Shocks 65 - Western Illinois 62

[1972Shocker]

Shocks with a pretty good second half come back from an 8 point half time deficit to pull out a win despite some poor free throw shooting at the end of the game.

Kiki Stephens was outstanding tonight scoring 20 points on 8-13 shooting and Kyrie Kinder with a couple of big treys in the last 10 minutes to lead the Shocks to a win.

Shocks defense probably won the game shutting down WIU's perimeter game and allowing only 1 trey in the second half after giving up 6 in the first half.

Shocks with 12 assists and 14 turnovers took care of the ball pretty well although WIU did not exactly apply great pressure on defense.

Shocks need to improve on the 9-18 free throw shooting especially down the stretch when the missed the front ends of 3 one and ones when WIU was forced to foul to try to catch up.

In her post game comments Jane called Western Illinois a very good team. I might question that a little bit. Western was not very big and not particularly athletic. They were pretty well coached and disciplined and they were pretty good perimeter shooters and good free throw shooters (although they hit only 1 of 3 at the end of the game after an ill-advised foul by Taylor Steven on a trey attempt).

Shocks were fortunate to win this game, but they did do a good job coming back and toughing this one out.

Jury still out on how this team is going to do.

[SubGod22]

Weak first half perimeter D is what made this game close. WIU had some shooters and they got some good looks early. 2nd half adjustments were good and the ladies looked MUCH better.

FT shooting has to improve. That was horrible. Kiki stepped up and hit some big shots late.

Kyrie had a couple of HUGE threes late as well. Well timed and much needed baskets.

Scoring was pretty spread out after Kiki's 20. Nice to see contributions from many.

I believe Smith had 6 boards in 8 minutes or something like that.

[WuDrWu]

Like the men, this team is going to have to rely on D and guts to hang in there. That was a bad team we trailed by 8 at the intermission. Kudos to the ladies for the win, but last night there was little else to be happy about.

:wsu_posters: :goshocks: :posterwu: :posterwsu:

[1972Shocker]

My preseason forecast for the Shocks was to finish the non-conference portion of their schedule at 7-5. I thought they might steal a road victory either at Texas-San Antonio or in the Paradise Jam. Did not happen.

I really don't see them winning at Oklahoma State or New Mexico State. In fact, it would be a moral victory if we stay within 20 points of OSU next Tuesday.

Texas Pan-American at home is a game we should win.

Home games with Texas State and Winthrop are winnable but will probably prove to be our two toughest non-conference home games. If we play like we have so far we will lose at least one, if not both of these games.

A 6-6 non-conference record is about the best we can hope for at this point and there is a chance we could be no better than 4-8.

If we are going to have any momentum at all going into the conference season the Shocks definitely need to buckle down and make sure we get wins in our remaining 3 non-conference home games.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[tgcshock]

Best things about this game: turnovers way down (against a team that was agressive in jumping the passing lanes) and assist to TO ratio much improved.

Worst things about this game: Free Throws, rushed (and missed) a number of open shots on offense.

Best things about the season so far: Defense, halftime adjustments, and surprisingly mature play from the freshman.

Worst things about the season so far: continuing turnover issues, erratic offensive production, and a sense that the team has the talent to win some games that they lost but didn't because they haven't yet figured out how to win close game down the stretch. (Last night was positive in that respect but against a team that has shown similar problems).

[1972Shocker]

Like the men, this team is going to have to rely on D and guts to hang in there. That was a bad team we trailed by 8 at the intermission. Kudos to the ladies for the win, but last night there was little else to be happy about.

:wsu_posters: :goshocks: :posterwu: :posterwsu:

Doc, I take it you are not impressed by the Westerwinds RPI ranking of 333 (out of 341 D-1 teams).

Our other two wins were over Texas Southern (#326) and Nicholls State (#324).

Of course, it is still early and these RPI's can change quite a bit, but I'm not real sure what to take away from our wins so far this year.

On the other hand our 4 losses were against Texas A&M (#10), Wake Forest (#15), Indiana (#127) and Texas San Antonio (#100) and we were competitive in all but the Texas A&M games.

Our next five games Oklahoma State (#69), Texas Pan Am (#228), New Mexico State (#102), Texas State (#157) and Winthrop (#109) are kind of in the middle of the pack and could give us a better feel for how we will fare in the MVC.

[tgcshock]

. . . .Our next five games Oklahoma State (#69), Texas Pan Am (#228), New Mexico State (#102), Texas State (#157) and Winthrop (#109) are kind of in the middle of the pack and could give us a better feel for how we will fare in the MVC.

I think that's right. Last night was important from a learning to win and mental toughness standpoint but doesn't really say much about what we will do against better competition.

We are obviously not going to win against OSU who is 7-0 and averaging over 84 points per game including several huge blowout margin of victory wins. OSU's closest game has been a 14 point win. What I will be interested to see is if our defense, which has been the strength of our team, can hold them under 80 points in their building. If we can keep the margin under twenty that would also be a nice accomplishment.

Hopefully we can get a much better glimpse of our true potential during the four games games following OSU.

[1972Shocker]

We are obviously not going to win against OSU who is 7-0 and averaging over 84 points per game including several huge blowout margin of victory wins. OSU's closest game has been a 14 point win. What I will be interested to see is if our defense, which has been the strength of our team, can hold them under 80 points in their building. If we can keep the margin under twenty that would also be a nice accomplishment.

I agree 100%. In fact, in an earlier post above I think I said I would consider it a moral victory if we could stay within 20 of the Cowgirls at their place.

[ictshockolate]

Bottom line, they beat the teams they were suppose to beat.Still dont see any type of improvement when you are having problems at home against these type of teams..

[tgcshock]

Bottom line, they beat the teams they were suppose to beat.Still dont see any type of improvement when you are having problems at home against these type of teams..

Well, last year we actually got beat in some of these same situations. I still don't know that this team is going to play great ball but I think saying that you "still don't see any type of improvement" might be overstating the case. At the very least we seem to be much improved on the defensive side of the ball.

[small tyme baller]

you guys have basically summed up anything i was going to say

tgcshock... you see that lob pass to marcy in the 2nd half last game ;-)

we kinda tried to give away the game at the end but w. illinois matched and exceded how hard we were tryin to give it away. they went cold.. kiki and kyrie knocked down some big shots. 1st half we gave them too many open shots and we didnt knock down some bunnies down low. we had some bounces go our way 2nd half and pulled the win out.

I still dont like our defense, though it is drastically improved from last year. We dont really front the post, dont put any pressure on ball whatsoever, and our boxing out is suspect. But that is the way their D is designed minus the boxing out part.

The low TO's was good to see

I still dont know how we are going to play the rest of the year though