In a tight contest, fans are always going to remember the critical plays down the stretch that had a huge impact on the final result. Today, Bri had those plays, and not positive ones. I'm sure others did, too; but, it is what it is.
It's a team loss just like when it's a team win. But, when you to take a look at our games against the ranked opponents, there are things that had to go right in order to secure a win. Staying out of foul trouble is key for this team's best offensive players. Ariel got in first quarter foul trouble again.
And, unless one of our players is scoring 20+ points, we won't win against the ranked teams without 3-4 of our players scoring in double figures. Today, three players scored in double figures; but, Ariel barely fell in that category with 11 points, and Kelsey finished with 13 and Brooke with 16 points. So, no one was on fire. Joyner and Higgs couldn't find their flow offensively.
Against Baylor and Florida State, the above occurred. Pretty sure that also occurred in our home win against OU. Those are our wins over ranked teams so far this season.
Coaching decisions I don't understand include:
- not taking Ariel out of the game for the last defensive series of the first quarter; she ends up picking up her second foul with just a few ticks left.
- having Audrey-Anne and Kelsey on the floor at the same time; OU never played two post players at the same time; so, this duo was a liability with OU having 4 guards on the floor and driving to the basket or taking jump shots
- I forget which quarter it was, but we had the last possession with maybe 15 seconds left; and, we had Bri on the floor. If we're going for the last shot, all 5 players on the court should be offensive-minded.
- Jada Underwood played 4 minutes in the game; and she scored two baskets; one was mid-range jumper. So, she may have been able to help in that area as our only other player who was hitting mid-range jumpers was Kelsey. We never saw Jada in the second half I don't think. She looked really good in the first half. Could she have been a defensive liability on defense? Maybe. But, if she was in the game a bit more instead of Bri, I don't think OU would have sagged off of her defensively.
Come Monday night, we have to avoid early foul trouble, especially by Ariel. I hear the TV commentator talk about Texas' depth; but, I just don't see it. The only non-starter we have who is capable of scoring in double-figures against a ranked team is Lashann. That's it. So we just don't have a lot of room for error against ranked teams.
-
Like x 1
Last edited: Feb 18, 2017