Shocker WBB 2019-2020 AAC Conference Games

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks open up the season the hard way taking on #1 UConn on the road.

I will be out-of-pocket the rest of this evening but just checked the live stats and see the score is 10-1 3 minutes into the game. BTW, that is WSU 10 - UConn 1. Probably won't hold but impressive start for the Shocks.

[ShockTalk]

It didn't. UConn 83-55.

McCully lead the Shocks with 16 followed by Bremaud 13 and Smith 10. Together, they shot 15-30 FG / 7-9 3pt.

We had only 9 assists and 20 TOs, but did have 10 steals.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks lose 83-55 but that is a bit deceptive. The Shocks, after trailing by 19 at half, cut the lead to 10 at 63-53 with 6:20 left which apparently pissed Geno off. After a time out UConn closed out the game on a 20-2 run.

I had previously posted that anything under a 30 point loss would be a moral victory. I think this qualifies especially compared to the 81 point beat down UConn laid on the Shocks 2 years ago.

The Shocks got pounded on the boards pretty bad and UConn got to the line much more than the Shocks.

One thing Auriema doesn't do is call off the dogs although that's hard for him to do with his roster. Unfortunately the game got away from the Shocks late.

[flyingMoose]

UConn: 21 assists on 28 buckets

Shockers: 9 on 20

[WuDrWu]

Watched most of the 2nd half on SNY or something like that. Some impressive open floor play by the Shocks. They cut it to 10 and it was legit. I'm not saying the game was ever in doubt, but our pressure had sped them up and we were converting in the open court and making athletic plays that maybe we shouldn't have been making. There were some homerish calls after that (over the back o rebound not called, clear hooking foul not called, 2 illegal screens not called) again, not saying the outcome would change, but while we were taking a lot of contact trying to go to the basket (admittedly out of control sometimes) with no calls, UCONN had a parade to the line. All of a sudden, 10 was 15, and became 25 in no time. Really gutty effort by our ladies if you ask me. UCONN isn't that deep but they are top notch in the first 6 or 7 and nobody has beat them yet. Shocks aren't ready for them yet, but they've made strides.

[1972Shocker]

Haven't watched a game replay yet. Maybe tonight. In looking at the box score it looks like Carla, Mariah, Shyia and Seraphine all had solid, very competitive games.

Carla, Mariah and Shyia combined for 39 of the Shocker 55 points on 15-30 from the field including an excellent 7-9 on treys. Unfortunately, only Maria Seraphine were able to get to the line where they were 4-4. Seraphine did not score a lot but did hand out 4 assists with only 2 turnovers and also had 2 steals.

Unfortunately, the rest of the Shocks were only 5-22 from the floor (0-4 on treys) and 4-7 from the line.

I'm sure UConn's athlietic 6-5 post, Olivia Nelson-Ododa, had a major impact on this game with her rebounding and perhaps mostly with her rim protection (7 blocks and who knows how altered shots). The Shocks simply are not very strong in the post this year and certainly haven't faced a player like Ododa this year.

The Shocks just got killed on the boards 41-23. As flyingMoose pointed out UConn, despite having WNBA talent, plays great team ball dishing out 21 assists on 28 baskets. The other big discrepancy was at the free throw line where UConn was 19-27 vs the Shocks 8-11. Again having Ododa available for rim protection perhaps gives UConn the luxury of not being overly aggressive on defense.

DJ, Trajata and Jaida continue to be MIA. It would have been nice to have a healthy DJ in this one who is perhaps the Shocks best athlete and was playing well when she went down with her ankle injury. Maybe Trajata would have provided some help on the boards although that is hard to say. She has only played in 2 games this year and has missed the last 12 games with a concussion I believe. That must be a very significant concussion she is dealing with.

In it's previous game UConn beat Oklahoma, who had been playing better since losing to the Shocks, by 44 points. Looks like UConn will finish their tenure in the AAC without ever losing in conference play.

If the Shocks can get healthy and stay healthy I think they have a fighting chance in all their remaining AAC games. I think a reasonable goal would be to win 7 or 8 of their remaining 15 games with the possibility of doing a little bit better than that. Last year 7 wins would have tied for 5th place. We'll see.

[1972Shocker]

Watched the replay of the UConn game last night. A game where the teams alternated playing spurts. The Shocks certainly gave it the ol' college try but simply were outgunned. Unfortunately, the bottom kind of fell out over the final 6:00 minutes of the game after the Shocks had pulled to within 10.

One thing that did catch my attention that I did not pick up from the box score was that Seraphine did not play the final 13:40 of the game. Ashley Reid played the point during that stretch. It did not look like Seraphine was injured. She did have 3 fouls when she went to the bench. She was pulled shortly after an unforced turnover but that was only her 2nd turnover of the game. The Shocks did make their final run to pull within 10 with Ashley at the point, however, that run was largely fueled by the play of Mariah McCully.

Seraphine ended up playing 24 minutes and Ashley 22. Neither scored much (Seraphine 4 and Ashley 3). Seraphine had 4 assists and 2 turnovers. Ashely had 1 assist and 4 turnovers. Both had 2 steals. I guess will find out on Monday against Tulane this means anything.

[1972Shocker]

Shocks hosting Tulane today in Koch Arena

The Shocks jumped out to a 12-3 lead but then Tulane took over hitting 3-4 treys and helped by sloppy Shocker play and poor rebounding has a 19-16 lead at the end of the 1st quarter. Maya Brewer was really bad in her 4 minutes off the bench. Shyia Smith on the bench with 2 fouls.

