Shocker WBB 2019-20 Non-Conference Games

[1972Shocker]

McCully's Big Week Lands Her on Weekly Honor Roll

Mariah McCully, a Grand Rapids, Mich. native, averaged 19.0 points, 2.0 assists and 1.5 steals on 43.8 percent shooting in Wichita State's two games last week. She opened the week with a then-career high 13 points in 22 minutes off the bench against No. 18 Missouri State, and finished in a big way. She poured in a career-best 25 points on 8-of-18 shooting, while adding a career-high three steals in the win over Eastern Michigan.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks are struggling offensively at Creighton only scoring 25 points in the 1st half but the Shocks defense has been outstanding and they lead at the half 25-19.

The Shocks have forced 12 Creighton turnovers which is 2 more than Creighton averages in a full game this year.

The Shocks are only 8-31 (25.8%) from the field but Creighton is only 6-25 (24.0%).

The Shocks are 9-10 from the line while Creighton was only 2-4.

While Creighton has 12 turnovers, the Shockers who turn the ball over around 18 times a game only have 2 turnovers.

I expect Creighton will pick up the pace on offense in the 2nd half and the Shocks will need to do the same.

DJ McCarty goes down early in the 2nd half with what looks to be a pretty severe ankle sprain.

Shocks built a 10-point lead in the 3rd quarter at 33-23 but could not keep it going and the lead narrows to 3 at 35-32 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Shocks gave up a 5-point play after pushing the lead to 10. Similar to what the did against OU at the end of the game.

Shocks all of a sudden leaving Creighton shooters wide open and Creighton is up 43-37 with 7:15 to go.

The Shocker defense continues to implode in the 4th quarter. Creighton 5-6 from three, all wide open and now leads 51-39 with 4:47 remaining.

Final: Creighton 56 - Shocks 46

In the final 13 minutes of the game Creighton outscored the Shocks 33 - 13.

Shocks were 20-23 from the free throw line and only turned it over 10 times but the were only 13-55 (23.6%) from the field including 0-13 on treys.

Freshman post Ashlei Kirven had a career high 7 points includig 5-5 from the line after shooting only 2-8 from the line previously. But Ashlei is extremely raw and needs a lot of refinement. Hopefully, that will happen. At this point the Shocks are getting very little out of their post players.

Mariah McCully lead the Shocks with 14 points. Ashlie followed with her 7 points.

Losing DJ who was in a boot the 2nd half is a big loss. No word on how bad her ankle is but it looked pretty severe on the replay.

The Shockers have better athletes than Creighton. Creighton has better basketball players.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers are playing their annual guaranteed win Schoolhouse Screams game today against 0-7 Arkansas- Pine Bluff except that this year there are no school kids in attendance since school was cancelled today due to the weather.

I suppose the best thing about this game is you can usually play the bottom half of you roster quite a bit and get them some game time experience. That is true today.

The Shockers lead 57-23 at the half. APB has turned the ball over 18 times in the 1st half while shooting 25% from the field and 53% from the free throw line.

Final Score: Shockers 100 - Arkansas-Pine Bluff 50

The Shockers scored 100 points on only 28 made baskets. The Shocks had 35 fast break points and made 36-45 (80%) free throws. The Shockers also made 8-18 (44.4%) on treys which is very good for them. Vendela Danielsson scored her first 10 points as a Shocker making 3-7 treys and 1-2 from the line. Vendela looks similar to Carla in that she has a nice shot when she is open and has time but she can't create her own shot. She got a bunch of good looks today but generally the Shocker's half court offense has not be good at creating open looks for Carla this year.

The biggest negative for the Shockers is that they committed 22 turnovers which is too many against this level of competition.

DJ McCarty (ankle - still in a boot), Trajata Colbert (concussion - 8th straight game) and Jaida Hampton (shoulder injury I think) did not play today. All 12 of the players who did play got on the scoreboard except Raven Prince who failed to score in her 9 minutes of play. Asia Henderson and 12 rebounds in 20 minutes of play. Pretty much the equivalent of an exhibition game.

Shocks now head to Puerto Rico for games against Montana State on Friday and Virginia Tech on Sunday. Should be two decent games. I think Montana State will be a pick-em game. The Shocks will be the underdog against Virginia Tech.

The Shocks are then off until December 30th when they take on Grambling State (currently 0-6 in D-1 games) in a final non-con warm-up before opening AAC play at UConn on January 2nd.

[1972Shocker]

Checked in briefly on the Lady Shocks game with Montana State in Puerto Rico. Despite only making 10-22 free throws the Shocks are up 52-46 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

From the 5:00 minutes or so I watched the Shocks look to have both a size and an athleticism advantage in this game..The Shocks jumped out to an 8 point lead in the 1st quarter and lead by 14 midway through the 2nd quarter.

Shocks should win this one but they have had 4th quarter issues in a few games this year so hopefully that will not be the case today.,

Montana State has forged into the lead at 60-58 with 3:38 remaining. Montana State's first lead of the game since 2-0.

