12-29-2017, 07:43 AM
Before the Game:
The realist in me tells me we are not ready for 9-2 Baylor-killer UCLA--which has 3 seniors, a redshirt junior, and a junior to start against us--all of them quality players. We seem to do better containing "bigs" so we might control Monique Billings, but all year we have lacked anyone who can match up with elite guards, so I worry especially about Jordin Canada. Canada has 71 assists to 18 turnovers, makes 37% of her threes, and leads the team with a whopping 43 steals. Making matters worse, UCLA has relatively balanced scoring and is very gradually working several outstanding bench freshmen into games.Â
Overview:
10 players scored, three in double digits, but the main story was efficiency--we shot 52% for the game and an astounding 62% in the second half, while holding UCLA to 31%--they average 44%. Kate Paye told us before the game that we were going to clog the lanes because UCLA loves to score at the rim, and force them to take jumpers. We executed that to perfection, although it looked ugly while doing so. We had more points-in-the-paint than they did--and outrebounded them 48-33. The band was back, the crowd actually came to its feet for several standing ovations, and for one night at least this felt like the Stanford of old.
Flow of the Game:
Tara started yet another new lineup and it included two freshmen: Williams and Dodson to go with McPhee, Smith, and Sniezek. Johnson lost her starting role and Sniezek won hers back. However, Dodson lasted barely a minute and wound up with just four minutes in the game--Fingall proved to be the beneficiary of extra minutes due to her outstanding play. And Johnson wound up playing for 33 minutes almost exclusively for her defense.
From the start of the first quarter it was clear that our team was much more motivated than in the recent past--especially on defense. On D, the players were moving faster and sticking with their targets. Tara substituted 1 or 2 players at every break during the first half to keep them fresh and look for the right combination. For the first time all year our bench was yelling wildly, and as the game went on there were cameos by Erica McCall, seated opposite the bench, to whip the crowd up.Â
Another point to be made was that the officiating changed dramatically from half to half. In the first half there were a total of 10 fouls called, allowing us to push the UCLA bigs around in the paint and to clog the lanes as we had planned. But it also allowed for extremely aggressive pressure defense by UCLA leading to 10 turnovers--many of them resulting in UCLA points. In the second half the refs called 24 fouls, which opened the game up a bit more.
As the first quarter got going, offense came slowly for us but was nearly frozen for UCLA. McPhee and Smith got us going and Johnson chipped in a jumper. We clawed our way forward to a 14-9 first quarter lead. In fact, we led in this game from the first basket to the end.
The second quarter and third quarters were very similarly frustrating. In each quarter we built a sizable lead. In the second it was an 11-0 Stanford run orchestrated by Smith, Fingall, and McPhee and we were up 12 with three minutes left, prompting Close to call a time out and bringing the crowd to its feet. But after the time out, two free throws by Canada, a steal by Canada leading to layup, a Billings layup, a Canada layup, and a last second Canada trey left the lead at half down to 32-29. In the third quarter a Burke layup cut our lead to 1, but a combined effort including treys from Smith and Wilson got us going on a 14-5 run and a 10 point lead before giving back 8 points to close out the third at 48-46. We had not lost the lead, but I kept thinking that it felt something like Western Illinois in the 3rd, when our inability to put it away let them back into the game and gave our opponents encouragement.
The fourth quarter was decisive. McPhee got us started with a jumper and a trey, but Fingall was the new piece of the puzzle that we lacked in previous losses. She worked her way to the elbow or the free throw line and sank jumpers. She also made her free throws. As our lead stretched back to 7 and then 9 and then 11 on Fingall points, UCLA began pressing aggressively and fouling. We started 1 of 4 with our free throw shooting in the 4th quarter, and visions of the Tennessee loss floated in my head. But then it all clicked and we finished 12 of 13, with Sniezek, McPhee, Carrington, and Williams becoming nearly perfect, and the game was put away.
Performances:
As a team, the most remarkable achievement was our 52% shooting, our edge in rebounding (although we did give up 17 O-boards that was out of 74 attempts,) keeping Canada to a mere 7/28 shots. To give you an idea of why efficiency proved to be so important, UCLA took 74 shots and made 23. We took only 52 and made 27. We also got our free throw shooting up to 68%--which is above our league-worst 64%--but at least that marginal improvement turned positive at the end when we most needed it.
