Sunday, January 24, 2016

January 24th, 2016: Xavier at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Jade Walker came off the bench with 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Red Storm surged in front of Xavier, 57-41. Danaejah Grant flirted with a double-double, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds. Briana Glover led the Musketeers with eight points.

For bad shooting, good shooting, the unleashing of Super Jade, amusing the bench, and soda, join your intrepid and cleansed blogger after the jump.


Well, if we went to LIU in the teeth of the storm, don't you think we'd go to St. John's in its aftermath? We're at Carnesecca Arena now. Half an hour before tip, there are six people in the stands, including us. A fair number of band members have also joined us.

To the woman shoveling out the platform with her own shovel: you're awesome and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Likewise, to the man nobly attempting to shovel out a path to the bus stop through the plow-raised walls: bless you.

Two of the Xavier managers just finished a little shooting contest. They showed some pretty impressive range.

I predict great confusion for seating arrangements; the benches are set up differently for men's games and women's games. The women's home bench is the men's road bench, and vice versa.

At half, St. John's is up 35-17. As we all expected, one of our Jersey girls is the star of the show- of course, it's Jade Walker, with 12 points, a passel of rebounds, and a monster block. I don't know if she's been mainlining Wheaties or what, but I like this Jade.

Xavier has a lot of good pieces, but I'm not sure how well they fit together. I think they might need one more year to get that solid sophomore class some experience and make them the center of attention instead of the seniors.

The starter/reserve split is going to be a little confusing- okay, a lot confusing. Xavier swapped out three starters at halftime. I'm not sure whether that was to get back to the normal starters, or if that was a response to the way the game started out, or if Brian Neal has to start the upperclassmen for reasons but would prefer to roll with the sophomores.

Marquia Turner showed a lot of moxie, but she couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Martha Thompson showed some flashes of offense very late in the game. Jada Byrd drove the lane hard, but was easily distracted at the line. Someone's got to get that double-pump out of her motion- it makes it too easy to throw her off. (Or don't. Whatever makes you happy.) Kayla Davis (no, not that one) played briefly in the first half, but I don't think she got any second half minutes. She was unremarkable.

Imani Partlow is a big girl. She was tough to deal with, but needs to work on her shooting fundamentals. I like the way she sets screens for her teammates and gives them space to work, though. Anniina Äijänen really impressed me- I like her combination of length and stroke. Oh, wow, that came out wrong. She has a pretty jumper and good range on that jumper, but is also willing to get close to the basket. I felt like I should have been expecting more from Leah Schafer, but she was very quiet.

Jenna Crittendon always seemed to foul nastily when she fouled- nto necessarily hard or blatant, but with a little too much force, or with a swift jab. I remembered her being more of an outside shooter, but she really wasn't a threat from out there. Raeshaun Gaffney was a non-factor- the only play I really remember her making was a stupid foul- I think that was the foul that Crystal drew, but I don't have access to the play-by-play. Aliyah Zantt showed signs of life in the third quarter, but it wasn't enough to pull Xavier back into the game.

I like Briana Glover's moves around the basket, but either her teammates weren't looking for her or she wsn't making herself a target- I feel like she wasn't as involved in the offense as she could have been. That might have had something to do with Imani Littleton as well. Maddison Blackwell got the start, but she was pulled fairly quickly and saw very limited time. She's tall; that's about all I remember about her.

Tamesha Alexander looked more confident running the point today, though it helped that this time she got to work with some of the starters in the first half, instead of just being tossed in the deep end with the rest of the reserves. I like her moxie, but sometimes it's not practical to have her on someone like Leah Schafer. Crystal Simmons brought the defense, and got a mild hit to the head for it, but her hesitance on offense returned. Be strong, Crystal! Be tough! We know you are! Akina Wellere was launching from outside- it was her responsibility to dodge shot clock violations late in the game, taking threes at the end of the clock on back-to-back possessions. She might wear Keylantra Langley's number, but she hasn't yet picked up Key's knack for making the shot clock roll over and beg.

Jordan Agustus needs to realize that this isn't high school anymore. She's not head and shoulders above her opponents. She's got talent, and she's got the tools to be a great player, but she has to learn to work within the framework of the team. She looked too much like she was going one-on-one, like she thought she could take whoever she wanted one-on-one. Jade Walker had herself a day. This was the "flat-out match-up nightmare" that the pregame video touts her as. This was a 6-1 forward with a big body going hard in the paint, then stepping outside for that feathery jumper. This was the Jade I've been hoping to see on a regular basis. Super Saiyan mode may have had some drawbacks, though; she spent much of the second half with a pad on her left leg.

I think Aliyyah Handford was hurting all day. She was talking to the trainer early, and spent a lot of extra time stretching. Her shot just wasn't falling- she drove hard, but she couldn't get the rolls. I've always been worried about the amount of contact that she takes, and this game showed why. Danaejah Grant was solid- not great, but she hit from deep when we needed her. Aaliyah Lewis got things set up well, though there really weren't a lot of chances for assists in this game- lots of passes that were followed by power dribbles that were followed by baskets. We've got to go up more.

Sandra Udobi had the first basket of each half for St. John's, but was otherwise a non-factor. I think the knee might have been bothering her, but I can't swear to it. I don't think she had a lot of mobility. Imani Littleton wasn't as coordinated offensively as she was in that wonderful Butler game, but she made some good plays and was solid on defense.

Plays of the game all came from Jade Walker. She had the shots to beat the buzzer to end the first and second quarters- one a power move, one a jumper. She had a monster block on Jada Byrd near the end of the second quarter that ultimately led to the last basket of the half. She had a beautiful thread-the-needle pass along the baseline to set up Imani for a basket. Jade was seriously awesome today, and now she's set the bar high for herself.

Officiating was interesting- I thought there were a couple of sketchy no-calls, but the strangest thing seemed to be giving the foul to a player I thought was not the player who committed the foul. It happened twice, once in a situation where it could have hurt the Johnnies badly, as the foul went on Liyyah instead of (I think) Akina.

I wish more people could have seen that game. Well, no. I wish more people had seen that game. I wish all the people who wandered in to watch the men play Marquette had come and watched Jade be awesome.

It gets harder from here on out. It's off to the Great Lakes, and then the Awkward Bowl at South Orange (with Tabatha Richardson-Smith chasing 1804, no less). But we're Johnnies. We're the Storm. It's time to prove we're scarier than a blizzard named after a boy band.

No comments: