Lady Shocks 72 - Drake 58

[1972Shocker]

For the second game in a row the Lady Shocks score a decisive MVC home win despite being outrebounded by double figures, 45-33, as they pulled away from the Drake Bulldogs over the final 6 minutes for a 72-58 victory.

However, the Shocks duplicated their defensive effort against Creighton by forcing Drake into 25 turnovers, including 15 steals by the Shocks. OTOH the Shocks only turned the ball over 7 times while dishing out 18 turnovers. On of the better assist to turnover ratios I can remember for a Shocker team. The Shocks outscored Drake 26-2 on points of turnovers.

The Shocks only had a so-so shooting game, but it turned out to be more than enough with their disruptive defense.

Haleigh led they way with 16 points, 5 assists, no turnovers and 2 steals.

Morgan celebrated her senior night with 13 points and 4 rebounds and continues to make her case for the 6th Man of the Year award.

Jazimen Gordon had 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals.

Not that it was necessarily a key but the Shocks were 12-18 from the line vs 8-14 for Drake. The Shocks move to 28-1 (8-0 this year) during Jody's tenure when they have more free throw attempts than their opponents.

Shocks are finally playing like the team we were expecting to see this year. Hopefully, the can take this show on the road next week and into the MVC Tournament the following week.

:goshocks:

[1972Shocker]

The win over MSU last week and this weeks wins over Creighton and Drake have put the Shocks into a much better position then they faced two weeks ago.

They have moved into a 5th place tie with Indiana State at 8-8 with Drake trailing them by a half game at 8-9. As these 3 teams try to stay out of the MVC play-in round heading into the final weekend of the season.

Drake has only 1 game remaining as they host 2nd place Creigthon (12-5) next Saturday.

Indiana State is on the road at 1st place UNI (15-1) and Bradley (6-10).

The Shocks travel to last place Southern Illinois (0-16) on Thursday and to 9th place Evansville (3-13) on Saturday.

The Shocks would seem to have the inside track but they must take care of business. SIU is a bad team that has lost all of its 16 MVC games so far by an average of 24 points. The only game that was not a double figure loss was a 42-48 home loss to Indiana State. The Shockers need to stay focused as they do not want to overlook SIU (like our Men apparently did a couple of weeks back).

Evansville has 2 wins over SIU. Their only other MVC win -- yep a 74-66 win over the Shocks in Koch Arena on New Year's Eve. Hopefully, this is not the same Shocker team that showed up that night.

The Shocks can accomplish several things with a strong finish on the road where, quite frankly, they have not been very good in recent years:

1. They could finish the regular season on a 5-game winning streak. Not sure when the last time that has happened.

2. They could finish alone in 5th place and match their preseason pick in the MVC race.

3. The could finish at 0.500 or better for the first time in more than a decade. (This is actaully embarrassing). The last time a Lady Shocker teams finished 0.500 or better was in the 1999-2000 season when the team went 14-4 under Darryl Smith. Personally, I think 10-8 sounds a heckuva lot better than 9-9.

4. They could continue to build momentum for the MVC Tournament and they can avoid the play-in round.

5. They can solidify their case for post-season play in the event the do not win the MVC Tournament. My guess is another CBI game. Shockers RPI is now at 126 after this weeks wins.

:goshocks:

[The Mad Hatter]

I would suggest that the rebound numbers are a bit deceptive.

We actually outrebounded Drake on the offensive boards 13-12. One of the main reasons that Drake had 13 more defensive rebounds than us is that when you force 25 turnovers, there are just a lot fewer defensive rebounds available.

On the game, we took 16 more shots than Drake, so the rebound disparity was simply a matter of us having more possessions that we got a shot off.

[1972Shocker]

That's a good point TMH. To put a litte finer point on the rebounding:

There were 32 live ball rebounds on Drake misses. Drake rebounded 12 of those and the Shocks 20.

There were 46 live ball rebounds on Shocker misses. The Shocks rebounded 13 of those and Drake 33.

So Creighton rebounded 37.5% of its misses and 71.7% of the Shocker misses.

The Shocks rebounded 28.3% of its misses and 62.5% of Creightons misses.

Overall CU captured 57.7% of the available rebounds. With all the defensive rebound opportunities avaialbe to them CU probably should have won the overall rebounding stat. However, if the Shocks had gathered in just 3 more rebounds off CU misses they would have had about identical percentages.

Still an area that the Shocks need to even out a little bit, but as you say not a huge discrepancy.

[molly jabali]

72, i have not been out to see the women play this year...my bad.Just han't worked out.But I had a friend who has seen both play say that he thinks Heights could give the Shocks a good game. I said 'pshaw'....what do you think? Farfetched?

[1972Shocker]

72, i have not been out to see the women play this year...my bad.Just han't worked out.But I had a friend who has seen both play say that he thinks Heights could give the Shocks a good game. I said 'pshaw'....what do you think? Farfetched?

I have not seen Heights play, but the jump from High School ball to D-1 Basketball is pretty big, so I doubt it.

You have to keep in mind that the competition Heights plays is not consistently good. West. for example, has a very weak team. They lost to Heights 74-7. That probably says more about West than it does about Heights, but is sure does Heights no good.

If the Shocks are forcing teams like Creighton and Drake, who typically take pretty good care of the ball, into 25 turnovers per game then my guess is their defense would give Heights fits. The speed and strength of the D-1 game would be a whole new experience for Heights IMHO.

Also, keep in mind that every player on the Shockers roster was a star or one of the top players on their high school team and the Shocks are not without good athleticism. Also, at this point the Shocks are playing their best basketball of the year.

That said I would love for some of the Heights players to sign with the Shocks and show us how good they can be at the next level on a first hand basis.

[molly jabali]

that was my thinking as well...but I thought MAYBE this HJeights team is SOOO good it might be there.I'd like them to stay home, too!