Saturday, November 28, 2015

November 28th, 2015: Sam Houston State at Florida State (LIU Turkey Classic)

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Florida State leaped out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back as the Seminoles dominated Sam Houston State 94-37. Brittany Brown's well-rounded effort led the way for Florida State, with 24 points, six rebounds, five assists, and foru steals. Leticia Romero notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists against zero turnovers. Angela Beadle was the only Bearkat in double figures, with 10 points.

For orange, handicrafts, cheesecake shots, intercepted passes, guards, hand stamps, and friends in all the right places, join your intrepid and pebbled blogger after the jump.


Good afternoon, boys and girls! It's another basketball day here in Brooklyn, as the Turkey Classic lumbers on. Florida State is in action again, this time playing Sam Houston State.

This format is terrible. I blame Texas Southern, the team that backed out of the tournament and turned it from a four-team, two-day, two-doubleheader affair into this three-team, three-day, two-arena, round-robin mess.

Mom is distracted by small, adorable Seminole fans.

SHSU's uniforms are really, really orange.

Unsurprisingly, there aren't a lot of people here, and they seem to be mostly family and friends.

At halftime, Florida State is up 51-18, and Brittany Brown is up 22-18. Florida State's been intercepting passes like nobody's business. Sam Houston State is not good. They're not accurate, they're not sharp, and they don't move without the ball.

The Bearkats used a lot of subs, often at the same time- there were more than a few three-at-a-time subs, at least one instance of four-at-a-time, and at least one where five players checked in at once. (Poor Shadijah Moore drew the short straw on that one, being the last player sitting on a bench otherwise emptied of players.) They stayed stationary often on offense, and instead of throwing the ball to where a player was going to be, they would throw it to where she was- at which point Florida State would intercept the pass and run the break. It wasn't pretty.

Ashleigh Cooper played a few sporatic minutes late in each half and provided no marked impact. Jasmine McCants, who is not a center anywhere outside the Southland, was solid, and I think she was able to play a little more outside than her team would ordinarily ask of her, since she was closer to the size of the Seminoles' perimeter players than she was their post players. Shadijah Moore brought physicality and occasionally questionable plays.

Morghen Day reminded us physically of Lindsay Whalen, but not in style of play- she was more of a shooter than a driver. Jasmin Anderson and her tall hair made a little noise late with a three-pointer. Kamry Orr fearlessly drove the lane, you should pardon the pun.

Angela Beadle was outmatched by the Seminoles' posts, but she showed flashes of skill down low. She has an unusually exaggerated followthrough on her shot. Saundra Guillory came up with some nice strong rebounds late in the game.

Because Sam Houston State went through a lot of players, it's hard to differentiate among their guards except as people who were throwing the ball to Florida State players. Shernice Robertson was the most aggressive, which led to the most mistakes, but at least also led to some points for the Bearkats.

I think my favorite thing about SHSU was the personalized clipboards the coaches were carrying around. I know that's damning with faint praise, but they were distinctly unimpressive and lacking in effort.

It took a long time to get Rachel Antoniadou into the game, which I thought was ridiculous, given how far ahead Florida State was for most of the game. She shows promise as a shooter, but she needs a lot of work. Emiah Bingley ran a fair amount of point, or at least dribbled the ball at the top of the key to run out the clock. Maria Conde really got a lot of run, both because Sue Semrau was experimenting with different frontcourts and because the margin started out ridiculous and stayed ridiculous. She's very raw, and she seems terrified of contact, but there's a lot of potential for her. I'm not sure Florida State is the right system for her, though.

Kai James was intimidating down low, but more for her size and physical presence than anything she was doing near the basket- she didn't seem to be calling for the ball very much, and did little with it when she got it. Ama Degbeon moves like a woman who's terrified that her knees will fail her- she shot her free throws very stiffly and didn't seem to move well on the floor.

Leticia Romero is slick. I had forgotten about that ankle injury she was recovering from, which might explain why she wasn't as sharp as I was expecting her to be. But she still dropped some beautiful lookaway passes to her teammates, and made good decisions with the ball. I understand the Ticha Penicheiro comparison I've seen once or twice. Brittany Brown decided she was going to have herself a day, whether it was from behind the arc, hitting lay-ups on the break, or finding her teammates on the break. The shots she missed were hittable shots, and I think that got into her head a little bit. I really enjoy watching her play.

Ivey Slaughter has some nice inside moves. She has to remember that there's no checking in basketball the way there is in hockey, though. You can't bump someone that hard on the baseline and expect to get the call. Shakayla Thomas provides interesting lineup flexibility and can score both inside and out, but was careless with the fouls she committed on the defensive end. Sometimes you have to remember how breakable mid-majors are. Adut Bulgak looks like a pro player playing amongst college kids. She moves with more confidence and grace among them, and scores well inside and out. I think she gets one three-point attempt per blowout, when Sue Semrau decides to let her go a little wild.

Refs called a tight game early, then swallowed their whistles, then seemed to realize that things were getting a little out of hand in the second half and adjusted accordingly it got physical.

LIU came for the first half of the game, coaches sitting center court, players sitting in the endcourt. They left before halftime, but came back in the second half. To be honest, I think LIU might run SHSU's plays better than the Bearkats do.

Of course we went to Junior's for dinner. Expensive, but worth it. The chocolate mousse cheesecake is to die for.

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