03-31-2013, 05:22 PM
OK, now for the post-mortem. What went wrong in this game? I'll keep this one more clinical, since I think the first post speaks from the heart.
An excellent start
After two layups by Chiney, a jumper by Jos, and a three pointer by Amber, we found ourselves up 9-0 and all of us probably breathed a sign of relief. At least we were not going to start slow the way we had so many other games. The game was hopeful, not tense. And Chiney was scoring almost at will.
Landers just could not imagine the kind of player Chiney was going to bethe nightmare she would be to defend one on one. He was trying to manage Chiney without completely committing to shutting her down. He probably feared leaving our perimeter players open to do what they did against Michigan.Â
Sprained fingers and chances
Georgia seemed to benefit from a momentum shift when Taylor went out of the game with three sprained fingers. Her importance on defense and in ball distribution on offense was proven, sadly. That plus Joslyn acquired two early fouls and had to sit out for much of the first half. In the next stretch Georgia closed the gap and took the lead. Chiney was still scoring nearly every time she got the ball, but when Landers gave his first half interview he said he could live with that.Â
The Georgia lead evaporated after two layups by Chiney and a trey by Sara, and we took a 7 point lead into halftime.
Halftime adjustments
It was clear by halftime that Landers could not live with Chineys performance any longer, and Georgia would have to do something different. The announcers marveled that Landers had not doubled Chiney and wondered out loud what he could be thinking. So, in the second half Georgia brought a hard double to Chiney, and Chiney was clearly instructed to pass back out of the double team. They fronted her to deny her the ball, or they just sandwiched her. Chiney had many fewer opportunities, and she uncharacteristically missed a couple of the ones she did haveso after 18 points in the first half she had 8 in the second.Â
Too many misses
This meant the rest of the team needed to deliver points, as they did in the Michigan game. But they did not pick up all the slack. Amber did her best and chipped in 17 points, but it was not efficient scoringshe took 24 shots. Other players either seemed hesitant to shoot or were not very successful when they did. They seldom got wide open. Jos was 2/9 (1/5 from in close), Sara was 1/7 and even missed a layup, Ruef was 2/9 (both were pretty high post jumpers--that bodes well for next year), and so it went. Just a lot of missed shots. Jos made a basket about 5 minutes into the game and then had a miserable time, going 35 minutes without scoring until her desperation trey connected with 5 seconds left. There simply was not enough firepower to go with Chiney. We shot 47% in the first half and 29% in the second half.
Defensive and mental miscues
Even with all those problems, we might still have pulled this game out were it not for some uncharacteristic break downs on defense late in the game. Hassel, who we had more or less controlled with the help of her foul trouble, scored six points in the last three minutes, and showed the ability to go right around Ruef. There needed to be a second player on her, and for some reason there was not. What changed in those last three minutes I am not sure, but the first time she scored we should have responded by bringing a double team on her. Â
We also suffered during that stretch from a critical mental lapse. Thinking a timeout had been called, Joslyn tossed the ball to a ref--or that is what she thought she was doing, but she had tossed it out of bounds. No time out had been called, so it was a turnover. We gave up our last good chance to tie the game on our terms by giving Georgia a free possession with 51 seconds left.Â
Questionable Refereeing
Even worse, after holding Georgia from scoring in the next possession, the referees reset the shot clock after a Georgia shot failed to hit the rim. Georgia got an offensive rebound. Because the shot clock had reset, Amber was forced to intentionally James with 21 seconds left in the game. That put the game out of reach when James hit the two free throws for a 4 point lead. The refs did check their error and determined that the foul happened before the shot clock would have gone off if it had not been improperly reset, so they let it count. But Amber would not have intentionally fouled were it not for the mix upwhat would have been the point with only a second or two left on the clock? If the clock had proceeded normally, Georgia would have taken a desperation shot, and we could well have rebounded and had the ball back down only 2 points with 21 seconds. If you believe in karma points, the next step would have been for Joslyn's desperation three pointer to give us the win rather than to bring us within 1.Â
Another interesting point is that we made more 3 more field goals than Georgia in this game. Nor was the problem three point shotswe made 5 and they made 6. The margin in this game were the free throws. They were awarded 14 more free throws than we were. Did they deserve 14 more free throws? It seemed to me that they were subjecting Chiney to some very rough treatment in the second half, especially, and the lack of equal treatment by the refs may have cost us the game.
Coroners Report Â
What cost us the game? Contributing factors:
1. Insufficient firepower on offense to go with Chiney.
2. Joslyn having an off day.
3. No one besides Amber being able to consistently hit treys.
4. Injuries to Taylor and Toni (and why not throw in Beebe if we think about the whole season.)
5. Defensive breakdowns against Hassel at the decisive moment of the game.
6. Odd officiating that gave Georgia 14 more free throw attempts than us.
7. Georgia Defense that took away passing targetsresulting in only 8 assists for us (but oddly, we did quite well at minimizing turnovers.)
