Shocker WBB 2019-20 Non-Conference Games

[1972Shocker]

RH: Freshman DJ McCarty Leads Shockers in Scoring

[1972Shocker]

Shocks pounding Houston Baptist 35-15 at the half. DJ McCarty is a really good looking freshman. She has 7 points on 3-5 shooting plus 2 assists and 1 steal. She should have 4 assists but the Shocks blew 2 wide open layups on perfect bounce passed from DJ (one by Maya and one by Carla).

The Shocks have totally shut down anything HBU wants to do on offense and deserve a lot of credit but quite frankly HBU looks terrible. Can't quite figure out how they beat ORU or how the Shocks lost by 13 to an ORU team that lost to HBU.

The Shocks could be up a lot more if they had shot their free throws better. The Shocks were only 11-21 from the line. So if the had shot a decent % from the line and hit the wide open layups they could easily be up by 30.

The Shocks extend their lead to 29 at 52-23 after three quarters. However, HBU goes on an 11-0 run in the first 3 minutes of the 4th quarter to cut the lead to 52-34. Did not have her starting lineuip in at the beginning of the 4th quarter. The starters are back in now.

The Shocks cruise to a 59-42 win although they lost the 4th quarter 7-19.

Shocks had 19 turnovers which is still too high, especially against a team like HBU.

The Shocks played a very effective 2-3 zone for much of the game and they out-rebounded HBU 50-37.

My player of the game was Shyia Smith who had a double-double with 10 points and 17 rebounds (11 on the offensive glass). Honorable mention to DJ McCarty.

Not a great shooting game for the Shocks. 33.9% from the field (3-12 on threes) and 18-32 (56.3%) from the line.

Shocks step up in class next Saturday as OU comes to Koch Arena for a 2:00 pm game. Fellow AAC member did beat OU 85-69 in Houston and OU also lost to Missouri State at home 90-96. OU is averaging 82 points a game so I think the challenge for the Shocks will be can they score enough to keep up with the Sooners.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Host Sooners in Post-Thanksgiving Tilt

WICHITA STATE (3-2) vs. OKLAHOMA (4-2) Saturday, November 30, 2019 • 2:00 p.m. CT

Wichita Eagle Family Day - 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 bags of popcorn and 4 drinks for only $32

SCOUTING THE SOONERS
Oklahoma is 4-2 to open the season after wins against Prairie View A&M (94-48), UAB (82- 75), Stephen F. Austin (75-62) and Abilene Christian (78-65) and losses to Missouri State (96-90) and Houston (85-69). Ana Llanusa leads three Sooners in double-figures at 19.2 points per game to go with 5.3 rebounds and 19 steals. Taylor Robertson (18.0 ppg) and Madi Williams (14.2 ppg, 11.0 rpg) round out the leading scorers. Llanusa ranks 18th nationally in steals, 33rd in steals per game, 20th in free throw attempts, 25th in points and 14th in field goal attempts. Robertson is one of the nation's top shooters, ranking 1st in 3FGM and 3FGM per game, while Williams is in the top 20 in rebounds and double-doubles.

---

Perhaps the 1st really good measuring stick as to where this team is although UNI is pretty solid . OU is picked to finish 7th in the Big 12 this year and so far, have not beaten anyone of consequence although UAB may not be too bad this year with losses to the MVC's Missouri State at home and a loss to Houston on the road. The Shocks will pay Missouri State next Wednesday in Springfield and they play at Houston in late January. The only play Houston 1 time this year. OU will be a good challenge for the Lady Shocks but they are not a top of the Big 12 juggernaut. The Shocks don't need to win this game but if they want to show they are making progress they need to at least hang with OU and keep things interesting. To do that they need to play 4 good quarters. In their last 2 games, which were both wins, the Shocks were outscored 55-18 in the 4th quarter. They are unlikely to have a big cushion after 3 quarters against the Sooners to get away with a poor finish.

