Shocks Host Missouri State - Sunday, Feb 8 @ 2:00 PM

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shocks (17-4, 8-1) host their travel partners Missouri State (8-12, 5-4) this afternoon at 2:00 in their only game of the week.

The Shocks are now within 1/2 game of Drake (9-1) after Drake lost at SIU on Friday.

MSU's record is not terribly imposing but they are the kind of team that has the ability to occasionally jump up and bite you. Last weekend MSU lost in OT to Drake and lost by 8 at UNI.

Shocks need this win to keep from losing the gift that SIU presented them with their win of Drake.

The Shockers need to overcome their tendency of getting off to hot start in conference play only to falter during the second half of the conference season.

Wichita Eagle pre-game article.

Springfield News Leader pre-game article.

[1972Shocker]

If all you see or hear is that the Lady Shocks secured a 69-50 win over the Lady Bears you might assume they cruised to the win. Not the case. For the most part this was a game the Shocks really had to grind to win.

The Shocks had trailed by 8 points at 23-15 with 6:00 minutes to play in the 1st half before rallying for a 29-28 lead at the half.

The Shocks led 47-45 with 7:00 minutes remaining in the game with Kelsey Jacobs having just re-entered play with 4 fouls. Alex hit a jumper at the 6:46 mark to put the Shocks up 49-45 but with 30 seconds Alex picked up her 4th foul. I'm not exactly sure when the Shocks switched to their 3-2 zone but I think it was just around this time. It proved to be a great move. Both Alex and Kelsey finished the game without fouling out and the Shocks closed out the last 7:00 minutes with a 22-5 run.

So the story of the game was pretty much the last 6 minutes of the 1st half and the last 7 minutes of the 2nd half. During that 13 minutes the Shocks outscored the Bears 38 to 10. The Bears won the other 27 minutes by 40 to 31.

Quite a testament to the Lady Shocks considering MSU is a much bigger, stronger, deeper team than the Shocks. You would think the Bears would have the advantage late in the half. That was not the case today.

[flyingMoose]

the Shocks closed out the last 7:00 minutes with a 22-5 run.

The Bears were scoreless from the 7:10 mark to 1:13 before scoring their five points very late. The Shocks had a 15-0 run during the Bears drought.

[The Mad Hatter]

The team generally got any look they wanted, we just missed a lot of shots.

[flyingMoose]

Other Scores

Southern Illinois 79-75 Northern Iowa
Loyola 61-50 Indiana State
Bradley 56-50 Evansville
Illinois State 47-70 Drake

[1972Shocker]

Missouri State played a packed-in zone against the Shocks and for the most part it was pretty effective. Also the Shocks were pretty careless with the ball at times turning it over 10 times in the 1st half alone mostly trying to force passes inside the zone. Also the Shocks gave 9 offensive rebounds in the 1st half. Jody apparently addressed those issues as the Shocks only had 4 turnovers in the 2nd half and only gave up 2 offensive rebounds.

If you had told me that Alex Harden was going to be 5-16 from the field and pick up her 4th foul with 6:19 to play and that Kelsey Jacobs would go 0-5 from the field and only score 2 points and pick up her 4th foul 10:43 to play I would have not given you much for the Shocks chances.

Alie Decker had a very nice bounce back game after her bad day at Drake and scored 15 points on 5-9 shooting and grabbed 5 rebounds.

Michaela Dapprich had a very solid 14 points on 6-8 shooting and contributed 6 rebounds while battling the much bigger front court of the Bears.

Jamillah contributed 18 points (11 coming in the final 7 minutes as the Shocks pulled away) on 6-12 shooting plus 6-7 from the FT line.

Despite her off day shooting the ball Alex finished with 16 points including 6-7 from the FT line plus she led the Shocks with 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 blocks.

[1972Shocker]

Other Scores

Southern Illinois 79-75 Northern Iowa
Loyola 61-50 Indiana State
Bradley 56-50 Evansville
Illinois State 47-70 Drake

SIU looking pretty dangerous. Hard to believe Indiana State was 10-1 in the non-conference which included several very nice wins. Evansville seems to be fading as well.

[1972Shocker]

The team generally got any look they wanted, we just missed a lot of shots.

That they did although as a team we ended up at 43.4% from the field which is slight higher than our season average of 42.7%.

Alex, Kelsey and Jaleesa did struggle shooting the ball today combining to go 5 - 23.

MSU shot 41.2% from the field and only took 2 fewer shots than the Shocks, but the Bears were a miserable 3-11 (27.3%) from the FT line while the Shocks were an outstanding 18-20 (90.0%) from the FT line. The Bear would have been 2-11 from the line if not for a line violation by the Shocks.

Hard to believe Alex only had 1 steal but that's what the stats show.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita Eagle game report.

Springfield News Leader game report.

[1972Shocker]

Nice to have that 3-2 match up zone in our quiver that we have not shown much if, at all, in Valley play during the 1st half. Gives Jody a new wrinkle to throw at teams if needed and gives them a look they haven't see much from the Shocks.

Worked like a charm against Missouri State.

[1972Shocker]

BTW, a replay of the MSU game is available on ESPN3.

[flyingMoose]

Hijacking the thread, but ...

amazingly, there is a betting line on the UConn-South Carolina women's game tonight at an offshore, online site - UConn -12.5