Coming into this game I felt like this was exactly the road game the sisters needed. A team that was struggling at 1–8 in the conference with no home advantage whatsoever. Boy, was I wrong. Afterwards, I honestly wanted to take my notes and rip them up, throw them away and act like this has never happened. But, here you go like it or not.
UCF would score first, but Belanger would quickly hit a trey to answer. Sisters were putting up threes left and right and missing most of them. Meantime, UCF was staying close by driving inside. They were forcing Crooks further away from the basket than what she wanted to be with a big girl. The big key here is UCF has completely neutralized our post play AND UCF is dominating the boards. With three minutes left the score was 10 to 9 in the sisters favor. Shooting woes continued with a Brown air ball three attempt. UCF would keep getting offensive boards to keep them in the game. Ryan would get a nice steel, the foul and a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 12–9. But, ISU had way too many misses on open looks. The ladies were making mistakes on the offensive end that were costing them opportunities and giving UCF ways to stay in the game. The quarter ended with Ryan dribbling the ball running the clock, getting her pocket picked and UCF taking the lead 13–12. This was an incredibly ugly quarter. The road woes continue.
Second quarter started with an offensive foul. The offense continued to struggle to be able to put the ball in the hoop. UCF continued to get offensive rebounds. Not a good recipe for success. Brown ended a little drought with a three and Iowa State retook lead. It wouldn’t last long as UCF answered right back. Diew continued to struggle missing a relatively easy fast break lay up. Both teams were struggling to get the ball in the hoop. We either missed or turned the ball over. Everything just looked out of sync on both ends of the court. The sisters have missed at least four easy layups. Bristow would end that drought by making a layup. UCF would retake the lead after yet another offensive rebound. With five minutes left UCF already had 10 offensive rebounds. Our shooting was just miserable. UCF led the game 18–17 with four minutes to play in the half. On one of those mini runs, Crooks would make a shot and Jackson would hit a three to give Iowa State a four-point lead 22 to 18. Crooks had a beautiful spin jumpshot for a pair. The one positive is the sisters are completely frustrating Peterson for UCF – the top scorer in the big 12. Ryan would weave her way through three players for a easy lay in and a 6 point lead. UCF would score inside and then get a turnover from Ryan to cut the lead back to 2. Joens nails a trey on our last possession for a 29-24 ISU lead at the half.
The third started off with scoring by both squads as they went back-and-forth with the sisters maintaining a two possession lead. Ball movement was better, which led to better offense. The sisters would lead 37 to 30 after a pair of Brown free throws. Belanger would get her three-point attempt blocked leading to an open three on the other end that cut the lead to four. One early key in the quarter is both UCF post players picking up their third fouls. Brown would drive and UCF’s post picked up her fourth foul. Brown would hit both free throws for a six point lead 39-33. The sisters continue to struggle from deep. After Jones missed, UCF would hit another triple to pull within three. The sisters would follow it up with a travel by Brown…yet another turnover. This team for the last five or six games, just cannot thrive on positive things without making mistakes to allow the other team to even things out. UCF would follow with yet another three to tie the game at 39. UCF would take the lead as Burns continues to eat the Cyclone defense alive inside and out. 41-40 UCF. Ryan would get fouled and calmly make a pair of free throws to retake the lead for the sisters. The defense continued to falter, though, allowing UCF to pretty much do whatever they wanted to as they retake the lead again. Brown would respond with a three. The sisters would be in the bonus for the last three minutes of the third-quarter and this could be critical. Ryan hit another pair to reestablish a four-point lead 47–43. UCF would continue to work the ball inside and catch the Iowa State defense over rotating, leaving a player open for layups. After a Ryan foul and one free throw by Peterson it was back to a two point game 47–45. Belanger would miss a wide wide open three and UCF would respond with a three of their own to take the lead. The sisters ensuing possession was an ugly mess with an off-balance Ryan shot for a miss. UCF was on a 70 run and had a three-point lead 50–47. Crooks would get a rebound two to pull the sisters within one 50–49 at the end of three. Nothing is coming easy for this team.
