March 21st, 2009: Lehigh at Auburn (NCAA tournament)

Auburn Tigers 85, Lehigh Mountain Hawks 49

DeWanna Bonner impresses, the Auburn band rocks out, and at least Lehigh travels well.


What, you were expecting competitive balance in a 2-15 game? In the women's tournament? What do you think this is, 1998?

Auburn traveled surprisingly well for a team from Alabama- they had a lot of distance to cover. Lehigh traveled very well. They brought signs, and guys with body paint. It's tourney time, bay-bee!

Two very good bands with very different styles. Lehigh brought a traditional pep band and a lot of enthusiasm. Auburn went all brass, except for a drum kit. I liked them both, but I give Auburn the edge. They performed an excellent anthem.

Lehigh looked out of sync, out of sorts, and out of luck. Alex Ross couldn't get a lot of good shots, and the ones she did get mostly didn't go down. If they didn't have that, they didn't have much at all. Erica Prosser only really found her cojones in the second half, driving and either scoring or drawing fouls like Suzie McConnell-Serio had shoved game tape of Merlakia Jones down her throat. Haly Crites is nuts. I really thought she was gonna start a fight by the end of that game, as physically as she was playing. They really didn't get a lot from their starters, especially in the first half, when one of their reserves was tied for the team lead in scoring. I think they were genuinely stymied by Auburn's size and speed. Trying to think back on that game, I just get the mental image of a lot of brown blobs with ponytails. There were no spectacular plays by them. No phenomenal moves noted down. Just a lot of missed shots and turnovers.

DeWanna Bonner scares me a little. There's skinny, and then there's "did someone stretch her out on a rack before the game?", and Bonner is the latter. In terms of build and the way she moves, I found myself thinking of one of my Red Stormies, only Bonner is way taller. She's got some nice moves, a long lanky grace, and the ability to really screw with a team's game plan. Boddie's shooting is... yeah, I'm going to be diplomatic and go with "interesting" here. Good hands, though, especially on the defensive end today. Unfortunately, Lehigh's boxscore is fucked up, so I'm trying to match a bunch of random names to a bunch of random numbers and another bunch of names I don't know all that well. There's something I like about Chantel Hilliard, but I just can't put my finger on it. As you can tell, I say that a lot about players.

As you can also tell, it's been a very long night, and I'm tired, and I really don't remember much about this game, and honestly, I'm not sure I want to. I mean, there's only so much you can write about a 36-point ass-whipping, right?