Shocks 66 - Winthrop 42

[tgcshock]

Shocks remain undefeated at home by posting what it probably their most impressive win of the season against a Winthrop team that came in at 8-3 and who were ranked 2nd in the nation in field goal percentage defense and top 30 in scoring defense.

Shocks really got it rolling on offense in the second half and played very good defense throughout the game. You could see the Winthrop players become visibly frustrated on the sideline. Kyrie Kinder did a particularly good job on Winthrop's leading scorer Rodd who holds the school record for thre pointers and who is shooting 44% from beyond the arc this year. Rodd ended up with only one basket (a two pointer).

The Shocks will begin Valley play on the road against two of the tougher teams in the conference, Creighton and Drake. Getting a win in one of those buildings would be a great way to start conference play.

[molly jabali]

as a constant critic, i will give credit where credit is due...good win, girls and jane....

[SubGod22]

Hopefully a sign that the ladies are figuring some things out and will continue to improve. Sounded like a lot of players playe well

[1972Shocker]

I thought the Ladies played very well for the last 30 minutes of the game.

However, I am still not quite sure how this team is going to do in the MVC.

To be perfectly honest I was not all that impressed with Winthrop. I'm sure part of that had to do with the play of the Shocks.

My preseason prediction for the Shocks was 7-5. I figured they would sweep the home games due to a weak home schedule and I thought they might steal one game on the road, either at UTSA, NMS or perhaps one of the Paradise Jam Games. In any case, record wise the Shocks at 6-6 are about where I thought they would be. The weak home schedule and good road schedule makes it a little hard to evaluate exactly where we are.

I predicted they would go 5-13 in the MVC, but I think their is pretty good chance they will do better than that. For one thing I think some of the teams in the MVC are weaker than expected and I think the Shocks have definitely made some improvement.

Offensively, they have looked much better that past two games. Apparently, Jane and her staff have decided the Shocks need to play a more up tempo pace to be effective and it seems to be agreeing with them. Jacie Hoyt in particular seems to like it.

Freshman Samantha Smith and Jenn DeGarmo look to be solid players and are contributing good minutes. Samantha especially has been imppressive. I remember someone disparaging Samantha as being slow and unathletic when we signed her. I don't see that at all. Also, she is very strong physically for a young player.

I thought the play of last night's game was Samantha's no-look, wrap-around post-to-post pass to Marcy for a wide open layup. That showed a lot of court awareness and basketball I.Q.

We will get an idea very quickly about how competitive we will be in the MVC as we take on Creighton and pre-season favorite Drake on the road the first week of January.

Creighton is 6-4 with a game remaining with ORU tonight before the January 4th game with the Shockers. However, they have played a pretty strong schedule. Their 4 losses are on the road to #6 Rutgers, a road loss to Kansas, a road lost to Nebraska and a road loss to Iowa State. The most impressive win is their last game, a 69-62 home win over Kansas State.

K-State was coming off a 90-52 win over Texas State. The same Texas State team that the Shocks rallied to defeat 80-77.

Drake is 6-4 and may not be playing quite as well as I expected. The only common opponent with the Shocks is Western Illinois. Drake defeated WIU on the road by a score of 77-58. The Shocks defeated WIU at home by a score of 65-62.

I would not expect the Shocks to win either one of these games. However, if they can be competitive with these teams on the road, that woulde bode well for their chances of finshing much stronger than expected in the MVC race.

An upset win in either of these two games would be a great way to begin the conference season.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu:

[ballerfan]

Anxious for Valley play to start and see where we are at.

I agree with Freshman contributions...Sam Smith has consistently pulled down rebounds and getting better shooting touch...if allowed DeGarmo has potential to get in her rythym and contribute big.

Team chemistry still seems to be questionable. :wsu_posters:

[tgcshock]

as a constant critic, i will give credit where credit is due...good win, girls and jane....

Classy post.

[1972Shocker]

Just now looked at the Box Score from the Winthrop game.

I did not get to follow the game real closely while in progress, but after looking at the Box Score it seems to me the Shocker bench should get more than a little credit for last nights 24-point win over Winthrop.

Here are some of the relevant stats:

WSU Starters 32 Points -- Winthrop Starters 31 Points
WSU Bench 34 Points -- Winthrop Bench 11 Points

WSU Starters shot 11-39 (28.2%) including 1-5 (20.0%) on treys.
WSU Bench shot 12-25 (48.0%) including 5-12 (41.7%) on treys.

WSU Starters 24 Rebounds
WSU Bench 26 Rebounds

WSU Starters played 112 minutes combined
WSU Bench played 88 minutes combined

The starting 5 was very solid at the charity stripe going a perfect 9-9. This was one area the bench was not strong in going a poor 5-12.

A good team effort by the Shocks with special kudos to the bench for a very productive night.

Kyrie Kinder had a solid game and deserves special kudos for handing out 5 assists and with no turnovers in 24 minutes of play. In fact, the 15 assist to 15 turnover ratio is perhaps the Shockers best of the year in that category.

:posterwu: :goshocks: :posterwsu: