WBB 2002-23 AAC Games

[1972Shocker]

The Shockers hosted SMU tonight and found themselves down by 15 at 23-38 with 3:42 remaining in the 1st half. However, they closed out the half strong closing the deficit to 8 points at 34-42. They carried that momentum over to the 2nd half and edged ahead by 2 at 54-52 heading into the final quarter. The Shocks lead 58-57 after 2 free throws by Nhug with 7 minutes to play followed by two 3-pointers by D.J. That put them up by 7 with 6 minutes to play. SMU pulled to within 3 a couple of times, the last at the 3:30 mark. The Shocks finished of the game on a 9-2 run including 5 of 6 from the line to finish off with a 73-65 win. Perhaps something to build on,

The Shocks put 4 players in double figures led by Shamaryah with 18 points followed by Curtessia with 16 points, who broke out of a recent slump, Jane with 15 points and D.J. with 14.

In an unusual stat for this years Shocks they outdid SMU on 3-pointers hitting 6-13 vs 3-17 for the ponies. Not so unusual is that the Shocks cashed in at the free throw line hitting 15-20 vs 6-8 for SMU. Turnovers were pretty even at 14 for SMU vs 13 for the Shocks but the Shocks scored 18 points off turnovers to only 5 for SMU.

[flyingMoose]

Other AAC Games (Tue->Wed)

Tulane 64-50 UCF

Tulsa 69-Temple 57

Cincinnati 53-61 East Carolina

USF 58-56 Houston

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks (12-4, 2-4) are hosting ECU (13-6, 4-2) this afternoon.

The Shocks got off to a pretty good start shooting-wise although they were turning the ball over quite a bit and they had a 20-16 lead with 7 minutes to play in the half at which point ECU gained the momentum. ECU built their lead to 30-23 witn 1:14 to play. A DJ McCarty try made it 30-26 with 47 seconds left in the half. ECU made 2 free throws with 28 seconds in the half to make it 32-26 and the Shocks had the ball for a final shot to close the ECU lead to 3 or 4 points at the half. However, DJ turned it over with a bad pass at the 17 second mark and ECU hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to take a 9-point lead at 35-26 into the locker room.

Not a great way to finish off the half. However, the Shockers have been a pretty good second half team this year so all is not lost. The Shockers know who they need to stop. ECU guards Danae McNeal (16) and Micah Dennis (13) have 29 of ECU's 35 points as only 4 Pirates have scored. The Shocks also need to cut down on the turnovers as the had 13 in the first half to only 6 for ECU. The Shock are dominating the boards at 24-13 and that was with Jane Asinde only playing 7 minutes due to early foul trouble. Keeping Jane on the floor for most of the 2nd half will go a long way in helping the Shocks come from behind.

Shocks open up the 2nd half on a 12-2 run and pull ahead at 38-37 the first media timeout.

The Shocks hang on to the 1 point lead at the end of the 3rd quarter with the score 46-45. They did exactly what they needed to do as they held ECU's McNeal and Denis scoreless in the quarter. The Shocks outscored ECU 8-0 from the line in the 3rd quarter and have the momentum head into the 4th quarter.

Actually, live stats now shows the score at 46-all in the 3rd quarter. Must have changed a 2-pointer to a 3-pointer or some other correction.

It did not take long for the momentum to swing back to ECU as they have hit 3-5 treys in the first 4 minutes of the 4th quarter and the Shocks are 0-4 so far in the quarter and just like that ECU has regained their 9-point halftime lead with the score at 55-46 with 6 minutes to play.

The Shocks pull back to within 4 at 51-55 with 4 minutes to play but ECU builds the lead back to 9 with 2 minutes to play. The Shocks can get no closer and ECU pulls out the 66-57 road win.

The Shockers did well on shutting down McNeal and Dennis who only combined for 8 points in the 2nd half although Forward Amiya Jenkins with 12 points and Kimora Jenkins with 6 points pickup he slack. Jenkins 6 points inlcuded 2 of the 3 treys ECU hit to open up the 4th quarter and re-establish their 9-point halftime lead.

However, the Shockers did not do so well getting their turnover under control as they had 14 in the second half, including 9 in the final quarter to finish the game with 27 turnovers. Just not going to win many turning it over that much. DJ had 7 turnovers and Jane and Nhug had 4 each.

The Shocks had 2 players with double-doubles and fell just short of 3 and maybe a 4th. Trajata lead the Shocks in scoring with 17 points on 6-10/0-0 and 5-7 and grabbed 10 rebounds. Curtessia, although not nearly as efficient as Trajata, had 13 points on 5-16/0-4 and 3-3 and led the Shocks with 13 rebounds. Jane just missed a double-double with 8 points and 11 rebounds and missed most of the 1st half with foul trouble. DJ was close to a double-double you really would like to avoid as she had 11 points including 3-5 on treys but also had the 7 turnovers. Shamaryah continues to run hot and cold. After a strong 18 point career high against SMU she only managed 5 points today and only made 1-7 field goal attempts.

[WuDrWu]

Crazy sequence to end the quarter.

[1972Shocker]

Crazy sequence to end the quarter.

I will have to watch the replay later this evening.

[WuDrWu]

It's tough to watch. WSU has thrown the game away. The moronic turnovers time and time and time again are just mind numbing. And some of the 3s ECU hit (most importantly those 2 at the end of the 3rd) were laughable and game changing at the same time. Tough loss at home in another game they should not have lost. You just can't be that ill prepared.