McPhee led with 26 points on 10/16 but played only 27 minutes. Particularly important, on several occasions when the clock was running down she was the player who had to make something happen. She would drive and collect a foul, for example. She also had 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Smith had a solid double-double, with 14 points on 6/12 shooting and 13 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Fingall to me was the difference in this game, since McPhee and Smith did what they normally do. She had 10 points on 4/6 shooting and collected 6 rebounds and 3 assists in only 25 minutes.
Sniezek played all 40 minutes. She and the other small guards took turns on Canada. With UCLA's aggressive defense I imagine Tara wanted an experienced guard who would not get flustered. She had 5 assists and 3 turnovers.
Kiana Williams started alongside her so we would have some offense, but she got only 8 minutes this game. Something about the matchups, as she was 0/3. But she was inserted to make free throws at the end and she did that perfectly.
Carrington was back but perhaps she was given limited minutes after her injury--just 10 minutes total, and just in relief of McPhee rather than alongside her. She had 7 points but 4 turnovers--turnovers have been her Achilles heel all along.
Dodson started but got only 4 minutes. I always wonder what the coaches see--I guess it becomes obvious early on whether a player can handle a certain defensive assignment.Â
Instead, Kaylee Johnson got 33 minutes, including virtually all of the critical 4th quarter. She nabbed only 7 rebounds and 6 points, but she frequently used her height and long arms to trap Canada under the basket.Â
Romano, Wilson, and Jerome all got some time. Jerome made a gorgeous reverse layup, Wilson a trey at a critical moment.
Conclusion:
My how we needed this. The team seem enthusiastic, the bench was cheering, and hopefully this will give us some much-needed self-confidence. And perhaps Fingall is on the way to becoming a go-to player while Dodson matures.Â
All the good this has done for us, however, could come unglued unless we beat SC on Sunday. So no letup, let's hope. C.al just beat SC 76-64--almost an identical score to ours. If we beat SC I'm sure we will scratch back into the rankings next week, and more important, it will show we have learned something from those 6 defeats.
The realist in me tells me we are not ready for 9-2 Baylor-killer UCLA--which has 3 seniors, a redshirt junior, and a junior to start against us--all of them quality players. We seem to do better containing "bigs" so we might control Monique Billings, but all year we have lacked anyone who can match up with elite guards, so I worry especially about Jordin Canada. Canada has 71 assists to 18 turnovers, makes 37% of her threes, and leads the team with a whopping 43 steals. Making matters worse, UCLA has relatively balanced scoring and is very gradually working several outstanding bench freshmen into games.Â
Overview:
10 players scored, three in double digits, but the main story was efficiency--we shot 52% for the game and an astounding 62% in the second half, while holding UCLA to 31%--they average 44%. Kate Paye told us before the game that we were going to clog the lanes because UCLA loves to score at the rim, and force them to take jumpers. We executed that to perfection, although it looked ugly while doing so. We had more points-in-the-paint than they did--and outrebounded them 48-33. The band was back, the crowd actually came to its feet for several standing ovations, and for one night at least this felt like the Stanford of old.
Flow of the Game:
Tara started yet another new lineup and it included two freshmen: Williams and Dodson to go with McPhee, Smith, and Sniezek. Johnson lost her starting role and Sniezek won hers back. However, Dodson lasted barely a minute and wound up with just four minutes in the game--Fingall proved to be the beneficiary of extra minutes due to her outstanding play. And Johnson wound up playing for 33 minutes almost exclusively for her defense.
From the start of the first quarter it was clear that our team was much more motivated than in the recent past--especially on defense. On D, the players were moving faster and sticking with their targets. Tara substituted 1 or 2 players at every break during the first half to keep them fresh and look for the right combination. For the first time all year our bench was yelling wildly, and as the game went on there were cameos by Erica McCall, seated opposite the bench, to whip the crowd up.Â
Another point to be made was that the officiating changed dramatically from half to half. In the first half there were a total of 10 fouls called, allowing us to push the UCLA bigs around in the paint and to clog the lanes as we had planned. But it also allowed for extremely aggressive pressure defense by UCLA leading to 10 turnovers--many of them resulting in UCLA points. In the second half the refs called 24 fouls, which opened the game up a bit more.
