So here we are in the home stretch. Four games left and destiny within the ladies' hands. Houston is a team I would expect to beat every day and twice on Sunday. But, the question we all have on our minds is which sisters team will show up?
First possession showed man defense (something the team appears to be working in more) and resulted in a steal and two for Crooks at the other end. The sisters would score again before turning it over on their third possession. Three straight empty possessions allowed the Cougs to tie it up. The three wasn’t falling at all at this point. Houston would take the lead on an and one. The turnovers were starting to add up with very messy play on offense. Lots of missed shots. The ladies were on a wee bit of a drought. The sisters were stuck on six points after missing their fifth trey. Meanwhile Houston stretched their lead to 11-6 after a 7-0 run. Ugly offensive quarter for the ladies. Game was looking like others where our opponent is hitting treys like crazy. But Joens would hit a trey of her own and Bristow would score off a steal to pull within one 13-14. Bristow would get another steal and hit Joens for two. Belanger hit a trey for the lead 18-17. The usual screwup on the "hold for the last shot" happened again and the ladies led by one.
The second would start with a mix of misses by the sisters. Natabou would break the two minute drought. Ryan would follow with a fast break drive for two and the harm. 23-17 ISU. Brown is a mix so far. Good on the defensive end and a bit of a struggle on offense. Houston fortunately was missing a lot. Belanger hit a trey for an 8 point lead. All five freshmen were on the court and Joens hit Crooks for two and the harm. 29-18. Bristow hit a trey to stretch the lead further. Houston had one free throw for the quarter to this point (32-18 7 min in). Bristow nailed a trey to extend the lead to 16. Crooks got another after a Brown miss for two. Brown finally scored with a trey. A pair of Crooks free throws would give the sisters a 21 point lead after a 26-6 2nd quarter. Houston had ONE basket.
The third started the same way with Crooks scoring. But Houston would start hot with two straight scores. The feeds to Crooks continued and she didn’t disappoint. Good ball movement on offense. But it seemed like as soon as Crooks went out the offense grew stagnant. Brown was just plain struggling on offense tonight. So far she was 4-14 and had 4 turnovers. Messy. The Cougs hit back to back to back treys (wide open) and cut the lead to 12. The ladies were on their heels a bit. Brown made a nice drive for two, but the Cougs keep answering as Brown fouled on a made shot on the other end. And the turnover bug struck again on Ryan and then she picked up her third foul. A rough quarter as Houston wins this one 24-15. Lead was now 59-47.
The fourth started with Belanger scoring on a give and go reverse layup. On the other end we fouled again. Defense was a wee bit rough around the edges. Crooks scored off a feed from Brown for a 14 point lead, Brown scored and the lead was 16. Fouls were accumulating for the sisters as Brown, Ryan and AJ had three. And then…a ten second violation by Ryan. After Houston cut the lead to 11, Belanger would hit a trey. The sisters continued to foul. On the good side of the ledger, Ryan would take a dish drive and score. But Houston just kept answering. At the 5:20 mark the lead was 13, 72-58. The turnover bug had bit again. Houston hit a trey and it’s an 11 point lead again. AJ fouled out as Houston scored and hit the free throw to cut the lead to ten. Ryan committed yet another turnover. The sisters were just being very careless on offense. Meanwhile, Crooks crept closer to the freshman scoring record with a pair of free throws. The game clock thankfully wound down with a final score of 76-64. Good road win.
Observations
POG - No doubt. Audi Crooks. Twenty-Five points on 9-11 shooting and 7-8 from the line. Don’t you love how her free throw shooting keeps improving? 12 boards for a big double double. Even better…she gets to break the freshman scoring record at home (held by one of my all time favs- Megan Taylor).
Brown - If I told you she had 16 points and 13 boards you’d think she had a great game. Well on the defensive end she did. The offense was a struggle all night as she missed every type of conceivable shot. Somehow she shot the ball seven more times than Crooks and ended up 7-18 on the day. Add to it an ugly seven turnovers.
