Ags lead 17-13 after the first quarter in a fast paced game.

Still cold from long range.

Need to settle down. The shots are there, just not falling.

Sage with a couple nuh-UH blocks already. :grin:

The Ags are being totally outplayed in the last 5 minutes. LMU turned up the pressure and the Ags have gotten ragged with the ball. We've seen that too often this season where the Aggies get lackadaisical and unfocused.

I'm seeing good defense, but a frustrated offense. I think if they get three shots in a row to go in, they'll be off to the races.

27-26 LMU at the half. The Ads are fortunate to only be down one at the half. LMU has been the aggressor and out rebounded the Ags by 11 boards which has resulted in 16 2nd chance points for the Lions. We are 2-12 from 3. No Cierra McKeown or Makaila Sanders on the bench either.

42-42 at the end of three.

Looks like we aren't handling the pressure very well. Good defense from our side is keeping us in the game.

Video feed is down and the Ags fall behind quickly 46-42 to start the 4th. We really struggle to shoot the ball from the outside.

LMU beats the Ags 60-53 and fall to 2-4 for the season. The story of this game was that the Lions were the more aggressive team and the stats don't lie: they won the offensive boards 22-5 which resulted in 22 2nd chance points. They competed hard for the ball while the Ags lost one offensive board after another.

Two other areas that the Ags are struggling with are 3 point shooting and a lack of offensive scoring balance. Outside of Bertsch and Bessolo no one is scoring with any consistency. We were shooting 27% from 3 on the year coming into this game and today we shot 22%. Bertsch and Bessolo are the only two Ags averaging double figures and, after that, Cierra McKeown averages 5.2 ppg.

Our bench production has been anemic. We have not seen the offense that I'm sure Jen Gross had hoped for from Konrad, Toole and Stobbart so far and Cierra Hall, who is a great defender and rebounder, struggles getting shots to fall.

Offensive rebounding has always been the Achilles heel of the Aggies. It's hard to know why Jen Gross' teams are generally not good rebounding teams. Even last year's outstanding team got beat on the boards with regularity. We field good size but we tend to stand around flat-footed and get beat to the ball on the boards.

Last year's team would win games like these despite the rebounding woes though because they shot the ball well from downtown. This year's team does not shoot the ball well from 3 and, hence, they are losing games that last year's team would win. We'll have to wait and see if anyone other than Bertsch and Bessolo can bring some offensive balance to the team and whether Gross can will her troops to play more aggressively on the boards.

You're exactly right. Great shooting covers up some basic deficiencies. It's very frustrating watching 3 ags stand around while one opponent gets the rebound. I didn't see much of today's game, but turned it on near the end and saw us force a long 3-ptr (miss) only to have the one Lion in the key get the rebound. Game Over.

I guess the biggest surprise so far this year is the offensive play of Hall. I really thought she'd take over as the 2nd or 3rd option this year (behind Bertsch and Bessolo). That may still happen, as she definitely has the talent, but we are going to struggle until we find another consistent contributors. Kind of reminds me of John on the men's team. Both have the talent, just seem to be "off" so far.

I know exactly the play you mentions and it was the nail in the coffin. We were down 3 with maybe a minute and a few ticks left when we forced a missed 3 with good D and then, instead of going to the ball assertively, we stood there flat-footed. An LMU player came up aggressively from behind and snatched the ball away from an Aggie. It happened like that all too often in this game.

There's a long way to go yet this season but we need to find some offensive weapons on this team. Bertsch, arguably the best offensive player the Aggies have ever had, and she's essentially carrying the team offense with some help from Bessolo. Our opponents are going to focus hard on shutting her down especially when they do not think the Ags have much reliable offense behind her.

That's exactly the play. It's emblematic of our play in general this year.

Seems like McKeown would have really helped in this game. Another ball handler and someone who can consistently hit the outside shot. I guess it's an injury that kept her out of the game. Hopefully a mild one.

Morgan Bertsch and Kourtney Eaton are about to enter the top of two more UCD basketball records:

With her performance, Bertsch now needs just 12 more points to pass Audwin Thomas, a four-year letter winner for the men’s basketball team from 1975-79, to become the all-time leading scorer in UC Davis men’s and women’s basketball history, while Kourtney Eaton is now five assists away from matching head coach Jennifer Gross for the all-time Aggie record

https://www.davisenterprise.com/sports/ucd-womens-rally-falls-short-against-loyola/