Preview:
If we beat WSU--we have never lost to them in 63 games--Tara will get win 900 at Stanford. Wow. So what are the prospects of beating WSU?
WSU's RPI is 100, a few notches below Washington. Actually, they were ahead of Washington until Washington moved up on the strength of its loss to us! They are 7-10 and have beaten Washington, Colorado, and San Francisco, but have lost to Gonzaga, Utah, and just lost to Cal--by a comfortable margin. Their best win was probably a double overtime victory over Nebraska.
WSU is led by Borislava Hristova, a 6' redshirt junior forward known to all as "Bobbye Buckets." She is averaging 22 ppg and they mostly come inside on a sizzling 49% shooting. The three Molina sisters are all forces to be reckoned with. Chanelle is the starter. She plays point and makes 40% of her treys and has an excellent assist/turnover ratio. She averages 16 ppg. Alexis Swedlund shoots 45% of her threes and has made 47 of them. Clearly she is a very dangerous shooter and will need a lot of attention. They also have a 6'4" senior center from Portugal. On paper, they look like a more dangerous team than Washington, but their results have not been consistent. Let's hope that tomorrow is not the day that Bobbye Buckets and Alexis Swedlund get hot. It will be interesting to see how Tara defends a sizzling outside shooter and a slashing forward at the same time. The Hulls may get a big defensive responsibility again.
Overview:
Tara wins her 900th at Stanford and Alanna sets a personal best with 34 points, while we hold Hristova to 11. All in a day's work.
Before the Game:
We learned that Maya would still not be playing. She is out of the boot but not practicing yet. Lexie is healthy, but just needs more game time to get back to her prior self.
Flow of the Game:
Once again we blew the game open in the first quarter with a 29-13 outpouring, only to see the offense slow down in a 15-13 second quarter. The 31 points we scored in the 3rd extinquished any tiny gleam of hope WSU may have held, and the fourth allowed Tara to liberally substitute and get the entire bench into the game. So, for the second game this weekend there was no drama, except for the plethora of beautiful plays that our players made.
Performances:
We have to start with Alanna. WSU had no one who could guard her. She hit 4/5 treys and was 13/17 overall. Several times she brought the ball down and cut through lanes to the basket for easy layups. She scored from everywhere on the floor. To all that scoring she also added 15 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. And perhaps the most impressive stat of them all: 0 fouls.
Kiana had 19 points. Not only did she hit 3/6 of her treys, she showed several times that even small speedy quick guards like WSU's cannot keep up with her when she puts it on the floor and goes to the basket.
Rounding out our big three was Dijonai Carrington. D had a good offensive game with 11 points, but she and Lacie defended Hristova and did it very well. Holding Hristova to 11 points--half her average--is an impressive accomplishment.
Alyssa Jerome and Lacie Hull were the other two starters. Alyssa showed more signs of offense--shooting 7 times and making 2. We need her offense to develop a bit more. Lacie was also 2/7 but was most notable for her defense.
From the bench we saw quite a lot of Lexie, Jenna Brown, and Anna Wilson, and a little less of everyone else. Lexie was 0/6, which I am sure will frustrate her. She sometimes seems to be doing too much--she is so eager to be involved and return to form. She did have 6 rebounds, an assist and a steal in limited minutes. The rest will come. Jenna also looked a bit overeager. On the one hand, her ball handling looked quite good. She is a strong, strong point guard. Once I saw her going through a screen rather than around it--it was not called a foul, but she bumped into the player, moved her a foot or two, bumped into her again, moved her again, and then nearly knocked her over on the third try. She held that block longer than some of our offensive linemen! She was 1/3, and still seems hesitant to take open treys, and a little too frenetic when she attacks the basket. Anna Wilson acquitted herself quite well, I thought going 2/2 and playing some good defense.
As a team, we shot an even 50%, 48% from three, and held WSU to 36% shooting. We gave up 13 offensive rebounds to WSU, however, which allowed WSU to finish with one more rebound than we had. That was just about the only weakness. We had only 10 turnovers to their 14, and 14 of our baskets were assisted.
WSU's new coach does not use any kind of zone, which let us play the Princeton the whole game through. I think we got a good look at its strengths as a scheme today. We got a sprinkling of backdoor cuts, and ran their defense ragged by the third quarter.
Conclusion:
No doubt we are a good team this year, and have played very well the last two weekends. After we finish our road trip to Colorado and Utah next week, then the true gauntlet begins with Cal, the Oregon Schools, and the SoCal schools away. Watching the last couple of weeks a fan might be forgiven for believing the sky is the limit with this team. But there will come a game where we will desperately need Dodson, and we have to hope she is back by then.
