Shocks on the Road @ INS and ILS

[1972Shocker]

The Lady Shockers go back on the road to again face one of their biggest hurdles - how to win on the road.

Shocks enter the trip trying to break a 27 game road losing streak (22 MVC road losing streak) have last one a true road game at MSU on January 7, 2006.

INS (Thursday at 6:06 PM) and ILS (Saturday at 4:05 PM) are probably not the best candidates to break this streak, but you never know. I would think INS on Thursday night is the best bet between these two games.

Shocks gave both INS and ILS all they wanted at Koch arena, but still have not figured out things on teh road.

My hope is that they can be competitive and avoid a major meltdown in one or both of these games. A win in either of these games would be sweet indeed.

:goshocks:

[flyingMoose]

Lady Shocks 50-71 Indiana State

Long stretches of little offense in both halves. We did not have nearly enough "offense out of defense" that this team needs. After being down eleven at the half, we got it down to six at the under-12 media timeout. But not much good happened after that. Val had 13 points with three FGs from beyond the arc - nobody else was in double figures.

Coach Adams was not a happy camper in the postgame show. INS's best scorer (Kelly Luna) got hurt and played only eight minutes, but the Sycamores stepped up and adjusted and blew us out. We did not show the same kind of spunk. She stated that there were a few that are "competing" (this gist of this is accurate, but probably not the wording), and she was looking forward to working with them and the new recruits in the future. Ouch!!

[1972Shocker]

The long and painful road losing streak continues as the Shocks drop an uninspired 71-50 decision to the INS Sycamores.

INS wins despite losing their best player, Kelsey Luna to a knee injury 8 minutes into the game.

Shocks have now scored 50 or fewer points in their last 4 games (2 home, 2 on the road). Not going to win many with that kind of production.

Marcy struggled big time going 2-15 from the field. Apparently she had trouble with the Syc's 6'4" freshman center, Shannon Thomas.

Shocks only managed 7-33 (21.2%) from the field in the 2nd half including 1-7 on threes. Marcy (2-15), Daria (4-12) and Jacie (1-6) were a combined 7-33.

Daria continue her pattern of getting in foul trouble picking up her 4th with 11:15 remaining in the game. Daria did not foul out, but Jacie and Haliegh did. Foul trouble limited Haleigh to 20 minutes. Shocks finished the game with only 6 eligible players. Shantel was out due to a concussion.

Shocks lost turnover stat 17 to 9 which also hurt.

Val was about the only Shocker with decent offensive production scoring 13 points on 5-12 (3-8) from the field.

As FlyingMoose stated, Coach Adams was not happy with her teams lack of toughness which seemed to be directed, in a not so thinly veiled fashion, towards her two Seniors.

Things don't get any easier for the Shocks as they face league-leading Illinois State on Saturday.

[1972Shocker]

I think Marcy may be wearing down some. She is the main focus of most of our opponents defense and she has taken a pretty good beating this year. And she may not be the only one.

For some reason, Daria simply can not make the adjustments needed to stay out of foul trouble, which puts even more pressure on Marcy.

After Illinois State the schedule gets quite a bit easier. Hopefully, the kids will still have something in their tanks, mentally, physcially and spiritually to pick up another couple of wins.

The thing that is interesting is that even though the Shocks are now 2-10 they are only one game out of 7th behind SIU (3-9) and tied with Evansville and Missouri State.

After the ILS games they still have games left with SIU, Evansville and Missouri State as welll as UNI and Bradley.

The Shocks should set their sights on trying to finish in 7th place. While not a great accomplishment and they would still be in the play-in round in the Tournament it would at least be several notches above their pre-season 10th place pick. For this to happen though we have to find more offensive production somewhere.

[1972Shocker]

A red hot Illoinois State team schooled the Shocks big-time today with a dominating 94-68 win.

Shocks actually started out fairly well but just could not sustain the level of offense needed to compete with ILS on the road nor could they slow down the Redbirds. Sounded like ILS played one of their better games of the year.

Another piece of bad news was MSU beat Indiana State on the road today.

That makes next weeks road game at MSU a must win for the Shocks if they want a shot at 7th place.

[flyingMoose]

That makes next weeks road game at MSU a must win for the Shocks if they want a shot at 7th place.

My sense at this point is that SIU at home may be the only win left on the schedule - I am not even sure that Evansville that same weekend is a win.

But then I am feeling pretty pessimistic right now.

[1972Shocker]

It's tough to be optimistic but the team has been through a really tough stretch of their schedule over the last 6 games.

Our next four games, MSU on the road, SIU and Evansville at home and UNI on the road are all winnable games IMHO. On the other hand, they are all losable games also.

I think our chances of winning on the road at Bradley to finish out the season are very slim.

I would love to see the Shocks finish on a mini-hot streak, but it probably is of little relevance in the big picture.

[flyingMoose]

Yes, they have just completed the toughest part of their schedule, but here's where I am coming from.

They do not seem to "compete" as consistently well as they did earlier in the season. Marcy seems to be wearing down. That sense that we all had from the first part of the season that "There is no way this team is finishing last in the Valley" is just not there anymore.

The losses do not bother me so much - some nights we are just "out-talented". The not competing well does.

I hope I am wrong.