Leading into this game the only comparison point available was Jacksonville‘s game against KU. That was a remarkably close outcome and when you took into account, can you use victory over Arizona in Tucson? It made me wonder what this challenge would be like.
Early on in this game there was no offense of any kind evident from the ladies. There didn’t appear to be plays being run and lots of standing around waiting for the ball. The ladies were chucking up threes and got off to a 1-8 start. For most of the game it never really got better.
The Dolphins were quick and tenacious and initially seemed to cause the sisters trouble. They squeaked out to a 4-0 lead early. After about two min of game time our defensive pressure stepped up and the game started to change. Even with the defense stymying the Dolphins, our offense was a mess. 5 min in and it was tied 6 all with ISU shooting a miserable 20% and dolphins shooting 60%. The ladies just didn’t seem to want to go inside with the ball.
The offense shifted to putting Joens underneath and bringing Soares out top. There just wasn’t much luck penetrating early on, but it started to change. The ladies finally hit a couple from deep to lead 18-7. Most damage was from the line to this point. At the end of one it was 20-7 and the defense has shined.
To start the second, Kane was really showing some good hustle. The defense was showing excellent movement and switches to stay with the ball. Offensively, Joens seemed to find her stroke and her example led the way for others to start going inside. With Kane in, the inside game started to open up further. She scored a pair of baskets based on her hustle alone and good feeds from alert teammates.
The offense again went back to Joens underneath and even ran part of the quarter with no post in the game at all. The underneath cracked wide open as Ryan, M&M and Joens all made short range buckets with good aggressive movement.
The ladies seemed to have rediscovered ball movement that includes not only movement around the horn, but inside/outside aspects. Guards are moving and dishing and if the inside player doesn’t score they move it outside to an open look. Soares was being aggressive around the basket offensively and being a rebound hawk.
The story of the second quarter, if you can't tell, was going inside. This also opened up outside looks as Jacksonville couldn't recover from trying to double Soares and Joens and get out on the shooters.
Five baskets from deep and this quarter saw 9-10 inside shots made. You know good things happened there when we shoot (6-20 30%) from deep and are hitting 53% of our shots overall at half (17-32). Yes, the three point stats were that bad (started 2-12 and then had a splurge going 4-8). At the half it was 47-22.
Soares made her presence known on both ends early in the third. She was continuing to pull in rebounds and finding ways to make the offense efficient. There were lots of excellent assists in the game that would make watching the replay worthwhile.
One particular gremlin has again reared its head. Threes went cold as ice again. Fritz continues to struggle from deep. On the other hand, Kane was looking very comfortable. Perhaps the most she’s looked that way all season. It was a terribly slow scoring quarter with ISU leading the scoring 10-4 6:30 in. There was a flurry towards the end as players started feeding inside once more and ISU extended their lead 69-34 after three. Isn't it amazing what focusing on ball movement and going inside can do for a team?
The fourth saw coach trying different combinations once more. He left Fritz in to continue to work on finding her game. Izzi also got in early along with Dawkins. Izzi picked up two fouls quickly that were more quirky than troublesome. Didn’t get rattled by it though. With five min left the rest of the subs streamed in. We saw some uncharacteristically sloppy play by the subs, but also saw some nice ball movement. Jacksonville left most of their main players in for a while against the subs and their speed clearly caused problems. As a team, ISU only had 4 turnovers to this point. The subs committed five more. It was the first time this year I’ve seen the deep bench get outplayed.
Observations
Joens - clearly the player of the game. She was as efficient as at any time in her career. Shot 50% from the field both inside and out. Made all of her free throws. Very typical Ashley Joens style of game. 22 points, 10 boards, 3 assists and she was fouled 7 times.
Soares - She looked very determined out there. As a surprise, a slightly mistimed jump ball to open the game saw the opponent get the tip. She was really working hard to rebound and battle inside. Made a trey as well. 20 points, 8 boards and perfect from the line.
Ryan - much improved play by the floor general. The Dolphin's speed and determination didn't faze her at all. 9 points and 7 assists. Still wish she would shoot more.
Donarski - defense was OUTSTANDING. During the game never saw her get beat. Still struggling from deep. Dished some nice assists (5). We need her to find her scoring touch. Some of the shots seemed rushed.
Fritz - gritty as they come. Plays 110% all the time. Just is struggling to find her shot. She worked herself into some WIDE open positions and just couldn't get them to drop. When she finds her touch...look out.
Kane - great minutes off the bench. She was hustling her butt off out there and really looked good.
M&M - Got some good minutes in. 6 points, 2 assists and 2 turnovers. The turnovers were not pretty. Still, looking good handling the ball at point. Needs to get more shots.
Diew - She looked good at everything except shooting. She's doing what's needed of her handling the ball, defending and rebounding. She, like Fritz, needs to re-find her shooting touch.
Bench - as mentioned above, everyone got to play. Izzi looks much better with each game she gets to play. Works hard. Uses her body. Isn't soft in any way. Was nice to see Vick nail at three late in the game.
Three point shooting - I'll just call it abysmal. The team started off worse than bad, had a brief flourish where they were falling in the second, and then went back to bad again. Making 9 out of 31 (and that god-awful start) just isn't good. There were probably 1/3 of those misses that were wide open, have all day type of shots that just clanked. Right now this is the biggest weakness in their game. Who thought we'd be saying that?
Assists - you know your players are doing good things when the assists look like this: 20 assists on 28 shots. Six different players with assists.
Was there a lull today? In the NC and Iowa games we saw the sisters go dormant for long periods in the second half. Did it happen today? Well, sort of. The first 5-6 minutes of the third quarter saw the offense almost go into neutral gear. Fortunately, our defense and Jacksonville's ability to miss shots didn't make it look as bad.
Overall, this was a much improvement type of game. This team played KU close in Lawrence (11 point loss). The def had speed and aggressiveness, but our defense and size clearly flustered them. Defense and rebounding (43-28) was the name of this game.
Now it's time for finals and then a trip to Connecticut for the Hall of Fame Showcase and a matchup with Villanova. This will be a VERY tough matchup against the 9-2 Friars. They have a 5 point loss to Baylor on a neutral court and got pounded by Creighton at home. They pounded on the South Florida team that beat Jacksonville by 11. I suspect this could be a pretty good matchup and the sisters had best bring their A game.
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