Fourth-quarter… Hope Coach said “guard Burns." Belanger would finally hit a three to tie the game up at 52. Of course the sisters immediately left UCF wide open for a three of their own. I’m starting to think I could just copy my write ups from any of the previous five games. We have another terrible offensive possession as Ryan dribble, dribble dribble, and then makes a forced bad pass to Crooks as the shot clock expires. Belanger is having a tough day from deep only making three of nine from deep and four of 12 overall so far. Ryan made an outstanding off balance shot and then gets a steel on the other end. UCF’s other post would pick up her fourth foul. Crooks made one of two to tie the game at 55. Burns would burn us again with a drive for 2. Crooks was being forced to set up far away from the basket and is missing and UCF isn’t, two straight possessions for points and they lead 59–55. Belanger continues to put up and continues to miss threes and the ladies weren’t stopping UCF on the other end. They have expanded their lead to six. After a pair of Ryan free throws, our leaky defense allows UCF to drive and score and get the foul. Another bad Ryan pass leads to more UCF points. The lead expanded to eight, 65–57. After a timeout, Ryan would feed a cutting Joens for two. After a good defensive stand the offense sputters again. This team just can’t put a good offensive and defensive possession together back to back. Instead, UCF answered with another basket. The sisters continued to chuck up threes and miss and on the UCF end they get four offensive rebounds on one possession. Time was running out. 2 1/2 minutes left and Ryan cut the lead to six with a pair of free throws. But, Peterson would drive and score with one second on the shot clock to push the lead back to eight 69–61. Joens hit a pair of free throws. UCF was content to dribble the shot clock out. Crooks would score to close within four 69–65 with under one minute. More UCF clock chewing and Iowa State would be down four with 20 seconds left. No sense of urgency. Out of a time out Iowa State missed two point blank shots before Crooks got fouled. Crooks would only make one free throw and, of course, UCF gets the rebound. Since Iowa State had three fouls to give UCF gets to chew up a lot of clock while we foul. UCF would hit a pair of free throws to ice the game, and Iowa State would lose one of the worst games in recent memory 71-66.
Observations
POG. There isn’t one. Not a single player on the team performed at a level that would make you say they were the player of the game.
Crooks - she was completely taken out of her game today. Was moved wherever the UCF posts wanted her to be. Scored 15, but she was in a position to score a lot more and didn’t.
The guards - the chuck a three game failed miserably. 7 of 25 with Belanger, taking and missing the vast majority. Defense by the guards was off and on all day, giving UCF way too many opportunities to score on wide open looks or getting beat on drives at the end of the shot clock. 15 turnovers isn’t terrible, but when your senior point guard has six of them it’s not good. This was just a terrible game all around for our guard court.
Natabou - there’s a reason she only played six minutes today. She has become completely ineffective on the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Diew - man, I wished I knew what happened to this young lady. I’ve absolutely loved her effort over the years, but she has disappeared.
Brown - another bad game for the star freshman. Bad shooting, more turnovers than assists (3-1, and her defense has just fallen apart. Committed four fouls today.
Bristow - like many I’m confused why she doesn’t pick up more of Diew's minutes. She hustles and is showing some good court sense out there.
Joens - here’s the player that probably had the best game of anybody today as she scored seven points and had two rebounds. That should also tell you something about how poorly everyone else played.
The Three - like the rest of the game, our three-point shooting was absolutely miserable. Seven for 25. Ouch. At some point when shots aren’t falling, you have to look for other ways to score.
Free Throws - we actually were cruising along pretty well at the foul line until the end of the game when they really counted. Overall 19 of 22 is exemplary, but sometimes timing is everything. Crooks missed a pair of free throws going one for two twice, and those misses were at a critical juncture.
assist to turnover ratio – last game we saw an amazingly good number of assists per shots made. It also illustrated the really good ball movement of that game. This game was the opposite. Poor ball movement and only ten assists along with 15 turnovers.
