2018-19 WBB AAC Conference Games

[flyingMoose]

ECU 47-57 Shockers

The Shockers played hard and mostly well to get the win in the return matchup with the Pirates.

The Shocks led most of the first half with a 25-19 lead at the break. ECU scored the first nine points of the third quarter, but the Shocks battled back to only trail by one at the end of Q3. A strong offensive Q4 by Alyssia (9 for the game) and Jaida (12 for the game) allowed the Shockers to be well in control by the midpoint. Sabrina with 11 was the other double-digit scorer. The team shot 44% for the game despite missing four or five bunnies, especially early.

The Shockers outboarded ECU by 39-35.

The defense was quite good - some 1-3-1 zone and some 2-3 depending on the personnel. The Pirates shot only 26% for the game. They only played seven and the offensive production fell off for them in both Q2 and Q4.

Perhaps the game is starting to come to this young team.

[1972Shocker]

)(Yes, I definitely am seeing signs of improvement although this was not a particularly pretty game. The was partly due to both team playing very hard. ECU was fortunate to down only 6 at the half as the Shockers, as @flyingMosse mentioned, missed quite a few bunnies in the first half. The Shockers had very good energy in the 1st half, however, ECU had the upper hand in that area to open the 2nd half a punched the Shocks in the mouth pretty good again as @flying Moose mentioned. I thought the key to the game was the way the Ladies responded to this. Earlier in the season the Shocks probably fall apart at that point. Not tonight, the Shocks hung in their to finish the 3rd quarter down only 1 at 38-39 despite ECU being in the bonus with about 4 minutes left in the quarter. The 4th quarter pretty much belonged to the Shocks as ECU's legs seemed to go as evidenced by them making only 1 of their final 14 FG attempts.

Sabrina had a solid game with 11 points and 9 rebounds and had a couple of treys rim out on her. Nice contributions off the bench from Jaida and Alicia. I also thought Asia gave the Shocks some good minutes in the 2nd half.

As I said progress is occurring. However, the Shocks have much farther to go than they have come. The Shocks' free throw does seem to be improving quite a bit, however, the continue to struggle makiing 3 pointers. Offensive movement and cohesion is getting better but still has a ways to go. Still too many turnovers at 21 vs only 12 for ECU. Holding ECU to 25.8% shooting overcame the turnover deficit and the missed bunnies.

Enjoyed violin ensemble playing of the national anthem and the Shocker Sound Machine halftime performance.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks fall to Temple at home 40-65. Actually the Shocks were in the game at the end of the 3rd quarter trailing 39-45. But a 20-1 romp by Temple in the 4th quarter turned the game into a blowout. Actually, I thought the Shocks had done very well to be in the game after 3 quarters as to these old eye the Shocks looked to be overmatched at just about every postion in in every aspect of the game. More experienced, bigger, stronger, faster and more skilled athletes. I suspect the final quarter was largely a matter of Temple simply wearing down the young Shockers.

Temple only played 7 players. I really didn't look at how many players they had on the bench but not sure why you would play Mia Davis, who is terrrific for 39 minutes in a game like this. I guess so she could get to 30 points.

The Shocks ended up shooting 28% from the field (15%) from 3 and 50% from the line where they only had 6 attempts. The Shockers only made 3 of their 20 3-point attempts and the was with Carla hitting 2-4. Sabrina reverted to her bad habit of picking up 2 early fouls and she only played 19 minutes.

Carla with 12 and Seraphine with 11 were the only players in double figures. The next high was 4 points. Carla and Serphine combined to go 10-19 from the field (52.6%). The rest of the team was 6-38 (15.8%). The Shocks only made 12 turnovers which was probably a season low but that kind of shooting is very difficult to overcome.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks picked up their 2nd road win in the past 2 weeks with a 57-48 win at Memphis and have now won 3 of the last 4 AAC games. Still much work to do but this Memphis team beat the Shocks 71-50 in Wichita about 4 weeks ago. It wasn't a thing of beauty but at this stage of the game any win is a good win even if they don't come with style points.

Three freshman led the way for the Shockers. The Shocks got a huge and somewhat surprising boost off the bench from Trajata Colbert who has played very little this year and hasn't looked good when she did play. But Trajata scored 11 points on 5 of 7 shooting plus 1-2 from the line, grabbed 5 rebounds and blocked 2 shots in only 14 minutes which was by far her best outing especially against a team with the inside size and bulk of Memphis. Carla Bremaud lead the Shocks with 13 points on 5-9 shooting inlcuding 3-5 from the field and she grabbed 5 rebouns as well. Seraphine Bastin had 12 points on 4-5 shooting from the filed plus 4-4 from the line and also grabbed 5 rebounds from point guard position and she added 4 assists and 2 steals. 8 of Seraphine's points game in the final 5 minutes of the game as the Shocks broke open a tight game (44-43) at the time.

The Shocks outrebounded the bigger Memphis team 34-32 although they had trouble grabbing defensive boards late in the stretch but Memphis could not convert those additional chances.

The Shocks, despite the good numbers by Carla, Seraphine and Trajata still struggled overall to shoot the ball as they were 32.7% from the field including 14.3% on treys. The did knock down 9-11 free throws.

Both teams had 17 turnovers but I'm sure HCKA would like to see her team get that under 15 consistently.

