Has it really been eight months since I last attended a women's game? Wow...well, here we are ready to go again with another look at the ISU women's performances via the Twister Sister Summary.
My wife says I should start by saying this was a "poopy game," but I prefer to look at it in a different light. Normally, if I knew that the team had shot a miserable 8-33 from deep and a very non-sister like 21-29 at the line I'd be all about this being a crappy game. But something else happened. One thing we are going to realize very quickly is this is a very different team than what we've seen any time in the Fennelly era of basketball. So what happened? What was different? First the game...
Initially, the team seemed to be pressing too much. They started 0-5 from deep and lots of missed bunnies. Shooting was a miserable 27%. Let me tell you something...those missed threes weren't even close. Some barely caught iron. Something was amiss. On the plus side, the defense was pretty solid as was the rebounding. Just no offense to speak of. The struggle was contagious and every player Coach Fen put in the game had the same issues. The first quarter was just eight minutes of ugliness from the sisters on the offensive end. Diew went out of the game quickly after an overextension of her leg at the 5 min mark. All those bad misses from deep would contribute to Southern actually leading 8-6. The shooting woes continued as the percentage dropped to 21% from the field and 0-9 from deep.
On the plus side, Diew re-entered the game and looked fine. She hit the first trey for the sisters. The quarter would end with a beautiful drive and harm by Ryan. Unfortunately, the other anomaly reared its ugly head and she missed the charity shot. ISU would lead 18-12 after a rather bizarro first qtr.
The shooting woes continued into the 2nd and Southern kept it close hitting several shots from deep. Here's where something changed for the sisters. There was what appeared to be a visible shift in strategy as Ryan started moving our offensive game inside. Donarski and others followed suit. If you can't get a three the "easy" way then why not do it the traditional way? Go for two and get fouled. Free throws and an active inside game helped the ladies move slowly ahead. The halftime score 40-29. Interesting note…Southern had nearly as many points in this half as they did in the entire game versus Iowa.
The only Sisters shooting well were Donarski and Ryan. Joens really struggled as did the other 5-6 main players who saw the court. The first half story was misses…threes and free throws. Defense was actually quite good and forced several time violations by Southern. The sisters also dominated the boards 28-12. Sadly all the missed treys were like turnovers. 4-19 is just ugly. Let’s hope cold halves like this don’t happen often.
The second half started just like the first with lots of deep misses. Southern had some good offensive possessions early as well. But, the threes slowly heated up (at least temporarily) with Donarski and Ryan each hitting from deep. The team continued to pound the ball inside which also resulted in foul trouble for Southern. Although it never felt like a cushion was being created in the score I looked up and all of a sudden it was a 15 point lead. As the third closed out the inside offensive game was where it was at. The team, in spite of being 7-26 from deep was shooting 45% from the floor. Think about what that tells you. You're hitting 27% out of 26 shots. You have to make a ton of two pointers to counter that. Free throw shooting was a mess as well. There was lots of Ryan and Donarski. At the end of three it was 60-41. Again only 7-26 from deep and 11-17 from the line. Dominating the boards.
The fourth saw much more of the same medicine. A steady combination of gritty defense, hard edged rebounding and plays inside for two was what was needed on this night. Every player on the team got to see the floor and Southern was able to whittle a 30 point lead down to the final of 79-55. A needed, but very different kind of 24 point lead.
So what was different? There have been many games in the past where an ISU team would be cold from outside and it impacted every part of the game. Add in the weird misses at the line and you'd have a recipe for disaster in what should be an easy non-conference game. Instead we saw our floor general make strategic decisions about how the game should be played. She took the team by the hand and they went inside. There were feeds inside. There were drives down the lane. And it worked. The team simply shifted gears to find a way to win a game handily. Another thing we saw was the seamless integration of many players throughout the game. I've never, ever seen so many different and deep rotations of players in a sisters' game before. Coach Fen obviously has the utmost confidence in the top 8-9 players as they see major court time. The defense was aggressive and what was fun to watch were how our players were like jungle cats jumping into double teams on inbounds plays. They really frustrated the Southern players without fouling in the process. Folks, this is a different beast of a team.
Observations
This team doesn't depend on Ashley Joens as its sole provider anymore. Ashley struggled shooting tonight. Didn't matter. Of course, she still dominated the boards and was fouled ten times. She took the role that helped the team and embraced it. I think she only had four points in the second half.
Ryan - talk about a seasoned veteran. She's playing like a 5th year floor general out there. Not perfect, but she has such a wonderful sense of the court. 19 points, 6 assists and 5 boards while shooting 63% from the floor.
Donarski - my player of the game. Calm, cool and ruthless on defense. She's also like a stiletto on offense. She just slides the blade in and twists it before you even know its happened. The ONLY player to shoot well from deep tonight (39% making 5). She quietly scores 22 points and is the reason the ladies padded their lead.
Soares - she struggled tonight with every aspect of her offensive game. Didn't hit shots or free throws well. 8 boards and points. Not bad, but you can see the potential here. She changes our inside game dramatically.
Kane - She and Soares are like ying/yang to each other. Soares is a very gifted athlete who (to coin an Ali phrase) floats like a butterfly. Kane is the pugilist who is very physical. This is a nice 1-2 punch that's available for this team. Plug in the piece that is suited for the style of game.
Fritz - I like her. I love how she plays. She really struggled (as did many others) on the offensive side, but it seems like she is always in the thick of things. She likes to scrap.
Others - we saw Diew, M&M, Zingaro and others get several minutes. Drew's major obvious contribution was the first made three of the night. M&M didn't show much statistically and struggled somewhat. Zingaro appears to have lost some weight (the effects of the training program?) and she moves much better than last year. A bright note is that Mary Kate hit her first three pointer tonight!
Rebounds - the sisters dominated 50-23. They used their height and physicality to grab ball after ball.
What's next? The ladies have some time to regroup before traveling to that pit that UNI plays in next Wednesday. UNI always gives ISU troubles and I expect it again. I'm hoping the ladies cure their three point and free throw shooting woes by then. Things only get tougher as we move on. We'll see you all back at Hilton on the 20th!
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