and who is on their roster. We should be able to cope with all styles. Just stay healthy and keep improving.
After reading a bunch of dumb, negative posts here, you're always a refreshing voice here with your observations on target. Agree with all your points and made most of the same on TOS.
Staley had Cooke locking down on Jump. Curious to know if you think we should have designed some stuff to get Hannah some space.
A few adds to 81 Alum.
Considering the match up of #1 and #2, the officating was near atrocious, probably both ways, maybe 60-40 in favor of SC. A major non-call was Amihere O rebound after missed FT with 24 seconds left. She clearly went over the back of Kiki and should have fouled out and us have the ball dwon 2 in OT with 24 seconds on the clock. I believe that it would have drastically changed the outcome.
We all agree that Haley played well in the 1st half and poorly in the second. The worst of her second performance was missing that FT. If she makes it, we guard the 3 pt line, even let them have a 2 or foul and we win. It's inexcusable for our players not to be better at the line. Last year, I saw Haley have a streak where she almost never missed. As a senior, she has to make that FT in crunch time.
As Tara noted, we needed to be attacking the basket more. Haley was the only one consistently capable, but she tended too often to not go hard and force contact and fouls instead trying to do circus shots or stop and pops. Lepolo did some but not enough and though she looks promising, I think she did enough without forcing things and committing TOs. Brink can attack and sometimes very effectively, but the nature of physics is that she can't be counted on because it's easier to strip her of the ball. We have no one else, except... Nivar. We need to get her in the mix more against top teams so she and the coaches ahve confidence in her driving. Jump can do more but she is more of an opportunistic driver as she doesn't have the ball handling skills of Lepolo, Jones, and Nivar. Harriel has the potential skills, but she is not ready yet to be thrust on the big stage.