OU does put some points on the board averaging 82 per game while the Shocks are averaging 66.4 per game. the Shocks score best in a transition game but they tend to bog down in the half court offense. OU shoots the ball a little better than the Shocks do overall from the field 44.7% to 41.5% and from the line at 68.6% to 64.9% but OU shoots the 3 ball much better at 37.9% to 26.5% for the Shocks and they shoot a lot more averaging 23.3 attempts per game to 13.6 attempts per game for the Shocks. 5-7 So. guard, Taylor Robertson our of McPherson, is lighting it up from behind the arc hitting 30-57 for 52.6%. The Shocks better locate her and stick to her.

Oklahoma has turned the ball over quite a bit at 19.3 time per game vs 19.0 per game for the Shocks but OU averages 16.8 assists per game to only 9.6 per game for the Shocks. OU is outrebounding their opponents by 3.0 per game while the Shocks have 1.4 per game average rebound margin.

Not an impossible task for the Shocks but they will need to play well. Right now Sophomore Shyia Smith and Freshman DJ McCarty are playing the best basketball for the Lady Shocks. Against OU we probably need those two plus 2 or 3 of Seraphine Bastin, Carla Bremaud, Maya Brewer and Mariah McCully to play well also.

[1972Shocker]

OU's game plan is to pack in on defense and force the Shocks to beat them from the outside. A good strategy considering the Shocks are shooting 26.5% from behind the arc coming into the game. But the Shocks are not going along as they have drained 7-9 from distance including a half-court buzzer beater to close out the 1st half buy Seraphine.

Shocks lead 50-37 at the half. By far their best half of the season. Now can they sustain it.

[Aargh]

With a 7-point lead, the Shox managed to give up a 6-point possession with 15 seconds left in the game.

After making 2 FT's, they got a steal on OU's last possession to hold on for the W.

[shoxlax]

Dumb foul, but a 27 foot banked three pointer was part of that equation. Great trap of their sniper at the end.

[1972Shocker]

I thought the Shock played their best game of the year although I thought they tried to take the air out of the ball way to early which I attribute to the coaching staff.. When they do that the generally get real stagnant on offense and then try to have one of their guards create a shot at the end of the shot clock by going one-on-one. Fortunately, the Shocker guard trio of DJ McCarty, Sepahine Bastin and Mariah McCully were good enough to allow the Shocks to hand on at the end of the game.

Freshman DJ McCarty continues to impress me and I think Mariah McCully is looking pretty good as well.

OU's Taylor Robertson out of McPherson is a tremendous outside shooter. I was a little disappointed the Shocks were not able to keep her a bit more under control. She ended up with 30 points including 9-16 treys. There was a pretty good contingent of OU fans I assume largely due to McPherson folks coming down to see Robertson.

The Shockers offense looked pretty good when they showed good ball and player movement. Their 14 assists to 14 turnovers is the first time this season they have come close to a 1-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. Their assists were up and their turnovers down both about 5 below their season averages coming into the game. I hope that continues. The result was a very balanced attack.

Seraphine lead the way with 16 pointa, 6 rebounds, 7 assists, no turnovers and big steal late to put the game away.

Raven had a very good game with 16 points, 8 rebounds, 1 blocked shot and only 1 turnover,

Carla had 15 points including her best three point shooting performance of the year hitting 4-6 despite only playing 20 minutes due to foul trouble.

DJ continued her very consistent stretch of games with 13 points on 5-7 shooting while chipping in 3 steals and 1 assist. She had 2 turnovers but she did a lot of the ball handling duties.

Mariah chipped in 9 points in 19 minutes of play and Maya scored 8 points in only 9 minutes of play.

The Shockers' shooting was way above the season averages coming into the game. They shot 51.7% from the field (10.2% abover dtheir season average) and they actually outshot OU from three point ranged. The Shocks made 12-22 treys for 54.5% vs 12-28 (42.9%) for OU. The Shockers 54.5% was 28% above their season average on treys and was probalby the key factor in the Shocker win. Let's hope they can keep that up.

The Shocks did have to deal with some foul trouble in this game and the bench did a good job holding things together. One thing I don't think OU can complain about is the whistle in this game.

