01-12-2018, 07:58 AM
Preliminary:
With our young team, there are no more "gimme" games, and WSU is a much, much better team than it was a year ago. It is led by redshirt sophomore Borislava Hristova, a 6' redshirt sophomore who was out last year with a season-ending injury and who has become the Pac 12's leading scorer. Alexys Swedlund and Louise Brown round out their top three scorers. Swedlund is a junior guard who led them to their first post season victory last year in the WNIT, and Louise Brown is also back from a season-ending injury. Brown is a 6'3" redshirt junior from Melbourne who--I would strongly guess--must know Alanna Smith who is one year younger but from the same city. Louise is hitting 39% of her threes and is 17/17 from the free throw line. Hristova hits 33% of her threes but shoots from in close 75% of the time, making nearly 50% overall. Washington State has never beaten Stanford. We finish the Pac 12 at Pullman.
Overview:
We played our best half of the season and led 45-17 at the half on the strength of terrific rebounding by Johnson, scintillating scoring by Williams, and solid defense by McPhee on Hristova. We coasted through the second half and allowed a newly frenetic WSU defense to hold us to 25 second half points and make the game much closer than it should have been.
Flow of the Game:
The team, smarting from the ASU loss, came out with energy. Tara started Kaylee Johnson over Dodson this time, and Kaylee repaid her with a dominant rebounding performance, as well as some points. We were told before that game that McPhee would be guarding Pac 12 scoring leader Hristova and she did an excellent job, but consumed a lot of energy doing so. Meanwhile Williams was hitting from everywhere--swishing treys, pull up midrange jumpers, and taking it to the rim, and got off to her usual fast start, but kept it going in the second quarter. WSU plays a "junk zone" but we decided to play the normal offense against it (the Princeton) and I think we saw the Princeton working effectively for the first time really this year.Â
The second half was another story. Actually, the first part of the third quarter went well, and we built a 30 point 58-28 point lead with 3 minutes left in the the third. Then WSU decided to press and this seemed to discombobulate us at times. Unforced turnovers began to proliferate as well (we wracked up 22 turnovers to 9 WSU steals--so that is a lot of bad play on our part.) Marta did not have one of her better games--forcing passes and giving up 5 turnovers to only 3 assists. And little Channel Molina torched us for 19 points. I wish I was watching so I could say who was responsible for guarding her--probably Williams or Sniezek. Tara kept the starters in during much of the 4th quarter and our 30 point lead shrank to 13 by the end of the game. Perhaps this is a good thing--our team will not be overconfident when we play WSU in the last regular season game at Pullman.
Performances:
As a team our rebounding was vastly improved over ASU--53 to 31. Our turnovers were terrible at 22--mostly mental errors on our part. In the first half we shot 62%, in the second half we shot 30%. We had a whopping 46 points in the paint, and 14 second chance points, compared with WSU at 26 and 5.
I would give the gameball to McPhee for her defense on Hristova. McPhee wound up with 12 points and a team leading 5 assists, but holding the Pac 12's leading scorer to 2 points in the first half was the critical piece of this victory. It was clear, however, that the energy she was expending on defense was wearing her down a little on offense, and she was shorting her shots in the second half.
The second hero is someone who has not gotten enough credit of late--Kaylee Johnson. Kaylee was aggressive about rebounding but she also showed some offense and generated her first double-double in quite some time--10 points and 15 rebounds.
Smith was our scoring leader. She got a lot of good looks but she seemed to make some tough layups, and was an efficient 10/18 to go with 9 rebounds.
Williams was absolutely scintillating in the first half. She extended her superb play out of the first quarter and into the second, and scored some in the third as well. She showed off her speed and quickness--tops on the team--but also stroked 3/6 perfect treys, a couple of mid range jumpers, and took it to the rim. She played 36 minutes--an eternity for a freshman--and did seem to wear down by the fourth quarter, where her quickness and accuracy diminished.
Marta did not have her best game--chiefly by trying a little too hard to make things happen, she committed 5 mostly unforced turnovers. She did have one brilliant drive to the basket for two points, and a superb assist inside on a bounce pass through traffic to Alanna.Â
Fingall and Dodson each got around 10 minutes and acquitted themselves reasonably, each with a few points and a few rebounds.
Carrington played 17 minutes and did not score--going 0/7. She did collect 7 rebounds.
Conclusion:
It was highly encouraging to see our intensity to start the game and the focus on rebounding. Also, Kiana Williams is showing a bit more each game of her true potential, and that she is going to be a 4 year star who could wind up in the vicinity of Candice Wiggins before she is through. Our fourth quarter letdown was disappointing, but seems to have been caused in part by McPhee and Williams tiring and losing their edge. From the time we got our 30 point lead, neither McPhee nor Williams made another basket, although McPhee hit some free throws. Finally, Kaylee has shown that she can still start for us, be a rebounding monster, and score her fair share of points. This could take some pressure off the development pace for Fingall and Dodson. All in all, a very encouraging performance, even if the last 18 minutes was forgettable.
