The Ags trail 17-16 at the end of the first quarter. Too many TO's have hampered the Aggies early and Jacksonville is doing a good job of bottling up Bertsch so far.

Aggies storm back in the 2nd and lead 38-25 at halftime! GO AGS! Helps that Aggies are shooting 62% to Jacksonville's 28%

The Aggies came out in the 2nd quarter and went on a 16-2 run and take a 38-25 lead into the half. The Ags have been doing a great job of running the break and also finding the open cutter in their half court sets and are shooting 62% overall. The only bugaboo for the Ags is that they gave up 9 offensive rebounds but still did a good job overall defensively by holding the Dolphins to just 29% shooting.

Woo!

Ags struggle in the 3rd quarter, only up by 1 now.

Jacksonville came out in the 2nd half and got physical and the Aggies responded with tentative play and sloppy ball handling and only lead by one at 44-43. The Aggies only managed 6 points in the 3rd quarter.

Jacksonville came out aggressive and physical in the second half and the Ags failed to match the Dolphins physicality and energy and lost 61-54. The second half of this game was one of the worst halves of basketball the Aggies have played this year. Jacksonville wanted it more and deserved to win. This was a very disappointing loss for the Aggies because of the way they got out played in the second half.

The Ags turned the ball over again and again with lazy passes and players not being ready to receive the ball. They got hammered on the boards, gave up 20 offensive rebounds and just did not play with energy and determination. We got beat on the 50-50 balls and stood around flat-footed on the rebounds and failed to box out.

The Ags were rolling in the first half when both teams were playing "nice" and no fouls were being called. In the second half Jacksonville turned up the pressure and energy and got physical and the Aggies played on their heels and failed to match the intensity.

This is not the way Coach Gross wanted to see her team play just before entering league play next week. I think that the Big West teams now know that the way to play the Ags is to pressure them defensively, crash the boards and play physical.

Only thing to do now is to learn from it and move on but there's no way to sugar coat the poor effort in the second half. The Aggies will need to look at the game film and prepare for the Big West teams to play them very physical when league starts.

One good thing that the Ags can point to in this game is the return of Rachel Nagel to the line up. She returned from her injury and led the Aggies with 16 points.

The box score tells the story. After blistering the nets with 62% shooting in the first half the Aggies went ice cold in the second half and shot 20% but, the absolute killer, was allowing 20 offensive boards. This was after allowing 18 offensive rebounds against Central Florida.

You simply can't allow an opponent to shoot over and over again until the ball finally drops through the hoop. The Ags have to find a way to do a better job on the boards on both ends of the court and establish a physical presence so teams don't just push them around. 20 offensive rebounds by the opponent is a recipe for disaster.

It's interesting that in basketball, the team that is the aggressor on offense and the boards is usually the team that gets the benefit of the foul calls against the opponent. That was the case in the second half of today's game. When JU started crashing the boards, it was the Ags who got whistled for reaching and bumping. You can not rebound or play good defense well when you are a step late and on your heels.

Not only that, when you give up offensive rebounds you miss out on any chance of creating fast break opportunities. Rebounding is all about wanting the ball. You can't wait for it to fall into your lap, you have to go get it!

For sure, 6th. I hope I'm not coming across as being hard on this team. That's not the case at all. This team has a big up side and it's frustrating to watch them get out played by a team that just forced their will on them. That problem has been showing up again and again when it comes to rebounding.

We have decent size but we don't handle physical players well. Bertsch is a wonderful player but she is very slight and gets bounced around underneath. Her strength is her quick spin moves and her nice touch from mid-range. Last year we had Alyson Doherty and Celia Marfone and both of them had a more solid physical presence inside. The year before that we had Sydnee Fipps who was a blue collar type player who played aggressively and imposed her will on defenders. We are lacking the type of toughness that Fipps, Doherty and Marfone brought to each game.

It's almost like we're just playing a little bit too nice. The talent is there but we need someone step up and be the emotional leader of this team and really bring some fire and aggressive play. That's usually contagious and can help elevate everyone to a higher level of effort and dogged determination to win.

I don't think you are being harsh. Your words probably echoed what Coach Gross told her team after the game. If you give a team 20 second chance opportunities it is hard to beat anyone, especially on the road.

Young team, right?

Possibly our most successful high profile program developing before our eyes?

I remember many, many years back when ham had the same problem. Somehow he got this contraption into hickey that made the team jump up for the ball on a rim that was higher than regulation and maybe the ball was somehow attached to the backboard. I have no idea how it worked and never saw it actually used, but it was there in the corner. We use to look at it during IM games. Rebounds are a real mentality issue I guess. Still, ladies look OK To me.

That's interesting 69aggie. I've been wondering about what a coach can do to improve rebounding. Sure, you can demonstrate boxing out and positioning but it really comes down to determination and desire to just go hard for the ball. I have seen drills were coaches use pads to bump and push players around to get them used to being banged about and still getting to the ball or finishing a shot while being fouled but I've never seen a contraption you say that Ham had. It was probably something his wild basketball mind just came up with. He was a special character for sure!