Most of you know that I only was able to take in the first half of the game live, but I stayed up and watched the entire thing after getting home last night. Had a band gig at Revelton Distillery in Osceola from 4-7. There are quite a few things to glean from this one...so here goes...
The first half started a bit ugly after the ladies worked to a 6-5 lead. OSU went on a three point barrage mainly due to a lack of defense on our part. The defensive focus seemed to be to stop the inside game, but the ladies were leaving the three much too open. OSU surged out to a nice lead, but...and this is what I like about this young team...the young sisters showed composure and fought back. The defense settled down a little, but the offense is what really started to flow. Passing settled down and the ladies were making some nice shots. It was back and forth for the rest of the first half with ISU getting 5-6 point leads and OSU answering back. Just very competitive ball. Joens and Brown looked like veterans out there - not rookies. Crooks just keeps doing her thing with confidence. Of great importance, Crooks appears to have been working on her free throws. Of great importance, the ladies were sweeping up every missed shot from OSU. There were no second chances. By the end of one the ladies led by 3.
The second quarter saw some good and bad. More good. AJ showed zero hesitation to put the ball up when given the opportunity. Her shots were deadly yesterday and critical. She was also doing a very good job as floor leader. The bad was way too many missed bunnies. Overall, the quarter was another back and forth as both teams scored and had misses. It was just close all the way. I kept watching Gusters to see what I thought of her. Just when I wished Crooks had a nice short range jumper like Gusters...bang...she goes and hits one. Folks...I'm very happy we have our center. Gusters is a nice player, but we have one that is a couple of steps up from there. The quarter and half ended in style as Crooks made a soft lay in and hustled to the other end to take a charge to end OSU scoring. The sisters led 40-38 at the half. Very competitive game.
A few third quarter observations. One thing we saw yesterday was Brown’s step back ten foot jumper is just automatic. Not a prettier shot out there. For the most part the beginning of this quarter was offensive pain. Neither team was scoring although AJ finally broke the proverbial ice with another trey to put ISU up 47-40. She was on fire yesterday. A downside was seeing Brown really struggle at the line. She was just off yesterday. Just as we’ve seen before, when Ryan is on the floor things happen. She didn’t do a lot of scoring yesterday, but she had some highlight assists. While she was in the game the lead was stretched to 12 points with every basket having an assist attached to it. It was 59-47 after three. That’s a very nice 19-9 quarter. Defense definitely had made some adjustments.
Now, keep in mind that OSU is a much more experienced team that the sisters. Yes, they have one of the very good freshmen in Heard, but they have a lot of experience on the court and you knew they weren’t going away. We’ve seen this earlier in the season, and we will see it again, as OSU applied a full court press. The sisters just seemed lost and tried forcing too many things. Four straight turnovers to start the quarter and OSU scored on every one in transition. Just as the bleeding saw the lead getting narrow Brown hit a banked trey to keep it at ten at the halfway mark. But the turnovers didn’t stop. And OSU kept banging away. Again, just as the lead was cut to six, an assist fed the ball to AJ for another of her treys. Just enough breathing room and too little time. The ladies would battle it out to take a 76-68 victory on the road.
Observations
POG - has to go to AJ this time. She emerged (as we knew she would) as a dangerous scorer. If she hits shots like this consistently, this is a much more dangerous team. Fourteen points of 4-5 shooting from deep.
I’ll just get this out of the way. Our kryptonite has been put on display. The full court press is something I’m sure the coaching staff will work on. It led to 14 second half turnovers after only having 4 in the first half.
Crooks - she just does her thing. Soft hands. Good movement. Continues to impress me with her growth. She knows her game. Twenty-one points and seven boards. And she was playing against a highly touted player in Gusters. Guess who won that battle?
Brown - Last year I absolutely loved watching Fritz play. She was the grittiest player on our team. Well, that is definitely Brown this year. She isn’t afraid to dive into any melee. She can shoot inside and out. She rebounds hard and she can distribute the ball like a point guard. Just another day at the office as she had 20 points, 9 boards and 5 assists. Why can’t Brown and Crooks share a Freshman of the Week honor? Only downside were five turnovers.
