[81alum]

stanford scoring by quarter: 17, 18, 15, 15

ucla scoring by quarter 8, 14, 18, 29.

looks to me like our offense was fairly consistent. like many others, i tend to wonder what we could have done better on offense, but ucla's comeback was a product of our defense against their offense.

gianna kneepkens played out of her mind for utah against us.

kiki rice played out of her mind for ucla against us.

i didn't see much that we were doing wrong in defending rice. maybe playing with no point guard for a while was a mistake. but rice was on fire whoever we threw at her. maybe we have a target on our backs, and many teams/players simply have their best game against us. just as there was not much that louisville did wrong in defending ashten in the elite 8: 16 points in the second half on 6/6 shooting including three 3's.

I agree with you that it was our defense in the 4th quarter that let us down.  That uncharacteristic quarter has to be accounted for, whether because of our own defensive lapses or simply other-worldly play by Rice and company.  It is interesting that UCLA scored more points in each quarter than it had in the previous.  They seemed to be figuring out our defense gradually and then they just "solved" it in the end.

Of course, our offense was consistently pretty pedestrian, too.  Cori Close is a underrated defensive coach--I've thought that ever since she held Chiney to 3 points and no baskets in a tournament game.  But only a very good defensive team can expect to win a lot of games by scoring 65 points.

My personal rule of thumb is our offense is doing well if it scores 20 points a quarter, and the defense is doing well if it holds the opposition to 15 points or less a quarter.  Entirely arbitrary, I know, but since conference play began our defense has often met my mark and our offense seldom has.  Massey has us as the nation's #3 defensive team and the #11 offensive team, although I imagine that second rating would be worse if accounting only for conference play.

Still, our offensive woes are no longer a surprise to us.  Giving up 29 points in a quarter was a big surprise.  It would be worth getting to the bottom of how it happened.

[81alum]

stanford scoring by quarter: 17, 18, 15, 15

ucla scoring by quarter 8, 14, 18, 29.

looks to me like our offense was fairly consistent. like many others, i tend to wonder what we could have done better on offense, but ucla's comeback was a product of our defense against their offense.

gianna kneepkens played out of her mind for utah against us.

kiki rice played out of her mind for ucla against us.

i didn't see much that we were doing wrong in defending rice. maybe playing with no point guard for a while was a mistake. but rice was on fire whoever we threw at her. maybe we have a target on our backs, and many teams/players simply have their best game against us. just as there was not much that louisville did wrong in defending ashten in the elite 8: 16 points in the second half on 6/6 shooting including three 3's.

I agree with you that it was our defense in the 4th quarter that let us down.  That uncharacteristic quarter has to be accounted for, whether because of our own defensive lapses or simply other-worldly play by Rice and company.  It is interesting that UCLA scored more points in each quarter than it had in the previous.  They seemed to be figuring out our defense gradually and then they just "solved" it in the end.

Of course, our offense was consistently pretty pedestrian, too.  Cori Close is a underrated defensive coach--I've thought that ever since she held Chiney to 3 points and no baskets in a tournament game.  But only a very good defensive team can expect to win a lot of games by scoring 65 points.

My personal rule of thumb is our offense is doing well if it scores 20 points a quarter, and the defense is doing well if it holds the opposition to 15 points or less a quarter.  Entirely arbitrary, I know, but since conference play began our defense has often met my mark and our offense seldom has.  Massey has us as the nation's #3 defensive team and the #11 offensive team, although I imagine that second rating would be worse if accounting only for conference play.

Still, our offensive woes are no longer a surprise to us.  Giving up 29 points in a quarter was a big surprise.  It would be worth getting to the bottom of how it happened.