Like many of you I watched this game from a distance. I found a place in Des Moines to meet with some friends as my wife and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. I was wary of Toledo as I knew their style of play went directly against one of our long time weaknesses - speed to burn. In this case it was speed kills.
Rather than writing up the excruciating details of the game I'll briefly summarize what happened.
The sisters actually got off to a rather good start and led throughout much of the first quarter. They had a five point lead and only a late bucket by Toledo would cut it to three as time expired. For everything Toledo did right in the first, the sisters countered quite well. I felt fairly comfortable with parts of what I was seeing, but one thing bothered me. It appeared as if Toledo had borrowed some of Creighton's recipe for success from 2022. It was quite apparent that our guards couldn't keep up with the speed of players like Lockett. She was making our top defenders look pedestrian as she drove the lane. And she wasn't the only one.
The second quarter is where the wheels started to fall off the bus. Toledo continued to hit shots inside and out throughout the quarter. It seemed everything they tossed up went in (a la KU not too long ago). This is also when the offense for the sisters started to change. Mistakes were made resulting in turnovers and empty possessions. The ladies started to fall back on bad habits such as chucking up threes instead of running an offensive set. We also saw Joens begin to play one on five all too often with zero results. What this led to was a dominating quarter for Toledo and a seven point lead at the break 43-36. Here's a key stat for the half. Toledo shot 58% from the field and right at 50% from three. Iowa State on the other hand? The sisters went from shooting 33% from deep in the 1st to a miserable 18% in the second. Their overall shooting dropped to a horrid 27% with only 4 made shots on the quarter.
The third saw a fairly even battle, but one where the sisters could gain no ground. Their overall shooting continued to nosedive (25%) and they continued to futilely put up threes, but this time at a 20% rate. Turnovers also went up as Toledo was very aggressive. The ladies just didn't take care of the ball well. So, while the quarter played even, Toledo expanded their lead to eight. Nothing gave any sign that the ladies were out of it, but they also didn't show signs of coming back into the game. What we did see were two things happening. The team started going inside and drew foul after foul. The free throw line was our friend with the ladies hitting a solid 7/10.
The fourth saw more free throws, more missed threes and another 16% quarter from deep. The ladies actually made a couple of pushes to close the gap, but each time they got within striking distance, Toledo answered or the sisters made a mistake. In the end they just didn't have the offense or defense to overcome a highly energized Toledo team. The sisters' season came to an end 80-73.
Observations
I have to mention Joens right off here. We just saw the career of one of the greatest players in ISU history come to a close. She battled as always and you can never doubt her effort. My hats off to her. I wish her the best in both of her future careers.
Joens - there were times that her game reverted to the one on five mentality. It was as if she didn't "realize" she had four teammates out there on some of the offensive possessions. That was frustrating. Yes she scored 23 points (11 at the line), but her shooting was way off today as she only hit on 5 of 19 shots. Many of those weren't even remotely close. Thirteen critical boards.
Donarski - she had some nice offensive plays netting 13 points, but her three point shot...just like the rest of the team was stone cold (1-7). She also got burnt numerous times on defense as players like Lockett just drove right past her. She looked a wee bit frustrated at various spots of the game.
Ryan - 11 points (like others bad from deep) and only three assists to go along with three turnovers.
Diew - not a good game here either. Got chewed up on defense (eventually fouling out) and didn't have the magic on the offensive end going 2-8 from the field (6 of those from deep).
Kane/Izzi - the posts were very ineffective today. I particularly thought Toledo had really watched some film of Kane as every time she put on a move, the Toledo post knew EXACTLY what to expect and tied her up a couple of times. Izzi missed some bunnies. Kane had only four actual shots for the ENTIRE game. Toledo effectively killed the inside play today.
Fritz - she was the only efficient shooter for the game and just didn't get the ball enough. Went 5-9 from the field along with 4 boards.
M&M - her last game wasn't really memorable either. Wasn't able to hit any of her shots, but gave some positive minutes in relief for some of her teammates.
Free Throws - this is the only reason ISU stayed in this game. The team went 19-22 overall which helped offset some of Toledo's hot shooting. Joens was the leader here hitting 11 of them.
Rebounds - you'd expect the taller team to dominate here, but we didn't. Outrebounded Toledo by 4. BUT...when the opponent is hitting 50% from the field there are definitely fewer opportunities.
This game reminded me of the debacle at KU in February. We gave up 90+ points to a team that couldn't miss. That was exactly the way the first half was and Toledo was shooting nearly 60% at the break. Our defense was just shredded over and over again. We were too slow playing a man-to-man defense and we paid dearly. The other thing this game reminded me of was the futility in scoring we saw during the short losing streak last month. The ladies just couldn't get the ball to go in the hoop. Fortunately, the free throw line kept them in it until the end. But the shooting and some of the shot decisions? Woof.
This was a season built on great hype. The ladies persevered though, through tragedy and being put in tough spots. It was just unfortunate that the team we saw work to a Big 12 Tourney championship wasn't the one that appeared today. Yes, some of that was Toledo, but the big difference was our inability to make shots throughout the game. THIRTY-ONE three point attempts is WAY too many for this team. Then you add in the inefficiency level and it was a disaster.
Sad way to end the season. But lots of great memories along the way. Now...we wait to see what happens with the NCAA decision about Soares. After that it's getting a top 10 recruiting class on board and getting ready for another successful year.
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