Rebounding - the sisters picked a really bad game to get out rebounded for the first time this season. UCF bounded the sisters 39–30 with many of those being on their offensive end giving them second chances.
Read on…in next post…
UCF would score first, but Belanger would quickly hit a trey to answer. Sisters were putting up threes left and right and missing most of them. Meantime, UCF was staying close by driving inside. They were forcing Crooks further away from the basket than what she wanted to be with a big girl. The big key here is UCF has completely neutralized our post play AND UCF is dominating the boards. With three minutes left the score was 10 to 9 in the sisters favor. Shooting woes continued with a Brown air ball three attempt. UCF would keep getting offensive boards to keep them in the game. Ryan would get a nice steel, the foul and a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 12–9. But, ISU had way too many misses on open looks. The ladies were making mistakes on the offensive end that were costing them opportunities and giving UCF ways to stay in the game. The quarter ended with Ryan dribbling the ball running the clock, getting her pocket picked and UCF taking the lead 13–12. This was an incredibly ugly quarter. The road woes continue.
Second quarter started with an offensive foul. The offense continued to struggle to be able to put the ball in the hoop. UCF continued to get offensive rebounds. Not a good recipe for success. Brown ended a little drought with a three and Iowa State retook lead. It wouldn’t last long as UCF answered right back. Diew continued to struggle missing a relatively easy fast break lay up. Both teams were struggling to get the ball in the hoop. We either missed or turned the ball over. Everything just looked out of sync on both ends of the court. The sisters have missed at least four easy layups. Bristow would end that drought by making a layup. UCF would retake the lead after yet another offensive rebound. With five minutes left UCF already had 10 offensive rebounds. Our shooting was just miserable. UCF led the game 18–17 with four minutes to play in the half. On one of those mini runs, Crooks would make a shot and Jackson would hit a three to give Iowa State a four-point lead 22 to 18. Crooks had a beautiful spin jumpshot for a pair. The one positive is the sisters are completely frustrating Peterson for UCF – the top scorer in the big 12. Ryan would weave her way through three players for a easy lay in and a 6 point lead. UCF would score inside and then get a turnover from Ryan to cut the lead back to 2. Joens nails a trey on our last possession for a 29-24 ISU lead at the half.
The third started off with scoring by both squads as they went back-and-forth with the sisters maintaining a two possession lead. Ball movement was better, which led to better offense. The sisters would lead 37 to 30 after a pair of Brown free throws. Belanger would get her three-point attempt blocked leading to an open three on the other end that cut the lead to four. One early key in the quarter is both UCF post players picking up their third fouls. Brown would drive and UCF’s post picked up her fourth foul. Brown would hit both free throws for a six point lead 39-33. The sisters continue to struggle from deep. After Jones missed, UCF would hit another triple to pull within three. The sisters would follow it up with a travel by Brown…yet another turnover. This team for the last five or six games, just cannot thrive on positive things without making mistakes to allow the other team to even things out. UCF would follow with yet another three to tie the game at 39. UCF would take the lead as Burns continues to eat the Cyclone defense alive inside and out. 41-40 UCF. Ryan would get fouled and calmly make a pair of free throws to retake the lead for the sisters. The defense continued to falter, though, allowing UCF to pretty much do whatever they wanted to as they retake the lead again. Brown would respond with a three. The sisters would be in the bonus for the last three minutes of the third-quarter and this could be critical. Ryan hit another pair to reestablish a four-point lead 47–43. UCF would continue to work the ball inside and catch the Iowa State defense over rotating, leaving a player open for layups. After a Ryan foul and one free throw by Peterson it was back to a two point game 47–45. Belanger would miss a wide wide open three and UCF would respond with a three of their own to take the lead. The sisters ensuing possession was an ugly mess with an off-balance Ryan shot for a miss. UCF was on a 70 run and had a three-point lead 50–47. Crooks would get a rebound two to pull the sisters within one 50–49 at the end of three. Nothing is coming easy for this team.
