Twister Sister Summary -ladies lose on road again

[acoustimac]

The story to this one was too many second chances by Iowa and our seniors disappearing from the game for long stretches or completely.


I have to admit I missed the entire first half attending a visitation for a young lady you might have read about in the Register, Bethany Gruich lost her battle with cancer earlier this week. She was an amazing young lady and had a profound impact on all the lives she touched.


So my perspective s slanted and will require others to fill in the gaps. Lets talk about the seniors. If I told you in advance that Brynn would not score her first point until the final minute you'd know the result. Then if I told you Moody would be in foul trouble most of the game you know it was a double whammy. Without our two key players it was an uphill battle.


On the positive side our bigs got Doolittle into foul trouble. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough. Iowa has a rep of getting offensive boards and time and time again they out positioned us and got second chances. They took advantage of many. State would pull within four on a couple of occasions, but would promptly have a defensive lapse that would allow Iowa to hit a three or make consecutive baskets to re-establish the lead.


For State the game was all about Buckley. She single handedly held ISU in this thing with her best game of the year. Her three with 52 tics left pulled ISU within four after a three minute scoring drought. Unfortunately the wheels fell completely off as we had three straight turnovers that gave Iowa free throws and that iced the game. The final was 76-67 in a game that was perhaps closer than the score showed. The home court jinx continued as ISU again had key players disappear on the road.


Observations
Brynn. Where has our leading scorer gone? Not only has she disappeared two straight games on offense, but tonight her defensive game was missing as well.


Moody. When she was in...which didn't seem like much she was productive. Unfortunately, she spent a huge amount of time on the bench in trouble before fouling out in crunch time.


POG. Buckley. She did everything she could and because of her we had a chance.


Defense. At times good. At times too slow. Some key shifts or lack thereof allowed Iowa to hit critical buckets. Our bigs looked good at times and I thought Fennelly rotated them admirably. It appears we need to merge Maddie and Bree to get the complete post.


Final analysis? Iowa isn't as good as I thought. We were firing on three cylinders and almost got them. Of course it also means we still haven't jelled yet. There is something out of sync that our seniors haven't pulled together. Fortunately we are talented and probably will be the better team at season's end

 

[BoxsterCy]

And back to six games against the Sisters of The Poor before we get to conference play. Based on those games we are unlikely to have any really good take about how conference play will go.

Not really surprised about the seniors, they are what they have been since arriving, inconsistent. They can be great, or good, or average or no shows. The out of sync you mention is nothing new and been with us for a couple of years. We have teammates that frankly don't play well together.

I was hoping that by conference play we would have someone step up in the post but that may not happen.

Not trying to be negative but my take is just that right now. Watching NU hold off a scrappy Creighton team and it is way better basketball than we saw in Iowa City tonight.

 

[volclone]

I just don't get Buckley. She is capable of doing "that" more often than once or twice a year. She and Moody are the only 2 capable of creating their own shot. We need to see more from her on a regular basis.

 

[acoustimac]

One other note that's a bit humorous...attendance. Frau Bluder commented on the great crowd. From the camera shots it appeared there might be 1000-1500 max in attendance. Anyone go that can comment?

 

[907CY]

I got the same impression of the crowd that you did. We would have packed the house if the game would have been in Ames. My bottom line on the score of the game, is that their seniors are better than ours. Doolittle and Logic outplayed, outlasted, and outsmarted Moody and Brynn. Otherwise, I think we matched up with them quite well. If are seniors don't step up and quit the disappearing act then we may have a chance but if they don't then we will pay for it in the Big 12. I thought Jadda finally played her best game of her career at Iowa State. She is finally showing us the stop and pop game that she had in high school. We need her and Johnson to be consistent and start pushing for leadership roles. Last comment on the game is that Bre, Maddie, and Ellis all had open looks and we didn't or couldn't get the ball to them. This reflects less on the posts and more on the point guard lack of play. Lets move on and get some wins to finish out the year.