Natabou - Another very good game as she really played well on defense. You can tell she is learning as she grows in our system. Ten points and four boards in only 12 minutes. This time there was no drop off when she came in the game.
Joens - not a lot of flashy shots, but that doesn’t always seem to be her thing. She just plays Joens ball. Three points and three rebounds doesn’t show what all she did defensively and helping to move the ball on offense.
Diew - well, I’ve gotten used to Ms. Inconsistent. She is either hot or cold from game to game and this was a cold one. Two points and three boards on 1-9 shooting. Some of the shots were just bad ones. Of course I fully expect to see her on fire come Wednesday.
Ryan - played the most minutes of the year. She found creative ways to share the ball with some outstanding assists. Four points, four boards and six assists. She makes things tick with this young team.
Bristow - As I watched the game there were few highlights that made her jump out. But one thing you can count on from her is rebounding. She pulled in seven critical boards.
Belanger - her injury was talked about prior to the game. She is definitely hurt and was still able to play fifteen minutes. But everything about her offense was just “off.” This is another reason why AJ’s offensive emergence was so critical. We need Belanger back.
Rebounding - So, there were several keys to the game. This was probably the biggest. The ladies ended up with a 48-21 rebounding edge. There were NO second chances for OSU and some of our offensive boards resulted in points. This was fun to watch. Did we have stick-em on our hands?
Three point shooting - our best game so far. 39% from the field on 23 shots. I’ll take nearly 40% every game please.
Free throws - we just didn’t get to the line yesterday. Only shot 7 free throws with four coming from Brown. She had both misses. Crooks made all three of hers. OSU had 18 attempts. Most of those in the fourth quarter.
Assists - over half of our shots had assists attached to them. Sixteen total. This is a very good thing. Ryan and Brown are doing a great job of seeing the open player and then we convert.
This was a good road test for our growing team. We can call them young all we want, but they don’t look anything like the team that took the court in November. They are smart. They are learning. They are becoming a threat. Other teams had best take notice. Now if we can just figure out how to handle a press….
See you all Wednesday for a big game versus KU!
The first half started a bit ugly after the ladies worked to a 6-5 lead. OSU went on a three point barrage mainly due to a lack of defense on our part. The defensive focus seemed to be to stop the inside game, but the ladies were leaving the three much too open. OSU surged out to a nice lead, but...and this is what I like about this young team...the young sisters showed composure and fought back. The defense settled down a little, but the offense is what really started to flow. Passing settled down and the ladies were making some nice shots. It was back and forth for the rest of the first half with ISU getting 5-6 point leads and OSU answering back. Just very competitive ball. Joens and Brown looked like veterans out there - not rookies. Crooks just keeps doing her thing with confidence. Of great importance, Crooks appears to have been working on her free throws. Of great importance, the ladies were sweeping up every missed shot from OSU. There were no second chances. By the end of one the ladies led by 3.
The second quarter saw some good and bad. More good. AJ showed zero hesitation to put the ball up when given the opportunity. Her shots were deadly yesterday and critical. She was also doing a very good job as floor leader. The bad was way too many missed bunnies. Overall, the quarter was another back and forth as both teams scored and had misses. It was just close all the way. I kept watching Gusters to see what I thought of her. Just when I wished Crooks had a nice short range jumper like Gusters...bang...she goes and hits one. Folks...I'm very happy we have our center. Gusters is a nice player, but we have one that is a couple of steps up from there. The quarter and half ended in style as Crooks made a soft lay in and hustled to the other end to take a charge to end OSU scoring. The sisters led 40-38 at the half. Very competitive game.
A few third quarter observations. One thing we saw yesterday was Brown’s step back ten foot jumper is just automatic. Not a prettier shot out there. For the most part the beginning of this quarter was offensive pain. Neither team was scoring although AJ finally broke the proverbial ice with another trey to put ISU up 47-40. She was on fire yesterday. A downside was seeing Brown really struggle at the line. She was just off yesterday. Just as we’ve seen before, when Ryan is on the floor things happen. She didn’t do a lot of scoring yesterday, but she had some highlight assists. While she was in the game the lead was stretched to 12 points with every basket having an assist attached to it. It was 59-47 after three. That’s a very nice 19-9 quarter. Defense definitely had made some adjustments.