[shockerfan]

It's tough to watch. WSU has thrown the game away. The moronic turnovers time and time and time again are just mind numbing. And some of the 3s ECU hit (most importantly those 2 at the end of the 3rd) were laughable and game changing at the same time. Tough loss at home in another game they should not have lost. You just can't be that ill prepared.

Yeah. We came up for this one. They played hard and definitely hurt themselves. I don't follow the women super close, but had some feelings of the men's team in this one. Competitive, but too many bad decisions and mistakes.

I had more fun making fun of the trainer that was super annoying behind the ECU bench. Dude for real thought he was a coach

[1972Shocker]

What was the story behind the turnovers. Was ECU pressing the whole game?

[shockerfan]

What was the story behind the turnovers. Was ECU pressing the whole game?

Not really the WHOLE game. At least not aggressively (trapping) But they did in spurts and it resulted in a LOT of issues. Including 2 or 3 10 second calls.

You could tell WSU was super gassed by the end of the game.

[flyingMoose]

Other AAC Games (Sat->Sun)

Tulsa 72-77 Tulane

Temple 53-64 Memphis

Houston 50-53 SMU

UCF 51-83 USF

[WstateU]

What was the story behind the turnovers. Was ECU pressing the whole game?

27 of them; it was horrible the last 5 minutes. They continued to give it away and some were ‘biddy level’ turnovers… not travel calls, they were mostly boneheaded lazy passes. The defense went in the tank also, leaving ECU shooters wide-open for 3’s.

[1972Shocker]

Just finished watching the ECU game. ECU reminds me of last year's UCF team in that they win primarily with defense. They have long, quick athletes that are very active in that 3-2 matchup zone and with their trapping presses and schemes. I don't think ECU is quite as good offensively as last year's UCF team. In fact, they are generally terrible shooters but they get a lot of easy baskets in transition off of their defense. The Shocks actually controlled the ECU defense to offense transtiion game pretty well in the second half. Something I doubt UCF had done this season is to make 5 three-pointers in a span of 5.5 minutes at the end of the 3rd quarter and the beginning of the 4th quarter. I think Shane said they average making 3.7 3-point shots per game. They hit a total of 7 against the Shocks. That was a killer. And as WuDrWu pointed out the 2 treys at the end of the 3rd quarter were as ugly as they could be. They certainly had nothing to do with basketball skill. The first was a horrible looking flat push at the basket from the corner that somehow did not get wedged between the rim and backboard and somehow crawled over the rim and bounce into the basket. While that shot could barely be called a basketball shot, the next one wasn't a shot, It was an overthrown, errant lob pass that ended up going through the basket. Danae McNeal was 6-6 from the free throw line. The rest of her ECU teammates were 5-15. Again, just not particularly good shooters of the basketball.

One thing ECU does not do well out of that match-up zone and on offense as well is rebound. The Shocks were +29 on the boards outrebounding ECU 51-22, although ECU is not usually that bad so some credit to the Shockers on that. So while you don't win many games turning it over 27 times you don't lose many when you dominate the boards to that degree.

ECU does turnover its opponents on average 27 time per game so the Shocks were right on that average.

[flyingMoose]

AAC Games (Wed)

USF 89-68 Tulsa

Memphis 61-53 East Carolina

Houston 63-39 Cincinnati

Temple 68-59 Tulane

All road wins.

[1972Shocker]

AAC Games (Wed)

Houston 63-39 Cincinnati

All road wins.

I like the Shockers chances tomorrow. The Cincy women may not win an AAC game this season. Good luck in the Big 12. Let's hope I didn't just jinx the Shocks.

Wichita State (12-8, 2-5) at Cincinnati (7-12, 0-6)
Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023 | 1:00 PM CT | Fifth Third Arena
ESPN+ | KFH 97.5 FM/1240 AM | ShockerStats.com

SCOUTING THE BEARCATS
Led by fifth year head coach Michelle Clark-Heard, Cincinnati enters Saturday's matchup at 7-12 this season and winless in American play. Despite shooting 32.1 percent from beyond the arc, Cincinnati shoots only 38.6 percent overall. The Bearcats excel at blocking shots, which was evident in the first matchup this season when they blocked 14 shots - a Charles Koch Arena record. Jillian Hayes leads Cincinnati in scoring (13.5), rebounding (8.4), steals (28) and blocks (31). Mya Jackson adds 11.9 points and a team-high 54 assists to lead the backcourt. Malea Williams had seven of the team's 14 blocks in the conference opener at Wichita State.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks roll over the hapless Bearkittens 69-50 in Cincinnati.

Jane Aside (a career high 23 points on 7-12/0-0 and 9-11 plus 14 rebounds), Ambah Kowcun (a career high of points on 6-11/5-9 and 5-6) and Trajata Colbert (8 points on 3-8/0-0 and 2-2) combined for 53 of the Shocker's 69 points to lead they way.

Kowcun got the start today due to Curtessia Dean being out with an injury. She certainly took advantage of the opportunity.

On the other hand DJ McCarty, Shamaryah Duncan and Daniela Abies combined tor only 9 points on 3-20 from the field and 3-6 from the free thrown line.

After turning it over 27 times against ECU the Shocks only turned it over 9 times against Cincy and 4 of those were in the 4th quarter when the game was no longer in doubt.

The Shockers finish the first half of their AAC schedule at 3-5 but 2 of the 3 wins were against Cincy which may very well not win an AAC game this season but they don't have to play USF again either.

Cincy not in a great place heading into the Big 12 but maybe with that move their recruiting will get a boost. But the Cincy coach has to be on the hot seat for sure.