Belanger - was pretty on and off tonight…mostly off as she only connected on 4 of 13 shots. Eleven points and three turnovers
Ryan - Boy, she had some pretty plays, some amazing plays and a couple of slap your head “what was that” mistakes. Fortunately, those were very few. Nine points, 11 boards and seven assists with three turnovers. Solid.
AJ - Not her best game of the season. Had a propensity to foul and ended up with five on the night. Only 2 points and 2 assists. We need her to be available. The fouls need to be corrected.
Natabou - two points in only 7 minutes of playing time. Seemed when she was on the court our offense stalled. That’s not all on her, but the chemistry is def different.
Joens - her only shot was our first trey of the night and ignited the dominance we saw in the first half. Three boards and three turnovers.
Bristow - had two of the nicest steals of the game and both led to scores (one by her). She reminds me of a thoroughbred colt out there. You can see the talent, but once in a while the colt bucks and oopsie…Eight points, three boards and three assists on 26 minutes. I like. A lot.
Turnovers - the team had a rough first with six, calmed down in the second and then the second half was a mishmash of good plays intermixed with head scratchers. Ended up with 18. This HAS to be fixed. Sadly, its a trend rather than an abnormality.
Assists - I love this trend though. Twenty- Three assists on 30 made baskets. Keep giving me this ball movement. This also says something about the struggle when ball movement doesn’t happen.
Rebounding - FIFTY THREE boards. Holy cow batman! Houston had 28.
Free throws - We only got to the line for 11 attempts. Hit nine. That’s great. But Houston had 19 attempts. We got sloppy in the second half and couldn’t stop fouling them.
The second quarter was total domination. It was a combination of how bad Houston was and the sisters taking advantage of what was given them. Now if they could just bottle that. The second half you would hope would be more of the same…or even playing even. But it wasn’t. Those bad quarters are something else that need fixed. I’m so glad the ladies got over the hump of this road game. Now they come home for a Saturday game rematch with a very tough BYU team. BYU is 5-9 in the conference and losing as I write this. Needless to say they have some very good players and battled us hard in Utah. Let’s show up and support our team to another victory and see Audi break the freshmen scoring record!
First possession showed man defense (something the team appears to be working in more) and resulted in a steal and two for Crooks at the other end. The sisters would score again before turning it over on their third possession. Three straight empty possessions allowed the Cougs to tie it up. The three wasn’t falling at all at this point. Houston would take the lead on an and one. The turnovers were starting to add up with very messy play on offense. Lots of missed shots. The ladies were on a wee bit of a drought. The sisters were stuck on six points after missing their fifth trey. Meanwhile Houston stretched their lead to 11-6 after a 7-0 run. Ugly offensive quarter for the ladies. Game was looking like others where our opponent is hitting treys like crazy. But Joens would hit a trey of her own and Bristow would score off a steal to pull within one 13-14. Bristow would get another steal and hit Joens for two. Belanger hit a trey for the lead 18-17. The usual screwup on the "hold for the last shot" happened again and the ladies led by one.
The second would start with a mix of misses by the sisters. Natabou would break the two minute drought. Ryan would follow with a fast break drive for two and the harm. 23-17 ISU. Brown is a mix so far. Good on the defensive end and a bit of a struggle on offense. Houston fortunately was missing a lot. Belanger hit a trey for an 8 point lead. All five freshmen were on the court and Joens hit Crooks for two and the harm. 29-18. Bristow hit a trey to stretch the lead further. Houston had one free throw for the quarter to this point (32-18 7 min in). Bristow nailed a trey to extend the lead to 16. Crooks got another after a Brown miss for two. Brown finally scored with a trey. A pair of Crooks free throws would give the sisters a 21 point lead after a 26-6 2nd quarter. Houston had ONE basket.