With our young team, there are no more "gimme" games, and WSU is a much, much better team than it was a year ago. It is led by redshirt sophomore Borislava Hristova, a 6' redshirt sophomore who was out last year with a season-ending injury and who has become the Pac 12's leading scorer. Alexys Swedlund and Louise Brown round out their top three scorers. Swedlund is a junior guard who led them to their first post season victory last year in the WNIT, and Louise Brown is also back from a season-ending injury. Brown is a 6'3" redshirt junior from Melbourne who--I would strongly guess--must know Alanna Smith who is one year younger but from the same city. Louise is hitting 39% of her threes and is 17/17 from the free throw line. Hristova hits 33% of her threes but shoots from in close 75% of the time, making nearly 50% overall. Washington State has never beaten Stanford. We finish the Pac 12 at Pullman.
Overview:
We played our best half of the season and led 45-17 at the half on the strength of terrific rebounding by Johnson, scintillating scoring by Williams, and solid defense by McPhee on Hristova. We coasted through the second half and allowed a newly frenetic WSU defense to hold us to 25 second half points and make the game much closer than it should have been.
Flow of the Game:
The team, smarting from the ASU loss, came out with energy. Tara started Kaylee Johnson over Dodson this time, and Kaylee repaid her with a dominant rebounding performance, as well as some points. We were told before that game that McPhee would be guarding Pac 12 scoring leader Hristova and she did an excellent job, but consumed a lot of energy doing so. Meanwhile Williams was hitting from everywhere--swishing treys, pull up midrange jumpers, and taking it to the rim, and got off to her usual fast start, but kept it going in the second quarter. WSU plays a "junk zone" but we decided to play the normal offense against it (the Princeton) and I think we saw the Princeton working effectively for the first time really this year.Â
The second half was another story. Actually, the first part of the third quarter went well, and we built a 30 point 58-28 point lead with 3 minutes left in the the third. Then WSU decided to press and this seemed to discombobulate us at times. Unforced turnovers began to proliferate as well (we wracked up 22 turnovers to 9 WSU steals--so that is a lot of bad play on our part.) Marta did not have one of her better games--forcing passes and giving up 5 turnovers to only 3 assists. And little Channel Molina torched us for 19 points. I wish I was watching so I could say who was responsible for guarding her--probably Williams or Sniezek. Tara kept the starters in during much of the 4th quarter and our 30 point lead shrank to 13 by the end of the game. Perhaps this is a good thing--our team will not be overconfident when we play WSU in the last regular season game at Pullman.
Performances:
As a team our rebounding was vastly improved over ASU--53 to 31. Our turnovers were terrible at 22--mostly mental errors on our part. In the first half we shot 62%, in the second half we shot 30%. We had a whopping 46 points in the paint, and 14 second chance points, compared with WSU at 26 and 5.
I would give the gameball to McPhee for her defense on Hristova. McPhee wound up with 12 points and a team leading 5 assists, but holding the Pac 12's leading scorer to 2 points in the first half was the critical piece of this victory. It was clear, however, that the energy she was expending on defense was wearing her down a little on offense, and she was shorting her shots in the second half.
The second hero is someone who has not gotten enough credit of late--Kaylee Johnson. Kaylee was aggressive about rebounding but she also showed some offense and generated her first double-double in quite some time--10 points and 15 rebounds.
Smith was our scoring leader. She got a lot of good looks but she seemed to make some tough layups, and was an efficient 10/18 to go with 9 rebounds.
Williams was absolutely scintillating in the first half. She extended her superb play out of the first quarter and into the second, and scored some in the third as well. She showed off her speed and quickness--tops on the team--but also stroked 3/6 perfect treys, a couple of mid range jumpers, and took it to the rim. She played 36 minutes--an eternity for a freshman--and did seem to wear down by the fourth quarter, where her quickness and accuracy diminished.
Marta did not have her best game--chiefly by trying a little too hard to make things happen, she committed 5 mostly unforced turnovers. She did have one brilliant drive to the basket for two points, and a superb assist inside on a bounce pass through traffic to Alanna.Â
Fingall and Dodson each got around 10 minutes and acquitted themselves reasonably, each with a few points and a few rebounds.
Carrington played 17 minutes and did not score--going 0/7. She did collect 7 rebounds.
Conclusion:
It was highly encouraging to see our intensity to start the game and the focus on rebounding. Also, Kiana Williams is showing a bit more each game of her true potential, and that she is going to be a 4 year star who could wind up in the vicinity of Candice Wiggins before she is through. Our fourth quarter letdown was disappointing, but seems to have been caused in part by McPhee and Williams tiring and losing their edge. From the time we got our 30 point lead, neither McPhee nor Williams made another basket, although McPhee hit some free throws. Finally, Kaylee has shown that she can still start for us, be a rebounding monster, and score her fair share of points. This could take some pressure off the development pace for Fingall and Dodson. All in all, a very encouraging performance, even if the last 18 minutes was forgettable.
