Fun under the (plastic) sun: a women’s basketball recap

Every night should be Beach Night.

The ladies had quite a bit to ponder this week, as they set season lows in points, field-goal shooting, assists, and rebounds against Wash U.

But a good crowd at the Ratner Center and some inflatable palm trees made the difference Friday night, as the women topped NYU 71–61.  Well, some all-around quality basketball might have played a role, but just in case, let’s make those palm trees permanent.

The first half was ugly in a lot of ways, and it showed on the scoreboard.  The Maroons walked into the locker room down by three at 32–29, and the reasons were many.

They missed 12 layups in the half.  That’s the way you lose a lot of games, and that’s the way they lost just last weekend in St. Louis.  Now, of course some of those were contested, but they need to convert on more of those opportunities once teams like Rochester and Case come around.  Six of those misses came in the last six minutes of the half, a stretch over which a 26–17 lead turned into a 32–29 deficit.

They didn’t dominate the boards. Now, the numbers weren’t awful here, but again, this is a part of the box score the Maroons need to reign supreme.  They went into the half trailing 23–21 in the rebound battle.

You put those two together, and you’ve got the ingredients for another loss.  The offense just looked lost at the end of the first half, and it was worrying.  NYU started hitting some jumpers, got some threes to go, and went into the half looking comfortable.

Aaron Roussell must have had a hell of a halftime speech, because a different team came out of the locker room in the second half.

As the half got started, the change was palpable.  NYU couldn’t get into any kind of rhythm, and that’s a direct credit to the tough defense Chicago was applying.  NYU’s possessions to start the half went like this: turnover, missed three and missed layup, missed jumper, turnover, missed three and missed jumper, turnover.  They didn’t score for the first 4:25 of the period, and that opened the door for Chicago to bounce out to a quick 15–2 run.

Case closed.  After shooting 28.6 percent in the first half, Chicago shot 38.5 percent in the second.  That’s not a great mark, but when you hold your opponent to 27.8 percent shooting in the second half, you’re going to make things easier.

Overall, it was just a tenacious defense coming out in the second half.  Molly Hackney had two disgusting rejections on NYU’s leading scorer Grace Carmen, and the Maroons were in the passing lanes for all of the last 20 minutes.

It clearly wasn’t the kind of offensive performance you’d hang your hat on, but it was good to see some rhythm on offense and some intensity on D.  Good way to sweep the loss to Wash U a little bit further under the carpet.

Straight assassin
Usually 4-for-12 shooting isn’t going to jump off the page, but Jamie Stinson played a really nice offensive game.  It seemed like she was hunting for the rim a lot more than we usually see, and the result was a career-high 13 points.  She was also following her misses, a good reason why five of her six rebounds were on the offensive end.

Hack attack
We saw some vintage Molly Hackney on defense.  There was one play in particular where NYU was inbounding, and I think she got screened off of Carmen, giving Carmen a seemingly clear look at the basket from about five feet out.  And then Hackney came swooping in at the last season and rejected it like her name is Mt. Mutombo.  She collected four blocks on the night and did a really nice job of containing the usually offensive minded Grace Carmen, who scored six on the night.

Who said free throws were free?
Boy, 47 free throws?  That’s two shy of a school record, and it’s great to see from a struggling offense.  But they missed 20 of those.  The missed free throws and the missed layups were definitely worrisome.

Extras:
Chicago Recap
NYU Recap
Box
Statistics