This was a very nice win for the Lady Shocks. Next up for the Shocks is Missouri State in Springfield next Wednesday. MSU is playing very well and they knocked off this Sooner team earlier this year in Norman by 96-90 score.

A good opportunity to show that today's game was not a fluke and that they can be a good basketball team.

[1972Shocker]

Seraphine's more than half courter to end the 1st half.

A lot of highlights today. There are about a dozen more you can view here: https://twitter.com/YurViewKS

[1972Shocker]

Dumb foul, but a 27 foot banked three pointer was part of that equation. Great trap of their sniper at the end.

That was part of the equation. I wanted to check the replay before posting this but the replay confirmed what I thought I saw live at the gave, The foul by Raven Prince running over the screener occurred before Robertson released her 3 point shot. That 3-pointer should have been waved off. I am surprised they didn't check that on the replay. No doubt the banked 3 pointer that followed was simply a lucky Hail Mary attempt that happened to go in. In any case, the Shocks held it together to pull out a nice win.

[shoxlax]

DJ is a really nice player. She should have a wonderful career here. Has a pretty high basketball IQ and is mature for a freshman. Great kid too.

[1972Shocker]

If you had told me that OU would outscore the Shocks 22-9 in fast break points I would have given the Shocks very little chance of winning this game. In the Shocks win over LaTech on the road they scored 88 points but 25 of those were fast break points and 23 were from the line and they were only 4-16 on treys.

This was the 1st game this year that the Shocks looked good in their half court offense resulting in the best field goal shooting performance of the season so far plus the did a better job of taking care of the ball. The Shockers had 26 turnovers in the LaTech game and only 14 against OU which was also a big factor.

At this point the OU game would have to be considered an aberration for this Shocker team. The challenge going forward will be to show that they have figured some things out and make the OU game more of the standard. They won't always shoot the ball as well but they did show they can shoot the ball if they are willing to work their offense and play team ball. We'll see how it goes.

The Shocks have 7 games left in the non-conference portion of the schedule. 4 of those they should be favored to win. Home games with Eastern Michigan, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, and Grambling State and neutral site game against Montana State. They will be the underdogs in 3 games. Road games at Missouri State and Creighton and a neutral site game against Virginia Tech. Of these 3 games Virginia Tech may be the best shot at a win. Missouri State and Creighton are probably the 2 toughest teams on their non-con schedule. We will find out a lot more about this team after we see how they do against MSU, Creighton and VaTech.

[RoyalShock]

I coached Taylor Robertson in 1st grade. She learned her outside shot from me.




Ok, only one of those things is true.


It was a co-ed team and even with her non-shooting arm in a cast she was our best player.

[1972Shocker]

I coached Taylor Robertson in 1st grade. She learned her outside shot from me.




Ok, only one of those things is true.


It was a co-ed team and even with her non-shooting arm in a cast she was our best player.

You sure as heck got her off to a good start. She can really stroke it and she gets her shot off pretty quickly as well.

[1972Shocker]

McCarty, Smith Snag Weekly Honors

Wichita State freshman guard DJ McCarty was named the American Athletic Conference Freshman of the Week and sophomore forward Shyia Smith picked up her first honor roll selection on Monday.

McCarty, a DeSoto, Texas native, averaged 12.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists on 47.4 percent shooting in Wichita State's two wins last week that included a home win over Oklahoma on Saturday. She opened the week with a team-high 12 points, while adding three rebounds, three assists and two steals against Houston Baptist and finished with a 13-point, 3-assists outing against the Sooners. McCarty leads the team in scoring at 11.3 points per game and has scored 10 or more points in three straight games and four this season (leads team).

Smith is coming off her first career double-double when she tallied 10 points and a career-high 17 rebounds against Houston Baptist. Her 17 rebounds were a career high and the most by a Shocker since Sabrina Lozada-Cabbage had 17 on Feb. 19, 2017. In Wichita State's two wins, Smith averaged 6.0 points and 11.5 rebounds on 50 percent shooting. She has grabbed six or more rebounds in four straight games.

