January 30th, 2016: Fairleigh Dickinson at Long Island

Just the Facts, Ma'am: It was tight throughout, but the Blackbirds of LIU soared in the end to a 65-62 win over Fairleigh Dickinson. Brianna Farris had 20 points to lead LIU. Kelsey Cruz led all scorers with 24 off the bench for FDU, with Erika Livermore adding 18 points and nine boards.

For mysteries revealed, always going the long way home, shaking it like a Polaroid picture, guarding the inbounds, body language, and questionable housekeeping, join your intrepid and exhausted blogger after the jump.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, readers of fluid gender identity and who refuse ageist and sexist categories! Welcome to yet another round of the Game Notes of Doom, coming to you from the campus of Long Island University in Brooklyn, where the Blackbirds will be taking on the Knights of FDU. Out of respect to yoru intrepid blogger's intrepid husband, we will be eschewing use of the "Fairly Ridiculous" moniker for the Knights, even if he's a Devil, not a Knight.

Our flock of Blackbirds still seems to be reduced to six. Lots of people in warm-up suits standing on the sidelines.

Mom, this is why we can't give you nice things. If you can't be bothered to show up for tip, I'm going to stop hooking you up.

LIU doesn't clean the WRAC very often. Ticket stubs still linger from the men's game on the 28th. And this being New York, it has the expected result: I already squished one roach that came crawling out of the woodwork.

This game is a double-header, but we'll see if mom wants to stay for the men's game. I'm not prepared if we do! *panicked expression* (She didn't.)

In honor of the school's past colors and current tertiary color, there are blue streamers and shirts being given to alumni and their Hall of Famers. This is a thing I don't get. If you have a color in your name, I would think you would stick with that color.

The band's anthem was so-so, but they're not exactly constructed for the anthem.

At halftime, LIU is up 34-30, behind 11 first-quarter points from Brianna Farris and 14 points from Jolanna Ford. Erika Livermore has been everything she was cracked up to be for FDU, with 14 points.

So far, my favorite thing has been DeAngelique Waithe's four limbs of inbounding prevention. Early in the game, there was one sequence where she kicked the ball out of bounds three consecutive times, once getting it almost to the midline area. FDU had to change inbounders and sub out the player before they could get the ball in.

I don't think we can keep it up, but it's fun as it is.

Somehow, we did manage to keep it up. I'll be honest. I don't know how. We dug down deep and held the line on defense. It's very easy to come to love a team that builds itself on defense, hustle, and rebounding.

Fairleigh Dickinson has some good talent, but whatever the opposite of clutch is, they were that in the fourth quarter. They got sloppy and tight; I don't think they were ready for the defense.

Peniel M'Bikata played a little bit in the first half, but not in the second. Anastasia Williams committed a foul of questionable utility in the third quarter- I think that might have been one of the borderline calls that had the FDU staff up in arms. I like the way Zeynep Akgun handles herself on defense, but her ball security needs work. She was getting her passes picked off with regularity. Jackie Jackson was tough down low, using her height well and seizing rebounds. Kelsey Cruz got hot in the second half and near the end of the first- she pulled FDU as close the halftime margin was with two quick baskets, and then hit a couple of corner threes. If they had managed to win, she would be the heroine of the game. In appearance, not style, she reminds me of Layshia Clarendon.

I don't think Kiana Brown started off with her head entirely in the game- she was the player who was unable to inbound past DeAngelique, and she also had an early, stupid foul. She settled down a little bit and put up a couple of nice drives in the lane- she had a scoop shot that pretty much defined "better to be lucky than good" with the roll she got. Natalie Zamora got the start, but didn't play much, in favor of Cruz and Akgun. She showed fire in the third quarter, both offensively and on the boards. Madelynn Comly committed fouls at inopportune times for the Knights. I think they were expecting her to be more of a factor offensively.

Amina Markovic sets screens really well, and had a nice lay-up in the second quarter. I finally got to see the myth, the legend, the woman herself- Erika Livermore, darling of the Rebkell fantasy scene and purveyor of fantastic statistics. In the first half, she lived up to the billing, getting her points whenever and wherever she wanted, whether it was in the lane or on outside jumpers. She rebounded nicely as well, anticipating the path of the ball. In the second half, the defense started to remember that she existed, while the FDU offense started to forget. I know it's suicidal to depend heavily on a single player, no matter how good that player is, but if I'm FDU, there's never a possession where Livermore doesn't at least touch the ball. I saw at least one today, and though it ended with Brown getting the roll, that's still not practical. I'm not saying she should shoot every time down the floor, but she should at least receive a pass.

I think the pressure might be getting to Lily Abreu a bit. She looked like she was going to break down in tears a couple of times, though that might just be the way her face is laid out. She canned a three for great joy and justice.

Shanice Vaughan still has a tendency to think she has to do everything herself when the game is in the balance and a clutch shot is called for. But she did a really great job of getting the ball to her posts on the break, and found shooters on the outside. She plays more with her heart than her head. Sometimes that's good, and I think there'll be at least one game where she carries them through on pure emotion. Stylz Sanders did her best to live up to her name, adding ridiculous degress of difficulty to her drives through the lane and throwing up wild shots. I rarely encourage players to prioritize jumpers over driving, but she might be better off that way. Brianna Farris was the key to the game on both ends of the floor. She got hot in the first quarter to start the Blackbirds off right, then set the tone on defense- she had a fantastic interception early on on a disruption that Shanice helped with, but her defense was more critical in the second half, when she was switched to Livermore and bodied her out of her comfort zone.

As long as the refs don't call three seconds, Jolanna Ford will have herself a day. She spends a lot of time in the paint, and that extra power dribble will come back to bite her against more defensively-oriented teams, but she was strong today. She took off in the second quarter, but got in foul trouble in the third- my heart was in my throat after the fourth foul, since we're down to six players and as adorably 'are you old enough to buy this video game' young as Lily looks, I'm not ready to put that much of a burden on her. Watching DeAngelique Waithe guard the inbounder is worth the price of admission- she's super active and keeps both her arms and legs moving. She drew a five-second call from FDU, and it was glorious. I love how she rebounds, and that she never gives up on a play. Her offense was solid today as well, which is always a nice bonus. I think I have a favorite now.

Honestly, my biggest problem with LIU is... well, it's not nice to say things about the friend of a friend, especially one who provides a ticket hook-up. You don't risk the gravy train, right? But I'm going to be honest, because that's what I do here: if I were a recruit considering LIU, and I saw Stephanie Oliver on the sidelines, with body language indicating that she hates everyone and everything involved with the current game and would rather be doing anything else... I wouldn't be considering LIU anymore. I would be considering somewhere else where I wouldn't have to face four years of public sarcasm and constant nitpicking with precious little support to balance them. Maybe she's different behind closed doors. I don't know, but I can only judge what I can see.

I love LIU's step team, I really do. I don't have enough rhythm to keep up with them, but they definitely know how to bring the noise.

I'm not comfortable being conflicted by a tertiary team. Let's just leave it at that.