02-14-2014, 10:23 PM
Overview:
Stanford corrected its defensive lapses and throttled ASU tonight. Amber and Lili repeatedly slashed to the basket, and we won handily in a non suspenseful game. An impressive way to leave Washington behind.
Before the Game
At the Chalktalk Tempie faced the inevitable fan questions. She did say that all players were physically able to play, but that Taylor was getting the start over Sara because she had been doing somewhat better in practice and had earned it. The team had been working extensively on defensive drills and were focusing on clogging the paint and keeping between their players and the basket. Clearly we did not fear ASU's three point shooting and were preparing to shut down drives to the basket. Finally, Tempie said that against Washington we should have been more aggressive getting to the basket, especially since "they were not guarding Amber." And she noted that we did not look energetic against Washington, and acknowledged that fatigue could have been a factor after a delayed travel schedule.
[i]Flow of the Game[/i]
The game started out as one of the finest defensive efforts I have seen. After 8 minutes ASU had not made a basket. They clawed out a few difficult buckets and had 12 points by halftime. That is what UConn had against us at the half in the championship a few years back. But we had 32 and the game felt over. ASU was not making threes, and our defense was making it nearly impossible for them to drive.
In the second half we continued to pull away for a bit, then Tara pulled Chiney uncharacteristically early--perhaps she is learning to rest Chiney on the first game of a weekend so she will have something left in the tank for the second game. Even in the first half, Tara played some different players--Bri Roberson got a few frenetic minutes and Erica Payne was in for a spell too. Sara James, though, did not appear until deep in the second half.
This game the strategy on offense appeared to be to avoid three point shots and relearn the old offense. We took only 4 three point shots (3 of them by Bonnie) and none of them went down, although Bonnie was getting unlucky with the in-and-outs. But this game we were doing what we should have been doing a lot more against Washington--if Chiney was covered, Amber would often take the ball to the basket. Lili had some superb penetration, too.
Also livening things up were two steals and coast-to-coast layups by Amber. She was fully back in this game.
Performances
Chiney got pulled too early to stay on pace for the records, but she wound up with 20 points on 10-12 shooting--plus 13 rebounds.
Amber was the other notable mainstay, with 14 points and an impressive 5 steals. She had 3 assists, but the prettiest assist on the night was a long two handed overhead pass from Bonnie to Chiney at the post.
There were not a lot of offensive highlights to discuss in this low scoring game, but the crowd cheered mightily when Tess got a layup. We also got several back door layups that were executed nicely. I thought the most interesting performance was Briana Roberson, who played very tight man coverage of her player whenever she was in, and she seemed to have the lateral movement to stay in front of anybody. She did make some of those frenetic frosh mistakes and picked up a couple of turnovers--but it is easy to see that she is a very talented youngster.Â
Finally, I would give an A to whoever did the gameplan this time. We seemed much better prepared than we were all last weekend. We were playing a sagging man for the most part, with our defenders standing almost in the paint and shifting to stay between their player and the basket. If an opposition player drove, she found five players standing in front of her. If they pulled up to jump shoot, a hand got stuck in their face unless she was well outside. Good three point shooting could have hurt us, but their best three point shooter is Deja Mann who has only taken 50 shots all year and made 38%. Last night she was 0/7, and there was no one else we had to seriously worry about from outside the arc.
Overall, ASU shot 24% for the game.
Parting Thoughts:
ASU is supposedly a good team, and that makes this victory impressive. This game felt a lot more like the way we played a season or two ago, when we had one of the best defenses in our history and really held teams down on the point count. However, the offense also reverted a little too--mainly just Chiney and Amber. While I'm glad we did not take 40 three point attempts, it would have been nice to make just a few.
Stanford corrected its defensive lapses and throttled ASU tonight. Amber and Lili repeatedly slashed to the basket, and we won handily in a non suspenseful game. An impressive way to leave Washington behind.
Before the Game
At the Chalktalk Tempie faced the inevitable fan questions. She did say that all players were physically able to play, but that Taylor was getting the start over Sara because she had been doing somewhat better in practice and had earned it. The team had been working extensively on defensive drills and were focusing on clogging the paint and keeping between their players and the basket. Clearly we did not fear ASU's three point shooting and were preparing to shut down drives to the basket. Finally, Tempie said that against Washington we should have been more aggressive getting to the basket, especially since "they were not guarding Amber." And she noted that we did not look energetic against Washington, and acknowledged that fatigue could have been a factor after a delayed travel schedule.
[i]Flow of the Game[/i]
The game started out as one of the finest defensive efforts I have seen. After 8 minutes ASU had not made a basket. They clawed out a few difficult buckets and had 12 points by halftime. That is what UConn had against us at the half in the championship a few years back. But we had 32 and the game felt over. ASU was not making threes, and our defense was making it nearly impossible for them to drive.
In the second half we continued to pull away for a bit, then Tara pulled Chiney uncharacteristically early--perhaps she is learning to rest Chiney on the first game of a weekend so she will have something left in the tank for the second game. Even in the first half, Tara played some different players--Bri Roberson got a few frenetic minutes and Erica Payne was in for a spell too. Sara James, though, did not appear until deep in the second half.
This game the strategy on offense appeared to be to avoid three point shots and relearn the old offense. We took only 4 three point shots (3 of them by Bonnie) and none of them went down, although Bonnie was getting unlucky with the in-and-outs. But this game we were doing what we should have been doing a lot more against Washington--if Chiney was covered, Amber would often take the ball to the basket. Lili had some superb penetration, too.
Also livening things up were two steals and coast-to-coast layups by Amber. She was fully back in this game.
Performances
Chiney got pulled too early to stay on pace for the records, but she wound up with 20 points on 10-12 shooting--plus 13 rebounds.
Amber was the other notable mainstay, with 14 points and an impressive 5 steals. She had 3 assists, but the prettiest assist on the night was a long two handed overhead pass from Bonnie to Chiney at the post.
There were not a lot of offensive highlights to discuss in this low scoring game, but the crowd cheered mightily when Tess got a layup. We also got several back door layups that were executed nicely. I thought the most interesting performance was Briana Roberson, who played very tight man coverage of her player whenever she was in, and she seemed to have the lateral movement to stay in front of anybody. She did make some of those frenetic frosh mistakes and picked up a couple of turnovers--but it is easy to see that she is a very talented youngster.Â
Finally, I would give an A to whoever did the gameplan this time. We seemed much better prepared than we were all last weekend. We were playing a sagging man for the most part, with our defenders standing almost in the paint and shifting to stay between their player and the basket. If an opposition player drove, she found five players standing in front of her. If they pulled up to jump shoot, a hand got stuck in their face unless she was well outside. Good three point shooting could have hurt us, but their best three point shooter is Deja Mann who has only taken 50 shots all year and made 38%. Last night she was 0/7, and there was no one else we had to seriously worry about from outside the arc.
Overall, ASU shot 24% for the game.
Parting Thoughts:
ASU is supposedly a good team, and that makes this victory impressive. This game felt a lot more like the way we played a season or two ago, when we had one of the best defenses in our history and really held teams down on the point count. However, the offense also reverted a little too--mainly just Chiney and Amber. While I'm glad we did not take 40 three point attempts, it would have been nice to make just a few.