It does seem like the Shocks are slowly moving in the right direction but they still have a long ways to go.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, got to give some credit to HCKA for implementing a very effective defensive strategy for for the players ability to execute it well.

[WstateU]

https://twitter.com/goshockerswbb/status/1093355717526986753?s=21

[1972Shocker]

Shocks just don't have it today at Cincy as they drop a 54-82 decision to the Bearcats.

Trajata Colbert was perhaps the bright spot again scoring 11 points on 5-7 shooting but only made 1 of 4 free throws in 16 minutes of play. She also picked up 4 personal fouls.

Sabrina added 10 points on 5-8 shooting but missed both of her free throw attempts and led the Shocks with 6 rebounds. Cesaria had 6 points on 3-5 shooting which is an offensive explosion for her.

The Shocks were a poor 9-18 from the free throw line vs 17-25 for Cincy.

Finally and perhaps most importantly Cincy won the battle of the boards 41-26.

I was able to watch the game live but was thinking I would watch the replay this evening but I'll probably just skip it.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks with probably their best half of the year lead SMU 37 - 18. Playing well on both ends of the court, getting good shots and kno
cking them down.

10 turnovers still too many. But SMU has matched that and is only shooting 5 - 31 from the field.

[1972Shocker]

As good as the Shocks were in the 1st they have been much worse in the 3rd quarter. 2 points in the 1st 9:30 before Carla hits a 3. Still lead 42 - 27.

Alyssia had a terrible 4 minute stretch to open the 3rd quarter.

[1979Shocker]

So what was with Steve Strain not knowing how to subtract? WSU had a 13-17 point lead most of the second half. When SMU cut the lead to 53-42, he kept saying that WSU now had their biggest lead of the game at 21. He never did correct it and said the lead was 21 at least twice.

[WstateU]

Actually think he mentioned it three times. Really surprised the color lady didn’t try to correct him. I was nervous we might give the game away and he had me thinking I had dementia.

[1972Shocker]

The 2nd half was about as ugly as it gets. But the Shocks manage to hold on against a bad SMU yeam that somehow best the Shocks 78-50 in Dallas earlier in the season . With the Shocks only scoring 53 points not sure if the credit for this win goes to the Shocks or to SMU.

SMU certainly has the size but they are now 2-10 in AAC play.

SMU Lisa Froling's free throw shooting is a shoo-in for the Ugly Shot Hall of Fame.

The Shockers turned the ball over 21 times but that was 8 less than SMU's 29.

50 turnovers does not an entertaining game make. After shooting 50% in the 1st half the Shocks fell off to 16.7% in the 2nd half. Reversion the mean I guess. Still the Shockers' 33% was quite a bit better than SMU's 22%.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers (11-13, 4-7) have now won 4 of their last 6 but the schedule appears to present a little tougher sledding down the stretch: vs UCF (20-4, 9-2), @USF (13-12, 4-7), vs UConn (22-2, 10-0), @Temple (9-15, 5-6) and vs Tulsa (11-13, 5-6).

If the Shocks can go 2-3 in these games then the I think they can claim some improvement over the last half of the season. If they play like the did in the 1st half of today's games they have a chance to that or more. If the play like they did in the 2nd half of today's game they will go 0-5 to finish the regular season.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks playing well at 2nd place UCF. Tied at 29 at the half.

Can the Shocks put two good halves together?

[1972Shocker]

Thanks for the correction. It is at Koch Arena.

[WstateU]

I missed the last quarter, but we were starting to leak some oil.

[Kung Wu]

"leak some oil" lol

[1972Shocker]

Shocks trailed 40-43 at the end of the 3rd quarter. But UCF scored the first 10 points of the 4th quarter to take command at 53-40 with 3:25 to play. The Shocks had 7-2 run in the final 2 minutes to make the final score a bit more respectable at 57-49.

Tough to win games when you struggle score in the low 50's or below.

The Shockers sealed their fate by scoring only 1 point between the 5:03 mark of the 3rd quarter when they lead by 2 to the 2:17 mark of the 4th quarter when they trailed by 13 (a stretch of 12 minutes and 46 seconds).

In the last 2 games they have gone scoreless in the first 9:30 and 7:43 of the 5th quarter. They survived against SMU since that had a huge lead going into the quarter but that doesn't work well in close games.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks hit a 3 pointer at the end of the 2nd quarter to pull to within 9 of USF in Tampa 25-34.

The Shocks had a 7-3 lead 4 minutes into the game. 9 minutes later at the 7:00 minute mark of the 2nd quarter it was USF 19 - Shockers 9. Actually, I have not been overly impressed with USF. I think the Shocks still have a reasonable shot to win this game but they have to avoid the long scoring droughts that seem to plague them regularly.

Shocks win the 3rd quarter 16-7 and pull even with USF at 41-all. Shocks look like the better team. Apparently USF is down a few starters due to injury. It shows.

The Shocks go cold again and can only manage 5 points in the 4th quarter. That won't win many close games. USF 55 - WSU 46 in a game closer than the final score indicates. Shocks were 1 of there last 10 shots from the field.

USF made 23 of 29 free throws. The were 2-4.

Just really hard to win games when you struggle to score 50.

[WuShock16]

Geno Auriemma won't coach the game tonight, as he is battling a stomach virus. That kinda stinks.