March 27th, 2008: Boston College at St. John's (WNIT)

Kia Wright refuses to let her season end, Carolyn Swords is quite impressive, and Monique McLean is Little Sista Christon.


Kia Wright just doesn't want her season to end, does she? Not that I can blame her; none of the rest of us want to see her season end either. These second-half heroics, though, they're certainly coming at most interesting times. There's just no quit in these kids, and I'm loving every extended second of it.

Either I hadn't known or I had suppressed the fact that Nancy Darsch is an assistant for Boston College. Ye gods, that brought back some memories I could have lived without. She was much more animated than I remembered her, and very involved in the coaching, especially of the big girls- and those posts for BC are BIG, no getting around it. Carolyn Swords looks freakish in NCAA play- 6'6" with a thick body, she looks like a woman among girls. It took until the second half for BC to think, 'hmmm, she's three inches taller than the tallest Red Storm player, four inches taller than the tallest Red Storm player who will actually go into the paint, and six inches taller than the tallest Red Storm starter- hey, let's pound the ball to her and have her wreak havoc inside!' But once they did, the Eagles made it close in a hurry. She impressed me more than Stefanie Murphy, though I'm given to understand that Murphy gets more press. Both of them are physical, but more easily knocked out of the lane than one would guess from their build. BC seemed to depend a lot on the inside-out game, passing it in only to get open looks on the perimeter. Not what I'd do with big post players, but what do I know? Brittanny Johnson came up big in the second half. Other than Jaclyn Thoman, they didn't really get that much from their bench, which was their undoing.

St. John's, on the other hand, got plenty of contributions from non-starters. Granted, that factors in that Tiina didn't get the start (which, also, kind of confusing, because at this point, Coco doesn't bring that much more to the table than Tiina, and certainly isn't going to jostle big players out of place). Recee decided that she didn't give a damn how tall anyone was, and threw her body around indiscriminately, both for good and for ill- she had the difficult task of checking either Swords or Murphy all night, and she still managed ten points. Off the bench, Kelly also hit a couple of big threes and brought some very tenacious defense. The more I see her develop, the more I like her, because she has a knack for making big plays at the edges of the court, and her shot is one of the most fundamentally sound on the team; now she's learning to play defense, which makes her more useful than just a designated bomber. Sheree didn't score off the bench, but she brought energy- there were two plays I remember where she just kept fighting for a rebound, one on the defensive end where she evaded two BC players trying to get the tie-up, and then on the resulting offensive play, where she tapped the ball back out to Kia. Tiina came off the bench like she had something to prove, which I guess makes sense. Would that we had gotten the production from our starters that we got from our bench. Coco and Joy were both very ineffective. Joy got into early foul trouble and spent most of the game on the bench. Sky was also really quiet, and while I understand the need to train a point guard for when Kia graduates, I don't think she should be running the point while Kia's in the game. Just a thought, of course. Monique went off in the first half, and while the Boston College defense seemed to do a better job on her in the second half (or maybe she was just taking worse shots), she still got to the line. And with the late block, she was definitely doing her Sister Christon impersonation. Kia, in the first half, seemed to be looking to involve her teammates- which worked really well when Monique, Recee, and Tiina were hitting shots. In the second half, when the Eagles were trying to make a game of it, she took over, driving the lane and making some unfreakingbelievable shots. Bigtime, bay-bee. God, I'd love to see the Liberty bring her in for a look, and at least for her to make it to the preseason game against Washington. Is that too much to ask?

Lib Fan, I'm never talking to you again, you lucky bastard. I'm sure you've got more to contribute than I do, given how close your seats were. I've been down there. It's a funky view, but you must have heard and seen a lot more than I ever could have.

I don't want to say that Bonita Spence has fallen down the totem pole since Clockgate at TBA, but she was calling the game last night. How do you go from calling one of the biggest games of the regular season to working the WNIT? Then again, I'll also grant that it wasn't actually conflicting with a tournament game, that there's less of a need for refs with fewer games, that in NIT terms it actually was a marquee matchup, and that Spence has got to live in the metro area, considering the number of totally random matchups I've seen her work this past season. Still. You should have heard my primal scream when she emerged from the locker room.

As soon as the game was over and it was determined that NC State had host-rights, Sky's mom was on the phone ordering a bus. Like mother, like daughter, I suppose. At least that game will be a little easier for Monique's folks to get to than these two games in New York have been. We're still on the fence- a lot's going to depend on how much access we have to that bus Sky's mom ordered. I'd also rather go to the NCAA tournament than the NIT if I'm going to North Carolina, but then again…

Hold on tight, boys and girls. The ride's not over yet.