We looked vulnerable today...now every team left in the tournament now knows that the Ags are not shoo-ins to win it all... so they are going to play inspired basketball against us...hopefully, this was a wake up call for the Aggies...
I dunno. Any team that hasn't already seen that this year and last year's teams don't put away teams like the Bertsch/Twins-era teams did hasn't been paying attention, IMO*. The Aggies are going to draw inspired ball no matter what, I think--comes with the seeding.
*they've continued winning, though. Gritty, nail-biting wins.
Yeah, the combination of the removal of the game clock (shot clock is still used) and the playing to the target score eliminates the incentive/need to foul at the end. You play defense because the clock isn't a factor anymore. You'd still have stoppages for timeouts but it makes the end of close games run way smoother.
The ending of last year's ASG was great because it went down to the wire.
*they've continued winning, though. Gritty, nail-biting wins. — Russ Bowlus
That's for sure. We're a very good basketball team but not a dominate basketball team. We gutted this one out and we never lost our poise even though the score got close. Krupa is impressive for Fullerton and Hall did the heavy lifting for us today.
Bakersfield leads Hawaii 21-17 at the end of the first in a very entertaining game to watch. Both of these teams are talented and play very aggressively.
Hawaii has a couple of players with heavily taped knees. I wonder if their physical playing is going to catch up with them. Should be an entertaining game on Friday!
Difference in the game was that Hawaii shot THIRTY-FIVE (35) free throws (and made 27 of them) to Bakersfield's mere 22 FT attempts (made 14). Four of Bako's starting five players finished the game with four fouls apiece. :gasp:
Alright. How do you like our third matchup with Hawaii? You generally wouldn't expect Hawaii to play well away from Hawaii, but it looks like we're less than confident judging from our mood against Fullerton.
So the Ags and Hawaii will meet for the 3rd time in their last 4 games. Hawaii's defense gave the Aggies fits in the first two games and don't expect this next game will be a whole lot different.
The Bows are very aggressive defensively with quickness and they really crash the boards on rebounds. They out rebounded us 42-22 in the first game but we turned that around in the second game. Hawaii is a very young, talented team who is going to be a contender in the BW for some years to come. They had the Aggie offense off balance in both of the first two games. This will be a very tough game for the Aggies.
I'm just going to guess here but I bet the Ags are going to be hyped to play Hawaii again. You know they weren't happy with their effort on the island and probably want a chance to clearly demonstrate their dominance. Of course, now they actually have to go out and do it. Hall is the key, obviously. If she can get her shot going a bit better than what we've seen recently, and limit her fouls, I like our chances. Also need Stobbart to hit her layups. Too often it looks like she is rushing her shot when she doesn't have to.
To often the Ags make some nice drives and moves to get to the basket only to put up a wild shot that doesn't have a chance. We need to finish a higher percentage of those shots.
Hawaii's defense seemed to be everywhere the ball went and they were contesting everything. As a result, the Ags were forced to rush a lot of their shots. I hope Jen puts some wrinkles into the our ball movement that gets our shooters a few more open looks. That said, the team with the better defense will probably win this one.
Irvine nips UCSB 92-90 in a very entertaining game in which both teams were shooting lights out. SB shot 62% from 3 and Irvine 59%. Tough loss for the Gauchos. They had a chance to tie with 2 FT's with 1 second to go and missed them both.
Just a thought as this game continues: Sierra Campisano has 26pts/12rb (so far!). Davis held her to 21/14 total in the two regular season games vs SLO. De-fense! *clap clap*
Wow, potentially exciting end to the game coming up! Up one, LB went to the line to shoot two FTs with seven seconds left. Missed BOTH and SLO got the rebound. Immediate timeout and it'll be SLO ball with six second on the clock.