The third started the same way with Crooks scoring. But Houston would start hot with two straight scores. The feeds to Crooks continued and she didn’t disappoint. Good ball movement on offense. But it seemed like as soon as Crooks went out the offense grew stagnant. Brown was just plain struggling on offense tonight. So far she was 4-14 and had 4 turnovers. Messy. The Cougs hit back to back to back treys (wide open) and cut the lead to 12. The ladies were on their heels a bit. Brown made a nice drive for two, but the Cougs keep answering as Brown fouled on a made shot on the other end. And the turnover bug struck again on Ryan and then she picked up her third foul. A rough quarter as Houston wins this one 24-15. Lead was now 59-47.
The fourth started with Belanger scoring on a give and go reverse layup. On the other end we fouled again. Defense was a wee bit rough around the edges. Crooks scored off a feed from Brown for a 14 point lead, Brown scored and the lead was 16. Fouls were accumulating for the sisters as Brown, Ryan and AJ had three. And then…a ten second violation by Ryan. After Houston cut the lead to 11, Belanger would hit a trey. The sisters continued to foul. On the good side of the ledger, Ryan would take a dish drive and score. But Houston just kept answering. At the 5:20 mark the lead was 13, 72-58. The turnover bug had bit again. Houston hit a trey and it’s an 11 point lead again. AJ fouled out as Houston scored and hit the free throw to cut the lead to ten. Ryan committed yet another turnover. The sisters were just being very careless on offense. Meanwhile, Crooks crept closer to the freshman scoring record with a pair of free throws. The game clock thankfully wound down with a final score of 76-64. Good road win.
Observations
POG - No doubt. Audi Crooks. Twenty-Five points on 9-11 shooting and 7-8 from the line. Don’t you love how her free throw shooting keeps improving? 12 boards for a big double double. Even better…she gets to break the freshman scoring record at home (held by one of my all time favs- Megan Taylor).
Brown - If I told you she had 16 points and 13 boards you’d think she had a great game. Well on the defensive end she did. The offense was a struggle all night as she missed every type of conceivable shot. Somehow she shot the ball seven more times than Crooks and ended up 7-18 on the day. Add to it an ugly seven turnovers.
Belanger - was pretty on and off tonight…mostly off as she only connected on 4 of 13 shots. Eleven points and three turnovers
Ryan - Boy, she had some pretty plays, some amazing plays and a couple of slap your head “what was that” mistakes. Fortunately, those were very few. Nine points, 11 boards and seven assists with three turnovers. Solid.
AJ - Not her best game of the season. Had a propensity to foul and ended up with five on the night. Only 2 points and 2 assists. We need her to be available. The fouls need to be corrected.
Natabou - two points in only 7 minutes of playing time. Seemed when she was on the court our offense stalled. That’s not all on her, but the chemistry is def different.
Joens - her only shot was our first trey of the night and ignited the dominance we saw in the first half. Three boards and three turnovers.
Bristow - had two of the nicest steals of the game and both led to scores (one by her). She reminds me of a thoroughbred colt out there. You can see the talent, but once in a while the colt bucks and oopsie…Eight points, three boards and three assists on 26 minutes. I like. A lot.
Turnovers - the team had a rough first with six, calmed down in the second and then the second half was a mishmash of good plays intermixed with head scratchers. Ended up with 18. This HAS to be fixed. Sadly, its a trend rather than an abnormality.
Assists - I love this trend though. Twenty- Three assists on 30 made baskets. Keep giving me this ball movement. This also says something about the struggle when ball movement doesn’t happen.
Rebounding - FIFTY THREE boards. Holy cow batman! Houston had 28.
Free throws - We only got to the line for 11 attempts. Hit nine. That’s great. But Houston had 19 attempts. We got sloppy in the second half and couldn’t stop fouling them.
The second quarter was total domination. It was a combination of how bad Houston was and the sisters taking advantage of what was given them. Now if they could just bottle that. The second half you would hope would be more of the same…or even playing even. But it wasn’t. Those bad quarters are something else that need fixed. I’m so glad the ladies got over the hump of this road game. Now they come home for a Saturday game rematch with a very tough BYU team. BYU is 5-9 in the conference and losing as I write this. Needless to say they have some very good players and battled us hard in Utah. Let’s show up and support our team to another victory and see Audi break the freshmen scoring record!
