One word can describe tonight’s pounding of previously unbeaten TTech - THREE. It’s been some time since we’ve seen the ladies shoot from deep like they did tonight. The onslaught was too much for Tech to overcome although they surely tried in the first half. A 31-4 third quarter broke the raiders back and ISU did just enough in the 4th to become 1-0 in conference with a dominating win.
this was pure team ball. All five starters scored in double figures with Kristen Scott looking like herself again and Joens just missing another double-double with 19 and 9. A couple of key stats should jump out at you. First, the team had 23 assists for 37 made shots. That’s a really healthy assist number. Second, after being used to seeing the ladies get beat up and sent to the line, the ladies ended up only getting 7 opportunities while making 6. Finally, if you watched the game you saw some solid defense. It wasn’t always perfect, but it was aggressive and clearly frustrated Tech.
Another upside was seeing some extra players provide some relief during the game. A couple of negatives came from two key subs. Thurman was a mixed bag as she is a bit careless with the ball. She netted 6 of the team 17 turnovers. I also cringe watching Nez' bad habits limit her minutes. She continues to swipe at the ball on defense. If she can get that under control she will be a huge asset.
It was fun to see AD and Maggie make some strong contributions in this game. Their presence wasn’t just in scoring, but overall. Rae had perhaps her best game of the year as her total line and defense were everything one could hope for. In a nutshell, we saw what this team is capable of. As I had insinuated in another thread, Tech's preconference schedule strength was exposed. They def have a couple of nice players, but I’ll be surprised if they don’t struggle in conference play.
What's next? The sisters have a BIG Monday game against Texas. Texas was beaten at home by TCU tonight and is one of the more perplexing teams in the conference as they have a mix of amazing wins (over #1 Stanford) and some head scratcher losses (Hawaii and South Florida). Who knows which team shows up, but WE need to so the ladies can have some good old Hilton Magic cooking. See you there!
