[Viking_Guy]

Jos may have been solid in the first half, but in the last ten minutes she really didn't play well, and finished the game with NO points while generally being defended by players 3 or 4 inches shorter than she was.  Mostly, she has no business putting the ball on the floor - she kept bringing it down and letting the smaller Gamecocks get a hand on it.  18 turnovers at the end are what kept South Carolina in the game - they shot horribly, but had SIXTEEN more shots than Stanford did, in spite of I guess aided by the Cardinal's 11 blocks.  As a team, take away their leading scorer Welch, and the Gamecocks shot 11-53.

Chiney was playing tough, but people are right - there was little to no movement by the rest of the team.  We often started in a 1-4 low set (1 player at the top with the ball and 4 on the baseline), then brought up one or two players to the wing to screen.  But most of the offense seemed to only involve 3 players - the one with the ball, one screener and Chiney.  The other two players on the floor didn't enter into the flow at all.  Stanford also got all of 2 points from the bench, and no made field goals - Bonnie was 2-2 from the FT line.  They got two made shots from the entirety of the team other than Chiney, Amber and Toni - by Mikaela Ruef.

Key stat - Stanford assists?  FOUR.  For the entire game.  While South Carolina plays good defense, that's an offense that's just anemic.  One other - 5 offensive rebounds the entire game.
 
Amber hit a key pull-up jumper to tie the game at 42, but also turned it over 7 times. 

Actually, I might give the gameball to Ruef (and might consider giving a designated one to Chiney - she's been so consistently good and critical to Stanford's success that I look for other contributors).  After Chiney converted a really tough and-1 opportunity to put Stanford back up 45-44, the Gamecocks, who are among the worst free throw shooting teams in the country, hit 1 of 2 to tie it up.  Ruef got the ball on the left of the lane, with Chiney in the right post and three players sagging in on her.  Ruef took her player and drove her under the hoop to hit a driving layup and give Stanford a 47-45 lead.  After a good defensive stand, Toni was called for a very touchy foul with almost no time on the shot clock, but South Carolina could again only hit 1-2, and with under 25 seconds, had to foul.  Kokenis was lucky she wasn't called for traveling - she ran back toward an inbounds pass which came in high, caught it and looked like she took two steps before she could get it to the floor.  But it wasn't called, and she got the foul, calmly hitting both shots and giving Stanford a 3 point lead.  The Cardinal, switching everything to guard at the three-point line, gave up a drive down the left, but Ruef stepped out and took the charge with 10 seconds left.  Kokenis again sank her FTs, but South Carolina hit a pull-up 3 with under 2 seconds left.  Toni again hit her FTs, and Stanford escaped.

Yuck.

Hope they can step it up on Saturday against a pumped-up Tennessee team, smarting after getting shellacked by Baylor in Waco earlier this week.

VG

[Viking_Guy]

Jos may have been solid in the first half, but in the last ten minutes she really didn't play well, and finished the game with NO points while generally being defended by players 3 or 4 inches shorter than she was.  Mostly, she has no business putting the ball on the floor - she kept bringing it down and letting the smaller Gamecocks get a hand on it.  18 turnovers at the end are what kept South Carolina in the game - they shot horribly, but had SIXTEEN more shots than Stanford did, in spite of I guess aided by the Cardinal's 11 blocks.  As a team, take away their leading scorer Welch, and the Gamecocks shot 11-53.

Chiney was playing tough, but people are right - there was little to no movement by the rest of the team.  We often started in a 1-4 low set (1 player at the top with the ball and 4 on the baseline), then brought up one or two players to the wing to screen.  But most of the offense seemed to only involve 3 players - the one with the ball, one screener and Chiney.  The other two players on the floor didn't enter into the flow at all.  Stanford also got all of 2 points from the bench, and no made field goals - Bonnie was 2-2 from the FT line.  They got two made shots from the entirety of the team other than Chiney, Amber and Toni - by Mikaela Ruef.

Key stat - Stanford assists?  FOUR.  For the entire game.  While South Carolina plays good defense, that's an offense that's just anemic.  One other - 5 offensive rebounds the entire game.
 
Amber hit a key pull-up jumper to tie the game at 42, but also turned it over 7 times. 

Actually, I might give the gameball to Ruef (and might consider giving a designated one to Chiney - she's been so consistently good and critical to Stanford's success that I look for other contributors).  After Chiney converted a really tough and-1 opportunity to put Stanford back up 45-44, the Gamecocks, who are among the worst free throw shooting teams in the country, hit 1 of 2 to tie it up.  Ruef got the ball on the left of the lane, with Chiney in the right post and three players sagging in on her.  Ruef took her player and drove her under the hoop to hit a driving layup and give Stanford a 47-45 lead.  After a good defensive stand, Toni was called for a very touchy foul with almost no time on the shot clock, but South Carolina could again only hit 1-2, and with under 25 seconds, had to foul.  Kokenis was lucky she wasn't called for traveling - she ran back toward an inbounds pass which came in high, caught it and looked like she took two steps before she could get it to the floor.  But it wasn't called, and she got the foul, calmly hitting both shots and giving Stanford a 3 point lead.  The Cardinal, switching everything to guard at the three-point line, gave up a drive down the left, but Ruef stepped out and took the charge with 10 seconds left.  Kokenis again sank her FTs, but South Carolina hit a pull-up 3 with under 2 seconds left.  Toni again hit her FTs, and Stanford escaped.

Yuck.

Hope they can step it up on Saturday against a pumped-up Tennessee team, smarting after getting shellacked by Baylor in Waco earlier this week.

VG