If we beat WSU--we have never lost to them in 63 games--Tara will get win 900 at Stanford. Wow. So what are the prospects of beating WSU?
WSU's RPI is 100, a few notches below Washington. Actually, they were ahead of Washington until Washington moved up on the strength of its loss to us! They are 7-10 and have beaten Washington, Colorado, and San Francisco, but have lost to Gonzaga, Utah, and just lost to Cal--by a comfortable margin. Their best win was probably a double overtime victory over Nebraska.
WSU is led by Borislava Hristova, a 6' redshirt junior forward known to all as "Bobbye Buckets." She is averaging 22 ppg and they mostly come inside on a sizzling 49% shooting. The three Molina sisters are all forces to be reckoned with. Chanelle is the starter. She plays point and makes 40% of her treys and has an excellent assist/turnover ratio. She averages 16 ppg. Alexis Swedlund shoots 45% of her threes and has made 47 of them. Clearly she is a very dangerous shooter and will need a lot of attention. They also have a 6'4" senior center from Portugal. On paper, they look like a more dangerous team than Washington, but their results have not been consistent. Let's hope that tomorrow is not the day that Bobbye Buckets and Alexis Swedlund get hot. It will be interesting to see how Tara defends a sizzling outside shooter and a slashing forward at the same time. The Hulls may get a big defensive responsibility again.
Overview:
Tara wins her 900th at Stanford and Alanna sets a personal best with 34 points, while we hold Hristova to 11. All in a day's work.
Before the Game:
We learned that Maya would still not be playing. She is out of the boot but not practicing yet. Lexie is healthy, but just needs more game time to get back to her prior self.
Flow of the Game:
Once again we blew the game open in the first quarter with a 29-13 outpouring, only to see the offense slow down in a 15-13 second quarter. The 31 points we scored in the 3rd extinquished any tiny gleam of hope WSU may have held, and the fourth allowed Tara to liberally substitute and get the entire bench into the game. So, for the second game this weekend there was no drama, except for the plethora of beautiful plays that our players made.
Performances:
We have to start with Alanna. WSU had no one who could guard her. She hit 4/5 treys and was 13/17 overall. Several times she brought the ball down and cut through lanes to the basket for easy layups. She scored from everywhere on the floor. To all that scoring she also added 15 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. And perhaps the most impressive stat of them all: 0 fouls.
Kiana had 19 points. Not only did she hit 3/6 of her treys, she showed several times that even small speedy quick guards like WSU's cannot keep up with her when she puts it on the floor and goes to the basket.
Rounding out our big three was Dijonai Carrington. D had a good offensive game with 11 points, but she and Lacie defended Hristova and did it very well. Holding Hristova to 11 points--half her average--is an impressive accomplishment.
Alyssa Jerome and Lacie Hull were the other two starters. Alyssa showed more signs of offense--shooting 7 times and making 2. We need her offense to develop a bit more. Lacie was also 2/7 but was most notable for her defense.
From the bench we saw quite a lot of Lexie, Jenna Brown, and Anna Wilson, and a little less of everyone else. Lexie was 0/6, which I am sure will frustrate her. She sometimes seems to be doing too much--she is so eager to be involved and return to form. She did have 6 rebounds, an assist and a steal in limited minutes. The rest will come. Jenna also looked a bit overeager. On the one hand, her ball handling looked quite good. She is a strong, strong point guard. Once I saw her going through a screen rather than around it--it was not called a foul, but she bumped into the player, moved her a foot or two, bumped into her again, moved her again, and then nearly knocked her over on the third try. She held that block longer than some of our offensive linemen! She was 1/3, and still seems hesitant to take open treys, and a little too frenetic when she attacks the basket. Anna Wilson acquitted herself quite well, I thought going 2/2 and playing some good defense.
As a team, we shot an even 50%, 48% from three, and held WSU to 36% shooting. We gave up 13 offensive rebounds to WSU, however, which allowed WSU to finish with one more rebound than we had. That was just about the only weakness. We had only 10 turnovers to their 14, and 14 of our baskets were assisted.
WSU's new coach does not use any kind of zone, which let us play the Princeton the whole game through. I think we got a good look at its strengths as a scheme today. We got a sprinkling of backdoor cuts, and ran their defense ragged by the third quarter.
Conclusion:
No doubt we are a good team this year, and have played very well the last two weekends. After we finish our road trip to Colorado and Utah next week, then the true gauntlet begins with Cal, the Oregon Schools, and the SoCal schools away. Watching the last couple of weeks a fan might be forgiven for believing the sky is the limit with this team. But there will come a game where we will desperately need Dodson, and we have to hope she is back by then.
