Baylor
Baylor has been the Bain of Iowa States existence for years. Even now when they are down compared to years past they are still buzzing around the upper echelon of the conference. I commented before the game that would be the first time in ages that they didn’t come to down with a dominant post player in tow.
The game got off to a tough start shooting for the ladies. Ryan had some early difficulties against Baylor pressure just as we’ve seen against KSU and Texas.
Twice in a row the Baylor point guard drove right past Diew as she is just a step slow reacting on defense. Three straight defensive breakdowns ended up being easy baskets for Baylor.
What has unfortunately become a pattern…the offense was struggling to make shots and the defense was getting picked apart. It amounted to an early 14-9 lead for Baylor.
One of the typical scoring droughts and an 8-0 Baylor run is cut off by a Joens trey. Sadly and a sign of the evening this was her only make.
The offense did finally woke up and went on a run fueled by solid defensive switching. At the end of the first quarter some nifty baskets by Joens gave ISU the lead 21-20.
The 2nd started with Diew hitting a wild one and Joens getting one of her own.
Diew was still struggling on defense and Coach Fen commented after the game it was a trade off he had to take. She just seems to be slow reacting to a first step of a drive and sometimes seems lost in there.
Something you don’t see often is Joens having an air ball on a three. That’s about as close as most of the team got shooting from deep tonight.
So far Joens had 15 of our 25 points.
The best way to describe the game at times is that it was a scrum out there. Lots of missed contact or at least no calls. Both teams stingy on defense. With 5 left ISU was leading 27-25
Baylor was taking over and crept to a 31-29 lead thanks to an NBA travel for two, but Ryan tied it with two FT.
the officials called an egregious foul on Kane turning the ball over. Baylor leads 33-31 at half as the offense just couldn’t get a shot to fall and had too many turnovers.
The lack of consistent calls by the officials are really impacting the game. Right before Kane was called for her foul Baylor got away with literally shoving Ryan as she drove.
Statistically this one was about as even as it gets with the major diff being our terrible three point shooting (15%). Sadly, this wasn’t going to get better.
Baylor ended the half on a 11-4 run.
To start the 3rd I was hoping for a quick start out of the gate but we are shooting blanks from everywhere.
The offense is just a lot of dribbling by Ryan and poor passes. M&M was getting some minutes and is a mess out there.
Diew drove for the first points and got the harm. The Diew then got another two on a nice feed by Ryan we followed up by leaving Baylor wide open for a three.
Diew answered with her own three and it was 40-39 Baylor with 5 left. Man the girl has some excitement!
So far our guards had combined for six points (two each) they have to start contributing and soon.
Defense was getting called for ticky tack crap and then had a break down on top of it. Offense was non-existent again. Three min left and the ladies had only scored 10. Three point shooting is colder than a strong north wind. 3-19 so far
Diew was the only offense the team had in the second half inside and out. She had 21 so far clearly having her best offensive game of the season.
Wow…Ashley misses at the line? She did hit one to retake the lead 49-48.
Ryan had a chance at a wide open layup…and misses. Just part of the story of the night. At the end of three it was 49-48 Sisters.
Would the fourth be when the guard court wakes up? It was…just the wrong team.
As good as Diew was playing on offense she sure has some lapses on D. She obviously kept ISU in the game, but probably gave up 10 easy points to Baylor. Beyond that Baylor had an answer for everything the ladies did.
Ryan had a tough night and it wasn’t all Baylor. For example, one of her turnovers was a pass directly to Baylor leading to an easy two and the lead.
Baylor would hit a beautiful three and then gets the NBA continuation after a foul for a traditional three. ISU down five in a hurry as our offense continues to be absent. There was five min to go and the ladies were really struggling.
Finally Donarski rains a trey and then makes 1-2 FT. She would be the only guard to show any semblance of offensive life in the game. Ryan would make another poor choice passing inside and Baylor scored on the other end. Too many easy scores for them for sure.
It was frustrating to watch the offense standing around while Ryan dribbles around. The inability to hit a jump shot just killed the team tonight.
With 1 min left and down six it was desperation time. It was just too late and for every point the sisters scored, Baylor would cooly make free throws at the other end.
In my opinion, this one will likely eliminate any chance at winning the conference barring a collapse by Texas or OU. Outside of atrocious officiating the difference in the game was the inability to hit the deep ball. Our guards (until D showed up late) were non entities. Ryan was a bit of a mess out there. 7 turnovers are killer despite 12 assists.
In our last possession we miss four bunnies and the clock is done
Final Baylor 76-70.
Observations
POG - Diew. We saw a wide range of scoring from the lanky forward. There were some defensive lapses, but without her the sisters aren’t in this game.
Joens - did her damage in the first half offensively. Like the rest of the team she struggled to find any offense in the second.
Ryan. Woof. Another game were pressure caused problems. 12 assists, but 7 turnovers add to that she didn’t score a single basket. Even missed a couple of easy layups. Likely will set the record for most dribbles in one game.
Fritz. She was tenacious on defense and MIA on offense. Two baskets.
Donarski. Finally showed some offense in the late part of the game. Going into the 4th had 2 points. Ended up with 12 thanks to some late heroics. Needed what she was doing to start a lot sooner.
Kane. Didn’t see much time as she was too slow to play against Baylor. 4 points, 2 rebounds, 3 fouls (1 bogus) and 2 turnovers in 9 min.
M&M. Another game of struggle for the senior guard. It seems what’s happening has gotten into her psyche as every part of her game is tentative.
Rebounds. Got out rebounded and while there were only 9 offensive given up…they were damaging.
Free throws. We are seeing too many misses. It used to be the team was automatic. Now even this part of the game is showing cracks. Baylor (mainly due to the end of the game) scored 5 more here.
Three point shooting. Double woof. Triple woof. Most of the team outside of Diew could barely draw iron. 5-24 with Diew making 3-4. 2-20 from the rest of the team will sink the sisters every time. And…there were plenty of wide open looks.
So what’s going on here? The sisters are in a bit of a spiral as they’ve lost their offense and the defense suffers way too many lapses. I mentioned last game about dysfunction. This game was worse. When your guard court only scores 18 points total from three players and two of them have only six points…you have a serious problem.
Then there is the bench. M&M is barely serviceable right now. The posts aren’t a threat at all. So where do you go?
Finally, the offense. Beyond the struggles of the shooters I find the lack of flow to be concerning. Most of the evening saw Ryan dribbling seemingly forever with four other players standing around the perimeter. That’s a slight over exaggeration, but not much. Leaving the game my wife asked me what the name for that kind of offense was…I can’t print my response here.
So…this one was a stab to the gut. The team is quickly falling to the middle of the pack. Hopes of a conference title are fading. The ladies have a week off and I hope they get some rest and find themselves. There are a bunch of tough games at home and on the road ahead.
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