We all know that WVU is tough at home. They play defense like no one else in the conference. If the officials let them get away with everything they do it's even tougher. We found out how tough today.
Bristow made her first start and got a rebound basket to open things up. WVU would follow with two straight, but Ryan would answer with a trey. Bristow would follow with a trey of her own. At the media break the sisters led 12-9. Interesting to see some of our lineups are bothered more by the WVU defense than others. With Natabou in our inside game disappears. Joens made a strong drive for two, something we haven’t seen much from her. Officials are again pretty sketchy. A pair turnovers right in a row led to two WVU baskets to make it 14-13. The sisters had four straight scoreless possessions and five turnovers in three minutes. We were fortunate that WVU made some mistakes as well. Our last possession of the quarter appropriately ended with yet another turnover and WVU hit a looonnggg trey for the lead at the buzzer. 16-14 WVU as the sisters fail to score in the last four minutes of the quarter. Just turnover city.
Crooks started the second with a nice power move for two. This was followed by Brown AGAIN turning the ball over on a silly pass. She compounded it with a foul. A free throw and trey later and the lead was 20-16 for WVU. Crooks would battle for another two. At this point the count was ten turnovers for the sisters. Crooks was keeping us in it. Another Crooks bucket closes the game to 22-20, but yet another turnover. The ladies offense turned up a notch and the game was tied at 28. The combo of Bristow, Ryan and Crooks appears to be the most productive. After Bristow took a nice press breaking pass for two our zone shifts wrong and WVU nails an open trey (there is a theme here). Bristow nailed another trey for a 36-33 lead. Diew would hit her first three in a long time. I was hoping it might open things up for her, but alas it did not. WVU answered back with a three to make it 39-38 ISU. Then the turnover bug strikes again as Ryan loses the ball. Man…I have to give lots of credit as Crooks was battling in there. She got fouled with one second left and she hit one of two for a two point lead 40-38. Best news is only three turnovers in the second quarter after a mess in the first.
Third started with both teams turning the ball over before Crooks scored again. Bristow grabbed a rebound put-back off a Belanger miss. Another turnover and WVU ties it up. A defensive lapse let Quinerly drive, score and get fouled. Just like that a tie game. Another turnover on the inbounds pass and Natabou picked up her third foul. WVU took the lead on one free throw. Crooks was then fouled and made one of two to tie it up at 48. Ryan would lose the ball again. WVU was in the bonus with six to go. Joens took a pass from AJ for a trey and Crooks nailed a quick turnaround for a five point lead 53-48. WVU scored out of a timeout. Crooks grabbed two offensive rebounds after a pair of misses and goes to the line and hits two. 55-50 sisters. WVU followed with a trey. Ryan followed with another turnover (17 so far). Crooks got fouled on the defensive board and hit another pair at the charity stripe. We followed a WVU basket with yet another turnover. WVU ties it with a pair of free throws. Turnovers are killing us. Our defense fell apart and WVU took the lead on a three and a 7-0 WVU run. 61-57 WVU. ISU has their 19th turnover. WVU pulled to a six point lead 63-57 (that's a 13-2 run for those counting). Three minute scoring drought. Ryan turned it over again. Brown then takes an ill advised double teamed three. Four minute scoring drought from the field. 63-58 end of three.
The fourth started with Brown picking up her third foul. Crooks hit a pair of free throws, but the sisters are in the midst of a five minute field goal drought. Another turnover by ISU (I keep repeating myself). WVU moved out to a 7 point lead. The game for ISU was a real cluster. WVU's defensive energy was feeding off each turnover. Ryan left her person wide open and the lead edged to 70-62. WVU hit another WIDE OPEN three and this game was getting away from us. It was a nine point lead for WVU. Brown finally breaks the ugliness with a huge trey, but Ryan would lose the ball yet again. Somehow in the midst of this mess it was only 73-69 WVU. Brown would drive and score to make it 73-71. After a stop, Ryan turned it over on an offensive foul. #23 turnover on the team. Ryan hit one of two free throws and Diew got fouled on the rebound. Diew makes two free throws and it’s 76-74. Another WIDE OPEN trey by Quinerly pushes the lead back to five. Our defense just seems to lapse after every positive offensive push. We keep missing and WVU keeps fouling, Diew made another pair of free throws. 79-76. With a chance to tie Ryan turns the ball over again with a tie up. Quinerly scores again on a wide open shot. Lead is five once again 81-76. Crooks misses on the next possession and the game has quickly slipped away. Four total baskets in the fourth quarter. Final score 84-78. Quinerly scores 31 as she single-handedly ate us alive.
Observations
POG - Crooks. Twenty Five points and 16 rebounds. She was the only consistently good offensive thing on the court for ISU today. Two games in a row she has dominated inside and received little or no help from her supporting cast.
Turnovers - I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen such sloppy ball handling and so many turnovers. So many were unforced and appeared to be out of control play by ISU or lack of court awareness. You just don’t win many games with 26 turnovers. WVU scored 26 points off those turnovers.
Ryan - this was a mess as far as I’m concerned. Forced way too much. Turned the ball over NINE times today. Probably the worst game I have ever seen her play.
Brown - our offensive juggernaut has been neutralized. Eight points, three boards, three assists and three turnovers.
Bristow - glad to see her start. Was a spark to the team and then seemed to disappear. Twelve points and five boards. I like this move but want to see her involved more. That’s on the guards.
AJ - Three points and five assists. Fairly solid game overall, but I hope she reappears as a scoring threat again.
Diew - saw some good things today. Hit key free throws in the fourth. Seven points in this one.
Belanger - pretty much a no show today. Five points and four turnovers. A non-threat from outside.
Natabou - not much for contributions today. A bunch of fouls is about it.
Joens - five . Can you believe ZERO rebounds?
I’m not going to go any deeper on this one. I’ve seen two trends over these three straight losses. If this trend isn’t fixed this team is going to continue to struggle. The easiest to fix (I hope) is Ryan’s tendency to dribble too much and try to force things. This was by far the worst game I think I’ve ever seen her play. The biggest trend I’ve seen is the inconsistency of the defense. This inconsistency (and it is all of our perimeter players) is leaving three point shooters wide open by either collapsing and getting caught inside or just plain missing a shift. This one thing has contributed to all three losses. If it isn’t fixed every game is going to be a nail bitter with the other team being more likely to hit a winning shot.
On offense this team is struggling to set anything besides Crooks up. The shooters stand too much. We don’t use effective screens to free them up. The second half today was a great example of this as the ladies went 2-14 from deep. That’s 14 percent folks. That stinks. If you watched the game, we did miss some open looks, but many were also forced. All game long you kept hearing “Iowa State hasn’t scored a basket in x minutes.” They need to get back to the basics of fundamental, pass, screen, and shoot.
We have to hope some home cooking helps as the women come home to face OSU on Wednesday. I said going into this past week this was perhaps the most critical week of the season. The team failed to take advantage against two teams it should have beaten. We are now likely out of the Big 12 race with three losses and more to come. The bad part is this is doing severe damage to any big dance hopes we have. Looking at the schedule I’m hoping they go at least 5-4 in the last nine. There are two of those hoped for wins that could go either way (BYU and UCF). We do get three of the next four at home and there is no telling what KSU is really like (good v great?) without Lee. I’m counting both games (KSU and OU) as losses at this point unless our defense stiffens up.
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