Now, keep in mind that OSU is a much more experienced team that the sisters. Yes, they have one of the very good freshmen in Heard, but they have a lot of experience on the court and you knew they weren’t going away. We’ve seen this earlier in the season, and we will see it again, as OSU applied a full court press. The sisters just seemed lost and tried forcing too many things. Four straight turnovers to start the quarter and OSU scored on every one in transition. Just as the bleeding saw the lead getting narrow Brown hit a banked trey to keep it at ten at the halfway mark. But the turnovers didn’t stop. And OSU kept banging away. Again, just as the lead was cut to six, an assist fed the ball to AJ for another of her treys. Just enough breathing room and too little time. The ladies would battle it out to take a 76-68 victory on the road.
Observations
POG - has to go to AJ this time. She emerged (as we knew she would) as a dangerous scorer. If she hits shots like this consistently, this is a much more dangerous team. Fourteen points of 4-5 shooting from deep.
I’ll just get this out of the way. Our kryptonite has been put on display. The full court press is something I’m sure the coaching staff will work on. It led to 14 second half turnovers after only having 4 in the first half.
Crooks - she just does her thing. Soft hands. Good movement. Continues to impress me with her growth. She knows her game. Twenty-one points and seven boards. And she was playing against a highly touted player in Gusters. Guess who won that battle?
Brown - Last year I absolutely loved watching Fritz play. She was the grittiest player on our team. Well, that is definitely Brown this year. She isn’t afraid to dive into any melee. She can shoot inside and out. She rebounds hard and she can distribute the ball like a point guard. Just another day at the office as she had 20 points, 9 boards and 5 assists. Why can’t Brown and Crooks share a Freshman of the Week honor? Only downside were five turnovers.
Natabou - Another very good game as she really played well on defense. You can tell she is learning as she grows in our system. Ten points and four boards in only 12 minutes. This time there was no drop off when she came in the game.
Joens - not a lot of flashy shots, but that doesn’t always seem to be her thing. She just plays Joens ball. Three points and three rebounds doesn’t show what all she did defensively and helping to move the ball on offense.
Diew - well, I’ve gotten used to Ms. Inconsistent. She is either hot or cold from game to game and this was a cold one. Two points and three boards on 1-9 shooting. Some of the shots were just bad ones. Of course I fully expect to see her on fire come Wednesday.
Ryan - played the most minutes of the year. She found creative ways to share the ball with some outstanding assists. Four points, four boards and six assists. She makes things tick with this young team.
Bristow - As I watched the game there were few highlights that made her jump out. But one thing you can count on from her is rebounding. She pulled in seven critical boards.
Belanger - her injury was talked about prior to the game. She is definitely hurt and was still able to play fifteen minutes. But everything about her offense was just “off.” This is another reason why AJ’s offensive emergence was so critical. We need Belanger back.
Rebounding - So, there were several keys to the game. This was probably the biggest. The ladies ended up with a 48-21 rebounding edge. There were NO second chances for OSU and some of our offensive boards resulted in points. This was fun to watch. Did we have stick-em on our hands?
Three point shooting - our best game so far. 39% from the field on 23 shots. I’ll take nearly 40% every game please.
Free throws - we just didn’t get to the line yesterday. Only shot 7 free throws with four coming from Brown. She had both misses. Crooks made all three of hers. OSU had 18 attempts. Most of those in the fourth quarter.
Assists - over half of our shots had assists attached to them. Sixteen total. This is a very good thing. Ryan and Brown are doing a great job of seeing the open player and then we convert.
This was a good road test for our growing team. We can call them young all we want, but they don’t look anything like the team that took the court in November. They are smart. They are learning. They are becoming a threat. Other teams had best take notice. Now if we can just figure out how to handle a press….
See you all Wednesday for a big game versus KU!
