What can you say? Just yesterday the Lady Dukes came off one of their best wins in the season and perhaps in program history. But today, with less than 24 hours to play. The Dukes would fall in the hole that the Gophers built for them. The Minnesota Gophers shot just over 30% from the field in yesterday's game, but today against the Dukes they shot over 50%. So when the Dukes went cold middle of the first half, it was inevitable the Dukes would go down double digits. Even with 4 seniors on the team, the Lady Dukes are young when you count playing time and today it showed. It reminded me of the UVA game where they came out hot, but would go cold the rest of the game. In the UVA game, JMU had no answer for Sarah Imovbioh, their inside forward, today, JMU had no answer for Micaella Riche, their inside forward or Rachel Banham and Kionna Kellogg , both of whom had a stellar game against the Dukes.
The one thing I have learned about the team this year is they have a hard time defending big players. UVA had a big in Imovbioh. Maybe I am wrong on my assessment, but when we cannot defend the paint well, we lose the game. Ross is a big part of this game plan and JMU needs her to have games like she did against Murray State and Green Bay. It certainly doesn't help when one of your best players is out with a concussion either (Toia Giggets).
While JMU played tired, and certainly looked fatigued from yesterday's game, they still played hard and that is all you can ask for when things just doesn't seem to go their way. When a team has a stellar day, it is hard to beat that team. Let's hope that JMU has a better game tomorrow and climbs out of the trap that Minnesota set for them and shocks the Shockers tomorrow at 1 PM.
Final: 80-62 Minnesota
Notes: Newman fouls out with about 4 to play. Riche of Minnesota fouls out with about 3 to play. Mickens was hurt, not sure how bad, but Coach Brooks thinks she will be okay. Gwathmey is really starting to shine as a player. Box score http://www.cstv.com/gametracker/launch/gt_wbaskbl.html?event=1157219&school=cs&from=gtLite
No comments:
Post a Comment