An excellent start
After two layups by Chiney, a jumper by Jos, and a three pointer by Amber, we found ourselves up 9-0 and all of us probably breathed a sign of relief. At least we were not going to start slow the way we had so many other games. The game was hopeful, not tense. And Chiney was scoring almost at will.
Landers just could not imagine the kind of player Chiney was going to bethe nightmare she would be to defend one on one. He was trying to manage Chiney without completely committing to shutting her down. He probably feared leaving our perimeter players open to do what they did against Michigan.Â
Sprained fingers and chances
Georgia seemed to benefit from a momentum shift when Taylor went out of the game with three sprained fingers. Her importance on defense and in ball distribution on offense was proven, sadly. That plus Joslyn acquired two early fouls and had to sit out for much of the first half. In the next stretch Georgia closed the gap and took the lead. Chiney was still scoring nearly every time she got the ball, but when Landers gave his first half interview he said he could live with that.Â
The Georgia lead evaporated after two layups by Chiney and a trey by Sara, and we took a 7 point lead into halftime.
Halftime adjustments
It was clear by halftime that Landers could not live with Chineys performance any longer, and Georgia would have to do something different. The announcers marveled that Landers had not doubled Chiney and wondered out loud what he could be thinking. So, in the second half Georgia brought a hard double to Chiney, and Chiney was clearly instructed to pass back out of the double team. They fronted her to deny her the ball, or they just sandwiched her. Chiney had many fewer opportunities, and she uncharacteristically missed a couple of the ones she did haveso after 18 points in the first half she had 8 in the second.Â
Too many misses
This meant the rest of the team needed to deliver points, as they did in the Michigan game. But they did not pick up all the slack. Amber did her best and chipped in 17 points, but it was not efficient scoringshe took 24 shots. Other players either seemed hesitant to shoot or were not very successful when they did. They seldom got wide open. Jos was 2/9 (1/5 from in close), Sara was 1/7 and even missed a layup, Ruef was 2/9 (both were pretty high post jumpers--that bodes well for next year), and so it went. Just a lot of missed shots. Jos made a basket about 5 minutes into the game and then had a miserable time, going 35 minutes without scoring until her desperation trey connected with 5 seconds left. There simply was not enough firepower to go with Chiney. We shot 47% in the first half and 29% in the second half.
Defensive and mental miscues
Even with all those problems, we might still have pulled this game out were it not for some uncharacteristic break downs on defense late in the game. Hassel, who we had more or less controlled with the help of her foul trouble, scored six points in the last three minutes, and showed the ability to go right around Ruef. There needed to be a second player on her, and for some reason there was not. What changed in those last three minutes I am not sure, but the first time she scored we should have responded by bringing a double team on her. Â
We also suffered during that stretch from a critical mental lapse. Thinking a timeout had been called, Joslyn tossed the ball to a ref--or that is what she thought she was doing, but she had tossed it out of bounds. No time out had been called, so it was a turnover. We gave up our last good chance to tie the game on our terms by giving Georgia a free possession with 51 seconds left.Â
Questionable Refereeing
Even worse, after holding Georgia from scoring in the next possession, the referees reset the shot clock after a Georgia shot failed to hit the rim. Georgia got an offensive rebound. Because the shot clock had reset, Amber was forced to intentionally James with 21 seconds left in the game. That put the game out of reach when James hit the two free throws for a 4 point lead. The refs did check their error and determined that the foul happened before the shot clock would have gone off if it had not been improperly reset, so they let it count. But Amber would not have intentionally fouled were it not for the mix upwhat would have been the point with only a second or two left on the clock? If the clock had proceeded normally, Georgia would have taken a desperation shot, and we could well have rebounded and had the ball back down only 2 points with 21 seconds. If you believe in karma points, the next step would have been for Joslyn's desperation three pointer to give us the win rather than to bring us within 1.Â
Another interesting point is that we made more 3 more field goals than Georgia in this game. Nor was the problem three point shotswe made 5 and they made 6. The margin in this game were the free throws. They were awarded 14 more free throws than we were. Did they deserve 14 more free throws? It seemed to me that they were subjecting Chiney to some very rough treatment in the second half, especially, and the lack of equal treatment by the refs may have cost us the game.
Coroners Report Â
What cost us the game? Contributing factors:
1. Insufficient firepower on offense to go with Chiney.
2. Joslyn having an off day.
3. No one besides Amber being able to consistently hit treys.
4. Injuries to Taylor and Toni (and why not throw in Beebe if we think about the whole season.)
5. Defensive breakdowns against Hassel at the decisive moment of the game.
6. Odd officiating that gave Georgia 14 more free throw attempts than us.
7. Georgia Defense that took away passing targetsresulting in only 8 assists for us (but oddly, we did quite well at minimizing turnovers.)