Fourth-quarter… Hope Coach said “guard Burns." Belanger would finally hit a three to tie the game up at 52. Of course the sisters immediately left UCF wide open for a three of their own. I’m starting to think I could just copy my write ups from any of the previous five games. We have another terrible offensive possession as Ryan dribble, dribble dribble, and then makes a forced bad pass to Crooks as the shot clock expires. Belanger is having a tough day from deep only making three of nine from deep and four of 12 overall so far. Ryan made an outstanding off balance shot and then gets a steel on the other end. UCF’s other post would pick up her fourth foul. Crooks made one of two to tie the game at 55. Burns would burn us again with a drive for 2. Crooks was being forced to set up far away from the basket and is missing and UCF isn’t, two straight possessions for points and they lead 59–55. Belanger continues to put up and continues to miss threes and the ladies weren’t stopping UCF on the other end. They have expanded their lead to six. After a pair of Ryan free throws, our leaky defense allows UCF to drive and score and get the foul. Another bad Ryan pass leads to more UCF points. The lead expanded to eight, 65–57. After a timeout, Ryan would feed a cutting Joens for two. After a good defensive stand the offense sputters again. This team just can’t put a good offensive and defensive possession together back to back. Instead, UCF answered with another basket. The sisters continued to chuck up threes and miss and on the UCF end they get four offensive rebounds on one possession. Time was running out. 2 1/2 minutes left and Ryan cut the lead to six with a pair of free throws. But, Peterson would drive and score with one second on the shot clock to push the lead back to eight 69–61. Joens hit a pair of free throws. UCF was content to dribble the shot clock out. Crooks would score to close within four 69–65 with under one minute. More UCF clock chewing and Iowa State would be down four with 20 seconds left. No sense of urgency. Out of a time out Iowa State missed two point blank shots before Crooks got fouled. Crooks would only make one free throw and, of course, UCF gets the rebound. Since Iowa State had three fouls to give UCF gets to chew up a lot of clock while we foul. UCF would hit a pair of free throws to ice the game, and Iowa State would lose one of the worst games in recent memory 71-66.
Observations
POG. There isn’t one. Not a single player on the team performed at a level that would make you say they were the player of the game.
Crooks - she was completely taken out of her game today. Was moved wherever the UCF posts wanted her to be. Scored 15, but she was in a position to score a lot more and didn’t.
The guards - the chuck a three game failed miserably. 7 of 25 with Belanger, taking and missing the vast majority. Defense by the guards was off and on all day, giving UCF way too many opportunities to score on wide open looks or getting beat on drives at the end of the shot clock. 15 turnovers isn’t terrible, but when your senior point guard has six of them it’s not good. This was just a terrible game all around for our guard court.
Natabou - there’s a reason she only played six minutes today. She has become completely ineffective on the offensive and defensive ends of the court.
Diew - man, I wished I knew what happened to this young lady. I’ve absolutely loved her effort over the years, but she has disappeared.
Brown - another bad game for the star freshman. Bad shooting, more turnovers than assists (3-1, and her defense has just fallen apart. Committed four fouls today.
Bristow - like many I’m confused why she doesn’t pick up more of Diew's minutes. She hustles and is showing some good court sense out there.
Joens - here’s the player that probably had the best game of anybody today as she scored seven points and had two rebounds. That should also tell you something about how poorly everyone else played.
The Three - like the rest of the game, our three-point shooting was absolutely miserable. Seven for 25. Ouch. At some point when shots aren’t falling, you have to look for other ways to score.
Free Throws - we actually were cruising along pretty well at the foul line until the end of the game when they really counted. Overall 19 of 22 is exemplary, but sometimes timing is everything. Crooks missed a pair of free throws going one for two twice, and those misses were at a critical juncture.
assist to turnover ratio – last game we saw an amazingly good number of assists per shots made. It also illustrated the really good ball movement of that game. This game was the opposite. Poor ball movement and only ten assists along with 15 turnovers.
Rebounding - the sisters picked a really bad game to get out rebounded for the first time this season. UCF bounded the sisters 39–30 with many of those being on their offensive end giving them second chances.
Read on…in next post…
