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Originally posted by 1972Shocker
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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.
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.
I'm sorry, but that was a bad question for Steve to ask... what did he expect?
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