Carla ties it up at 64-all on a long three-pointer with 37 seconds remaining. Montana State hold the ball for most of the next possession but air ball a wild shot for a shot clock violation. The Shocks have a final possession with 6.4 seconds remaining.

Mariah received the inbounds pass drove to the middle of the lane and left her jumper short but the ball came right back to her and she dropped in in for the lead with 1.6 seconds left. Montana State got the ball at half court after a timeout and got a pretty good look on a three pointer but left it short. Shocks win 66-64.

The Shocks probably made this closer that it should have been with their 13-27 performance from the free throw line but as it was they were very fortunate to pull out the win to move to 7-4 on the season.

[shoxlax]

Quite the finish for the win.

[1972Shocker]

Had you told me before the game that the Shocks would force Virginia Tech into 23 turnovers while only committing 11 of their own I would have thought the Shocks would have been competitive in this game. Unfortunately, the Shocks ran into a bit of a buzz saw today as VaTech shot 49.1% from the field including a blazing 18-30 (60%) on treys. By contrast the Shock shot 36.1% from the field and only 3-13 (23.1%) on treys. Both teams shot well from the free throw line.

VaTech did dominate the board 42-26.

One bright note for the Lady Shocks was freshman Ashlei Kirven who had a career high 12 points on 5-10 from the filed and 2-2 from the line plus she grabbed 7 rebounds in 17 minutes of play.

The Shocks drop to 7-5 on the season with one OOC game left against Grambling State on Monday, December 30th which they should win to warm up for AAC play where they will travel to UConn and get that out of the way right off the bat.

[1972Shocker]

Watched a replay of the Virginia Tech game today. Played in pretty much en empty gym. The box score said attendance of 100 but it was probably closer to 10 if that. I could only see the half of the arena opposite the teams and only saw 1 person in the stands. Good have been a handful for each team behind the benches but they weren't making much noise. I am pretty sure there were more sponsor decals on the court than there were fans in the stands.

The Shocks got off to a good start jumping out to a 6-0 lead. The Shocks were still close at 26-28 with 4:30 remaining in the half. At the very end of the half VaTech missed a shot, looked like Shyia had the rebound, but lost control of the ball and VaTech picked it up and put it the basket at the buzzer to give VaTech a 40-34 lead. Maya had 10 points for the Shocks.

The Shocks traded points with VaTech for the first 5:30 of the 2nd half to trail 44-50 but at that points also put VaTech into the bonus with their 5th foul of the quarter and at that point VaTech began to pull away. A VaTech 3 pointer at the end of the quarter put VaTech up 14 at 62-48 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

VaTech continued to scorch the nets from 3 in the 4th quarter ans they pulled away for the 84-63 win.

You look at the box score and see VaTech shot 30 treys and turned the ball over 23 times and you would think they were a bunch of run and gun chuckers but actually they were the opposite. The ran a terrific motion offense with great ball movement and very little dribbling and they were very patient. They were outstanding at penetrating and kicking out to open shooters. Just about every basket that made was a relatively uncontested layup or uncontested 3-pointer. Shot very few mid-range shots. I think all 30 of their trey attempts were wide open, unforced and in rhythm. Still you have to make then and they did that hitting 18 of the 30. The Shocks offense on the other hand still tends to be a bit sticky and sluggish although the Shocks simply do not have the snipers that VaTech has. Coming into the game VaTech was averaging 7.6 made threes per game on an average of 20.4 attemtps for 37.3%. So they clearly had an exceptional game shooting the ball but the Shocks contributed to that with their inability to guard the 3 point line.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks had 3 players who did not play in Puerto Rico. Trajata Colbert who has now missed 10 games (concussion I think), DJ McCarty (ankle) and Jaida Hampton (shoulder I think).

Getting Trajata and DJ back healthy, in particular, would be a big help for the Shocks.

At this point I think Trajata and Ashlei KIrven are the Shocks' best pieces in the post. Freshman KIrven seems to be catching on and after hitting just 2 of her first 8 collegiate free throw attempts she has now hit 10 of her last 11 attempts.

DJ may have been the Shocks best all around player when she went down with her ankle injury.

[New2Wu]

The Shocks had 3 players who did not play in Puerto Rico. Trajata Colbert who has now missed 10 games (concussion I think), DJ McCarty (ankle) and Jaida Hampton (shoulder I think).

Getting Trajata and DJ back healthy, in particular, would be a big help for the Shocks.

At this point I think Trajata and Ashlei KIrven are the Shocks' best pieces in the post. Freshman KIrven seems to be catching on and after hitting just 2 of her first 8 collegiate free throw attempts she has now hit 10 of her last 11 attempts.

DJ may have been the Shocks best all around player when she went down with her ankle injury.

Shocks could have definitely used all three in PR for the VT game. You're discounting Hampton but can't forget that she was Duel in Desert All Tournament Team and team leading scorer last year eight times before probably being hampered with knee injury. Hopefully the Shocks can have a full roster come conference play and make some real noise in the AAC.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks could have definitely used all three in PR for the VT game. You're discounting Hampton but can't forget that she was Duel in Desert All Tournament Team and team leading scorer last year eight times before probably being hampered with knee injury. Hopefully the Shocks can have a full roster come conference play and make some real noise in the AAC.