The Shocks trail 28-34 at the half. Giving up a lot of good looks from the perimeter, Tulane is 6-13 on treys. The Shocks are 2-10 including 0-4 by little used Vendela Danielsson. The Shocks are only 4-7 from the line but fortnately Tulane is worse at 4-10.

Seraphine Bastin was getting to the hole regularly early in the game. But then Tulane switched to a zone and the Shockers did not handle that well.

Trajata Colbert did see her 1st action since the 2nd game of the season and had a nice offensive rebound and put back. DJ McCarty and Jaida Hampton are still out.

The American Digital Network video stream is not very good.
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The Shock use their defense and do a better job on the boards to get back in the game as they lead 42-41 at the end of the 3rd quarter although they still don't look very good on offense outside of Serpahine and Mariah. Shocks have absolutely no presence in the post. Anyone's game heading into the final quarter.

Shocks don't have it and fall to Tulane 56-61 and looked like a 9th place team (at best) in doing so. It didn't help that Shya fouled out with 5 minutes remaining but you don't win many close games when you finish it off shooting 1-11 from the field. The Shocks missed a lot of shots around the basket.

Shocks could really use DJ back in the mix and I think it would also be useful to have Jaida healthy in order to spell Shyia.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Seek First Conference Win at ECU Sunday

Wichita State heads back to the East Coast for a Sunday matinee against the ECU Pirates at 12 p.m. CDT on the American Digital Network.

SCOUTING THE PIRATES
ECU enters the matchup at 3-12 overall and 0-2 in league play. The Pirates are riding an eight-game losing streak after losses to UCF (91-55) and SMU (55-47) to open American Athletic Conference play. Lashonda Monk does it all for the Pirates, leading ECU in scoring (15.1), assists (45), steals (59) and tied for third in rebounding (3.9). Monk is always near the top of the NCAA rankings in steals and that hasn't changed this season. She is fourth nationally in steals and steals per game (3.93). Raven Johnson pulls down a team-best 8.3 rebounds per game. As a team, ECU ranks second in the country in turnovers forced, third in steals and steals per game and fifth in turnover margin. On the offensive end, the Pirates have struggled scoring. They only average 56.4 points per game on 34.8 percent shooting and 26.0 percent from beyond the arc.

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This is a game the Shockers should win. ECU has the worst RPI ranking in the AAC at #233. After a disappointing loss at home to beatable Tulane team this game is pretty much a must win game for the Shocks. A loss to ECU, even on the road, would not bode well for this season.

Hopefully, DJ McCarty is close to being able to go although it may take her awhile to get back into game shape and gain confidence on that ankle. Hard to say how long it will take her to get back to form.

Trajata is available and should provide some help to the Shocks on the boards. Not sure what Jaida's status is.

[pogo]

Not to go off topic but I met Kelli Bagley a WBB assistant coach the other day. Young woman with her son wearing Shocker gear and I asked "going to the game tonight?" She responded yes and that she was a coach for the women's team. Asked if I went to any women's games and I replied not many. She than told me she would be looking for me at the next game. Talk about pressure. I will go and try to get her attention to show her I followed up. Her son has got to be one of the cutest kids and well mannered to boot. The young man is super friendly and does a great fist bump. I would estimate he is 1 1/2 but probably a little older. See you at the game Kelli

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers pulled away from a 47-all tie in the final 6:30 of the game to pull out a 61-53 win in the battle for the basement at ECU.

The Shocks won the game at the free throw line where they were 28-40 vs 9-20 for ECU.

There were a total of 51 turnovers in the game. 27 by the Shocks and 24 by ECU.

With all the fouls and turnovers that had to be one fugly game.

The Shocks did get one off their better efforts from their post players as Trajata and Asia combined for 19 points on 8-11 shooting although they were only 3-8 from the free throw line. They also grabbed 12 rebounds and committed no turnovers despite the Shocks turning it over 27 times.

Mariah, Carla, Raven and Maya struggled as they combined to go 2-22 from the floor.

DJ McCarty played 9 minutes so hopefully she is on her way back.

Jaida Hampton is still on the shelf.

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers are hosting Tulsa tonight in Koch Arena and off to a horrendous start trailing 4-16 at the end of the 1st quarter. The Shocks are 2-14 from the field and have 5 turnovers and no assists.

[New2Wu]

This game is just as, if not harder to watch, than the ECU game. And I didn’t think that was possible!!!

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers are a little better in the 2nd quarter and Tulsa not as good as the 1st quarter but Tulsa does extend their lead by 1 to 28-15 at the half.

The Shocks are 7-29 (24.1%) from the field and only 1-8 on treys and they did not get to the free throw line in the 1st half after shooting 40 free throws against ECU. The Shocks turned the ball over 5 more times in the 2nd quarter to raise that total to 10 for the game.

Tulsa is 4-9 on treys and 6-8 from the free throw line. Former South High standout Kendrian Elliott, a 6-2 senior forward, leads the way for Tulsa with 13 points and 7 rebounds.

Actually, the Shocks are fortunate to only be trailing by 13 at the half and actually still have a chance if they can get it going. The Shocks are not getting anything in transition and they simply struggle mightily with their half court offense.

Tulsa 8 assists on 9 baskets. The Shockers 2 assists on 7 baskets.

Former South Dakota player Kelly Stewart is doing a decent job on the P-B-P and she is a knockout.

[1972Shocker]

I have not been able to watch the 2nd half but apparently HCKA lit a fire under the Shocks at halftime. Shocks outscore Tulsa 26-10 in the 3rd quarter to take a 41-38 lead and the momentum.