[1972Shocker]

Four-Game Win Streak on the Line at No. 22 Missouri State

On Wednesday, December 4th at 6:00 pm the Lady Shocks face the 2nd consecutive challenging opponent as the head to Missouri State to face a very good 7-1 Bears team.

SCOUTING THE LADY BEARS
Missouri State is 7-1 and ranked No. 19 in the USA Today/WBCA Coaches Poll and No. 22 in the AP. The Lady Bears own wins over No. 23 Minnesota, Texas A&M CC, Boise State, Oklahoma, Santa Clara, South Dakota and UMKC. Their lone loss came to the hands of No. 7 Oregon State. Alexa Willard leads the Missouri State attack, averaging 19.4 points on 52.6 percent shooting, while also connecting on 57.6 percent of her attempts from long range. Willard ranks in the top 10 nationally in 3-point percentage (3rd) and FG made (5th). Brice Calip averages 13.6 points and has dished out 26 assists. Jasmine Franklin anchors the frontcourt with a team-best 9.1 rebounds per game, 14 steals and 10 blocks.

---

Somehow the Shockers edged MSU at home 63-60 in the 2nd game the regular season last year. MSU's shooting in that game was really bad and I think the Shockers lucked out a bit to catch them on such a bad shooting night. Last year the Lady Bears got off to a very slow start losing the first of 2 exhibition games to Central Missouri before losing their season opener to an extremely young Shocker team and they started the season off 1-7 However, from that point on the caught fire finishing the season winning 24 of 27 games going 16-2 in the Valley, winning the Valley post-season tournament and NCAA auto-bid and earing an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament. In the NCAA they beat 6 seed DePaul 89-78, 3 seed Iowa State 69-60 to advance to the Sweet 16 where they lost a very competitive game to 2 seed Stanford 46-55.

Not sure what triggered the turnaround and big run for the Lady Bears but they seem to have carried over that confidence and high level of play to this season.

The Shockers are also facing another very good three-point shooting team for the 2nd straight game. The Lady Bears shoot 42.0% from three and average about 18.5 attempts per game. Like Oklahoma the are lead by one of the nation's best three point shooters in Sr. Alexa Willard who is 19-33 (57.65) on the year. However, Alexa does not put up as many attempts as Taylor Robertson does. However, Alexa is a match up nightmare. She is a long, athletic, skilled 6-2 guard that can go inside just as easily as outside. If the Shockers stick with their recent smaller starting lineup Alexa will be taller than any of the Shocks' starting five. In addition. MSU starts a 6-4 big body Jr, at center and a very athletic 6-1 So., Jasmine Franklin at forward. Brice Calip is a physically strong 5-8 Jr. guard. MSU does rely more on the starting 5 for minutes and production that the do the Shocks. HCKA may be forced to go bigger against more against MSU but her best big, Trajata Colbert, has been out under concussion protocol and has missed the last 4 games. So that pretty much leaves So. Asia Henderson and Fr. Ashlei Kirven as our options to go bigger if Trajata is not available.

I expect that with the way MSU finished last season and they way the have started this year they will have a big, boisterous crowd cheering them on. Furthermore, MSU has a significant advantage in experience.

MSU, like OU, is a pretty high scoring team averaging 77.6 points per game. It remains to be seen if the Shocks will be able to duplicate their high scoring effort against OU which they will probably need to stay with MSU. So far that game is the outlier among the 6 they have played. If the Shocks play mostly a man-to-man defense I imagine the primary job of trying to slow down Willard will fall to Carla and Maya who both give up 3 inches in height to the 6-2 Willard.

One tongue in cheek comment. Hopefully, the Shockers' team chemistry is still intact. Last night on the HCKA's radio show Steve Strain interviewed Seraphine Bastin who is best buds with Carla Bremaud. Seraphine from french speaking part of Belgium and Carla from France. Strain asked Seraphine what the most annoying think Carla does. Seraphine, in her french accent, siad that she farts and it really stinks.


Strain had no idea where to go with that. Seraphine made a nice recovering when asked what Carla's best traits were. Hopefully, Carla and Seraphine are still talking.

Maybe Carla can use that annoyance to her advantage when guarding Willard.