Going in I felt like this game had all the makings of another road win for our young warriors. Well, I’m going to cut right to the chase here. Here are a few stats. Seven first quarter turnovers. AJ zero points. Brown 2 points and five fouls, Diew still missing in action. Twenty-six percent from deep. Tech hits 13 threes. And by the way…the officiating was beyond Big 12 bad. That should sum up things pretty well in a very bad 71-63 loss. If you want to read the gory details read on…otherwise skip to the observations.
I’ll start by saying the announcers were just talking and telling anything about the game. Horrible. I finally had to pause the tv feed to sync with the Cyclone radio broadcast and then have to listen to our announcers constantly whine about the officiating. Not a good day for broadcasting either.
The first started with ISU having three straight empty possessions. AJ and Diew both missed threes and we had a couple of turnovers. Diew then wimped a layup instead of going hard. It was wide open and she got blocked. Meanwhile Tech was hot and started hitting from deep. Ryan made a pair of buckets to keep us in it. But, we just kept missing from deep. Crooks couldn’t covert. Nothing was working. Turnovers, misses and fouls while on offense. Yes, offensive fouls. Five minutes in and we had as many turnovers as points. Offense was just out of sync. And yet, Tech only led 10-4.
Another turnover and an offensive rebound for Tech yielded yet another three. Our ladies didn’t score for five minutes. Belanger finally ended the drought with a trey. The ladies slowly were crawling back in. Crooks scored to make it 13-11 and then Tech nailed another wide open trey. End of one and it was miraculously close at 16-11.
The second continued one trend that we saw the entire half. The zone the ladies were playing was over shifting like crazy. Tech keeps getting open looks from deep and uncharacteristically hitting them. Another over shift by Ryan leaves Tech open again for three. The lead ballooned to 9. The ladies cut it to four after a nice steal by Bristow and dish to Ryan. Diew actually scored for the first time in four games. It would be her last for the game. Hard effort of the game…Natabou would get three offensive boards before scoring. Of course all the misses were hers. Natabou missed a layup and got the board for another two. Game was close at 25-24 Tech. Of course the zone leaves Diew covering two people and Tech scored. Ryan nailed a three and the ladies captured their only lead 29-27. This was followed by another drastic over shift as Tech nailed yet another wide open three and also gets fouled. The lead was back to Tech. Holy smokes…Maupin nailed a Caitlin Clark type three and it was suddenly a five point Tech lead at half. Tech closed with a 7-0 run.
The third started with Tech scoring first. Ryan would answer. No fouls were being called down low. Our defense was non existent right now and looked like the keystone kops. Joens was fouled (mugged) and loses the ball out of bounds. No call. Shooting was ice cold. Diew just kept missing. Brown barely drew iron (airballs one) on a pair of threes. Tech was getting the foul calls and we aren’t. The lead hovered at 8. Belanger would temporarily stem the bleeding, but Tech would follow with a wide open layup. Natabou would get her third foul on the offensive end. You kind of see the trend here. ISU does good. Tech does better. ISU screws up. Tech responds.
Crooks would cut the lead to six and of course Tech would answer with yet another trey, It was right back up to 46-37. Our deep shots were horrid when we decided to take them. So far Brown was scoreless. AJ was scoreless. Diew was MIA. Things are hurting on offense. A nice pass from Ryan hits Belanger for a three and it was a four point game. Here comes the bad response after something positive. Brown turned the ball over trying to get it to Crooks and that leads to another open Tech three. The ladies were getting fouled left and right and no calls. Tech stretched the lead back to nine. Tech didn’t score for over two minutes and ISU couldn’t do anything to cut the lead. Then to make matters worse the sisters matched that scoring drought. ISU trailed 51-42 after three. That’s three quarters of ugly ball.
The fourth started with an ISU offensive foul. Ominous huh? Tech responded with another basket. We had another miss from deep. This one seemed getting away from us and most of the quarter was left. Our offense from deep is non-existent. Brown goes to the line and gets the team’s first free throws and gets her first points. Tech was using screens very effectively for points. Crooks cuts it to 9 and on the other end Brown forgot to play defense and Tech hits another trey for a 12 point lead. Ryan would answer, but, time was not our friend. We again failed to cover a three shot and Tech would hit. Our deep defense is a big liability. The sisters offense had now broken down into the dribble, dribble, dribble scheme. Tech would extend the lead to 14 after yet another defensive breakdown, this time leaving the post unguarded underneath. The game was falling apart in every aspect for the sisters. Bristow clanked a trey in and Tech would answer with a pair at the line. Five minutes to go and Tech leads by 13. Diew clanked another attempt and then turned the ball over. The offense was just lost. No movement. No screens. Rushed shots at the end of the shot clock. Time just kept ticking by and ISU couldn’t take advantage of stops. Example…Crooks is fouled and hits both. On the other end Brown gets burnt on a drive and it’s all cancelled out.
Started to see some body language of frustration. Three to go and Belanger hit a three. Will ISU get a stop? Tech misses but gets the rebound. Chewing clock. We got a stop and Ryan flings up a bad reverse layup attempt. Another stop. Ryan scores. 1:59 to go and it’s 8. 1:30 to go. At the end of the shot clock we foul and Tech extends it back to ten. Crooks gets fouled after we take forever on offense. She hits both. Joens got fouled and hits a pair to cut it to six. Tech hasn’t scored in five minutes and the inept offense of the sisters just couldn’t do anything to close the gap. Brown would foul out and Tech extended the lead to three possessions. Time graciously runs out. 71-63 for Tech.
Observations
POG - I really want to avoid this one. When Ryan is your leading scorer it means bad things have happened to other aspects of the offense. Not that I mind Emily scoring 18 points, but it’s indicative that no one else was much help. Emily went for 18 along with 5 assists and only one turnover. Highest minute total of the year at 31. Also a bad thing.
Brown - this was the worst game of her young career. I’m betting it will be a learning experience and hope its a motivator for her. She sat the second quarter with two fouls. Only two points for the game on free throws. Only took four shots - all misses. Nine boards. Five fouls. This performance hurt.
Crooks/Natabou - this was an up and down game for both. Lots of misses at inopportune times. Natabou had some bad fouls. Crooks had 14 points and 12 boards. Is that bad? No, but if the offense had been flowing she could have easily doubled the scoring total. Both turned it over for a combined five.
Belanger - she was the rescue team today. Hit some key shots that could have led to comebacks if the defense hadn’t immediately blown it after. Eleven points total.
AJ - Three assists and two turnovers. Zero points. Her injury really appears to be limiting her ability to score. This hurts.
Diew - same report as last game. She actually scored a basket but still is way out of sorts. One for seven from the field. Her 19 minutes need to be cut until she can find her mojo again. Bristow might benefit from the time.
Bristow - perfect from the field for ten points. Two turnovers. Pretty good game overall.
Joens - Didn’t see much from our hustle player. Only two points and two boards.
Free throws - I’m just going to say that this wasn’t just bad officiating. It was one sided officiating. I don’t like griping about officials, but wowza. The positive is the ladies were a perfect 8-8 from the line. Should have been triple that.
Rebounds - This was a first. We were DOMINATED on the boards. Tech out rebounded ISU 30-18 on the night. That included nine offensive boards that usually resulted in points.
Turnovers - the ladies survived the horrible seven turnover first quarter and were right in the game. Eliminate those and this thing might be different with ISU leading after one. The second and third were ok and then the turnover bug hit again leaving us with a total of 14. That may be the best number we’ve had in some time. Tech converted those into 16 points though.
The offense - the offense from start to finish was a mess. No flow. No screens. No consistent ball movement. Cold as ice from deep. Lots of forced shots. It was an ugly mess.
The Three - Tech, a lousy shooting three point team lived and won because of it tonight. ISU couldn’t make ‘em and Tech couldn’t miss ‘em. A bench player averaging 2.6 ppg hit five in the first half.
Finally, defense. Woof. There was something drastically wrong nearly all evening with the zone. For some reason, the ladies on the perimeter kept over-shifting leaving a Tech player open at the arc. Tech uncharacteristically made us pay for it over and over again. This was a prime example of the old adage about insanity. Keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.
Most of you know the game Saturday is a forfeit. So the ladies have a long week to think about this one, make corrections and get ready for a VERY rough schedule next week. Road games at KU and WVU. Both were tough wins at home. Both will be VERY tough games on the road. Now we find out just how resilient these youngsters are.
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