As the first quarter got going, offense came slowly for us but was nearly frozen for UCLA. McPhee and Smith got us going and Johnson chipped in a jumper. We clawed our way forward to a 14-9 first quarter lead. In fact, we led in this game from the first basket to the end.
The second quarter and third quarters were very similarly frustrating. In each quarter we built a sizable lead. In the second it was an 11-0 Stanford run orchestrated by Smith, Fingall, and McPhee and we were up 12 with three minutes left, prompting Close to call a time out and bringing the crowd to its feet. But after the time out, two free throws by Canada, a steal by Canada leading to layup, a Billings layup, a Canada layup, and a last second Canada trey left the lead at half down to 32-29. In the third quarter a Burke layup cut our lead to 1, but a combined effort including treys from Smith and Wilson got us going on a 14-5 run and a 10 point lead before giving back 8 points to close out the third at 48-46. We had not lost the lead, but I kept thinking that it felt something like Western Illinois in the 3rd, when our inability to put it away let them back into the game and gave our opponents encouragement.
The fourth quarter was decisive. McPhee got us started with a jumper and a trey, but Fingall was the new piece of the puzzle that we lacked in previous losses. She worked her way to the elbow or the free throw line and sank jumpers. She also made her free throws. As our lead stretched back to 7 and then 9 and then 11 on Fingall points, UCLA began pressing aggressively and fouling. We started 1 of 4 with our free throw shooting in the 4th quarter, and visions of the Tennessee loss floated in my head. But then it all clicked and we finished 12 of 13, with Sniezek, McPhee, Carrington, and Williams becoming nearly perfect, and the game was put away.
Performances:
As a team, the most remarkable achievement was our 52% shooting, our edge in rebounding (although we did give up 17 O-boards that was out of 74 attempts,) keeping Canada to a mere 7/28 shots. To give you an idea of why efficiency proved to be so important, UCLA took 74 shots and made 23. We took only 52 and made 27. We also got our free throw shooting up to 68%--which is above our league-worst 64%--but at least that marginal improvement turned positive at the end when we most needed it.
McPhee led with 26 points on 10/16 but played only 27 minutes. Particularly important, on several occasions when the clock was running down she was the player who had to make something happen. She would drive and collect a foul, for example. She also had 7 rebounds and 4 assists.
Smith had a solid double-double, with 14 points on 6/12 shooting and 13 rebounds and 3 blocks.
Fingall to me was the difference in this game, since McPhee and Smith did what they normally do. She had 10 points on 4/6 shooting and collected 6 rebounds and 3 assists in only 25 minutes.
Sniezek played all 40 minutes. She and the other small guards took turns on Canada. With UCLA's aggressive defense I imagine Tara wanted an experienced guard who would not get flustered. She had 5 assists and 3 turnovers.
Kiana Williams started alongside her so we would have some offense, but she got only 8 minutes this game. Something about the matchups, as she was 0/3. But she was inserted to make free throws at the end and she did that perfectly.
Carrington was back but perhaps she was given limited minutes after her injury--just 10 minutes total, and just in relief of McPhee rather than alongside her. She had 7 points but 4 turnovers--turnovers have been her Achilles heel all along.
Dodson started but got only 4 minutes. I always wonder what the coaches see--I guess it becomes obvious early on whether a player can handle a certain defensive assignment.Â
Instead, Kaylee Johnson got 33 minutes, including virtually all of the critical 4th quarter. She nabbed only 7 rebounds and 6 points, but she frequently used her height and long arms to trap Canada under the basket.Â
Romano, Wilson, and Jerome all got some time. Jerome made a gorgeous reverse layup, Wilson a trey at a critical moment.
Conclusion:
My how we needed this. The team seem enthusiastic, the bench was cheering, and hopefully this will give us some much-needed self-confidence. And perhaps Fingall is on the way to becoming a go-to player while Dodson matures.Â
All the good this has done for us, however, could come unglued unless we beat SC on Sunday. So no letup, let's hope. C.al just beat SC 76-64--almost an identical score to ours. If we beat SC I'm sure we will scratch back into the rankings next week, and more important, it will show we have learned something from those 6 defeats.