I'm not forgetting anything but this is about this year's team and objectively Jaida has not played much nor been much of a factor this year although I am not sure exactly what the reasons for that are. Could be she had dealt with health or injury issues all year so far. The bottom line though is that she has not been much of a factor this year even when she has played. I would love to see Jaida live up to her high school accolades but so far I haven't seen it. If it is mostly a matter of overcoming some health/injury issues I hope she can put those behind her soon but at this point I am not sure whose minutes she would displace although I'm sure HCKA would find the minutes if Jaida proves worthy. Jaida could still qualify for a medical redshirt if whatever is affecting her is serious enough.

[New2Wu]

I'm just hoping they can have a whole healthy team. Not sure about a medical redshirt for Jaida, thought it was just a shoulder injury. But I guess at this point both Jaida and Trajata could probably qualify for a medical redshirt if needed. As far as minutes there is still a lot inconsistent play at almost all spots, so if Jaida and Trajata could prove themselves worthy I think those minutes could very well be up for grabs. DJ most def should return to starting line up once she is 100%

[1972Shocker]

Obviously, any injury to Jaida or Trajata would have to be serious enough to be season ending before a medical redshirt comes into play. I would hope Trajata's concussion is not that serious. I doubt Jaida's injury is that serious although I have no idea what her exact injury is. I agree that DJ will certainly be back from a sprained ankle.

Not sure why Asia did not play against Virginia Tech. She played 13 minutes against Montana State.

The Shocks should handle Grambling State (0-9 in D-1 games with an RPI of 301) on Monday. But it would be nice to have as many of our players back as possible to get a little playing time before opening the AAC season next Thursday at UConn.

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers coasrted to a 77-65 win over Grambling State tonight at Koch Arena in a game that wasn't as close as the final score shows.

The Shocks jumped out to a 25-5 lead after the 1st quarter behind 11 points off the bench from Maya Brewer and poor shooting and sloppy play by Grambling. The Shocks extended that lead to 28 points at 47-19 at the half.

The Shocks extended their lead to 36 points at 64-28 with 4 minutes remaining in the 3rd quarter. However, the Shocks only scored 2 more over the final 4 minutes of the quarter but still led by 31 points at 66-35 at the end of the 3rd quarter.

The Shocks scored their final basket of the game on a layup by Mariah McCully with 4:20 remaining in the game at which point the led by 30 at 77-47. An 18-0 run by Grambling against a mix of regulars and deep reserves to close out the game made the final score 77-65.

HCKA should be very pleased with the first 26 minutes of the game but I don't think she will be too happy with getting outscored by 37-13 over the final 14 minutes of the game especially with UConn on the horizon.

Mariah lead the Shocks with 18 points and 5 steals, Carla chipped in 13 points including 3-5 on treys and added a couple of steals and Maya added 11 points and 3 steals (all in the 1st quarter I believe), Shyia had a nice game with 9 points on 3-4 shooting and led the Shocks with 7 rebounds and Ashlei had 5 rebounds in only 7 minutes of playing time.

DJ McCarty, Trajata Cobert and Jaida Hampton are still out with injuries.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks finish up the non-conference portion of their schedule at 8-5 which is pretty much in line with what I was expecting. The picked up an unexpected win over Oklahoma but that more or less offset a loss earlier in the season at Oral Roberts.

The Shocks are picked to finish 9th in the AAC this year and they open conference play at powerhouse UConn on Thursday, January 2nd.

I think the Shocks have a decent chance to finish better than 9th in the AAC mostly because I don't think the AAC is that strong this year outside of UConn. The AAC is ranked 9th in conference RPI (the Valley is 7th) and that is with UConn ranked #1 in RPI. The only other Top 100 RPI teams are UCF at 55 and Temple at 67. The Shocks RPI ranking fell 14 spots to 143 despite the win over Grambling State. I think the league is pretty wide open behind UConn but time will tell if the Shocks can move up the pecking order a bit.

OU, which has been playing better recently, took a 3-game winning streak over LSU (90-68), Sam Houston State (95-71) and a good Drake team (93-84) on the road agains UConn on December 22nd and came away bloodied by the Huskies in 53-97 loss. In 2017 the Shockers took a senior laden team into UConn and lost by 81 (124-43). Last year the Shocks lost by 37 (84-47) in Koch Arena with a very young and inexperienced team. Hopefully, the Shocks will be able to stay with in 30 to 40 points this year and not get anyone hurt in the process. Anything better closer than 30 points would be a moral victory.

[flyingMoose]

The Shocks scored their final basket of the game on a layup by Mariah McCully with 4:20 remaining in the game at which point the led by 30 at 77-47. An 18-0 run by Grambling against a mix of regulars and deep reserves to close out the game made the final score 77-65.

A combination of major struggles against a 2-2-1 press then insisting on playing 1-on-5 if they got past half-court. The starters did not handle the press that well either.