February 14th, 2016: Georgetown at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's never trailed in a steady pacing of Georgetown, 63-55. Danaejah Grant had 20 points to lead the Red Storm, with Aliyyah Handford contributing 13. Dorothy Adomako's 12 off the bench led Georgetown.

For deflections, steals, disruptions, chaos under heaven, too much pink, slight disorientation, and knowledgeable folk other than me, join your intrepid and sleep-deprived blogger after the jump.
Happy Valentine's Day, readers! I'll save you any trite doggerel about Johnnies being red and Pirates being blue, mostly because I can't think of a good rhyme for Iona. Your intrepid blogger is off to St. John's once more, this time for the Gorgetown half of the Eastern Seaboard pod. Ironically, today of all days, I'm flying solo, as my very significant other is off to Seton Hall to (one hopes) witness Pirate history. (Tabatha, if you don't score 23 today, we are going to have words. And those words are going to be "what is wrong with your shot?")

It's cold out. I just thought you should know that.

Instead of t-shirts, today's giveaway is a pink winter hat. They said I could take one, instead of foisting one upon upon me. So I didn't take it. I did, however, bid on Selina Archer's BHA jersey from last year. Let's see if I win. I'd like to have a pink jersey I can wear, if nothing else so I don't get people guilt-tripping me over my refusal to pink.

The St. John's BHA gear is eye-searing. Dry-highlighter pink on the uniform, a shade or two brighter on the accessories, Day-Glo pinkish-orange on the coaches' shirts. At least some of the accessories are in the black accent. My eyes might actually start bleeding if everything were the pink of Danaejah Grant's arm sleeves.

At halftime, St. John's is up 31-25. Danaejah Grant has 16 for the Johnnies. It's a bit more balanced for Georgetown; Dominique Vitalis and Yasmine Belk have seven each. It's been a fast game, but not a terribly well played one- lots of turnovers, lots of inexplicable passes from St. John's and lots of missed shots from Georgetown.

Georgetown's defense is ferocious. They have some of the most active hands I've ever seen. You don't get a moment's peace with them. It costs them in the long run, because they're going to get called for fouls, but they're super disruptive. They just need a little more discipline to temper the enthusiasm.

Dorothy Adomako came off the bench today, which surprised me a little. She uses her length pretty well on defense- her shots just were not falling. Tyshell King has a really pretty jumper. Katie McCormick put up threes and scrapped for loose balls, but her shot wasn't falling, and it seemed like that got to her a little bit. Jasmine Jackson played in the first half and defended at the point, and she got very physical with Aaliyah Lewis.

Jade Martin saw a little bit of time in the first half and was unremarkable with it. Yasmine Belk made an impact both on the boards and with her shot- she was very physical with our defense, but was also able to step out and hit a jumper or two. She was relentless. She also needs to pick on people her own size- she fouled Aaliyah hard going up for a shot, which led to Aaliyah looking like she had to aim for the basket in the middle when she took her free throws.

Dionna White is sneaky fast and has some serious ups for a little bitty guard. She read the passing lanes really well and got Georgetown's offense moving on the fast break. So did DiDi Burton (though someone is going to have to tell me the backstory of why her name is pronounced like "Da-Da"). I think White made smarter decisions with the ball, which surprises me a little, given that White's a freshman and Burton's a sophomore.

Logan Battle lines up as a guard, but she plays more like a forward, so she's over here with the frontcourt type people. She facilitated a lot of the offense, not in the point guard sense, but in being in the right place at the right time for people to move around her. She had a really nice block on Imani Littleton that she was able to keep in play. Faith Woodard made good plays at the rim but couldn't get the shots to go down. Georgetown either needs to work on their shooting fundamentals or needs to get some better puck luck- they had a lot of shots go wide off the rim. Dominique Vitalis showed why she's so important to Georgetown- she brings senior leadership. She's a stabilizing force. She does a little bit of everything for them, but she's also important to keep everyone's ehad on straight.

Now I understand how and why they gave DePaul fits.

We went pretty deep into our bench today, which was refreshing and somewhat needed. Akina Wellere seems to have gone back to her reticence to shoot, and that informed the rest of her game today- there was a play where she was woefully out of position on defense (think it was a boxout), and that led to Jordan Agustus being forced into fouling. I was disappointed in her today. I was also a little disappointed in Tamesha Alexander, but that's becoming sort of a habitual thing. I like Sox, if only because, well, socks, but she really hasn't stepped up this year. We got good defense off the bench from Crystal Simmons, and at least a little offense, though the technical flaws in her shot were pretty obvious. Jordan Agustus got some extended run, and she looked good- she has the confidence to take the shot that I wish some of her teammates had. I like her potential. Jade Walker rebounded well, and she was confident in her jumper, bu she didn't move well on defense.

Either Aliyyah Handford is having a bad case of bad puck luck, or there's something wrong with her shooting hand that she's not admitting to, because her shots are going the same direction off the rim when she drives, and it bothers me. She looked a little more like her old self, though. She had the speed and quickness. Danaejah Grant had the touch. She's just so quietly, calmly, effective and efficient. Aaliyah Lewis ran the show and took a lot of hits.

Sandra Udobi was back in action today, and while she's not real quick, she gets the job done down low. She played well on defense, and there was great rejoicing when she put up a shot and got the basket. Imani Littleton still needs to work on her defense and her ability to grab passes, but she seems to have decided that defense will be her caling card, and I'm okay with that. I wear the jersey of a rebounder/shot-blocker/grit player, do you think I'm going to get mad about a player choosing that as her focus?

General issue with the team today: too many extra passes. Georgetown was reading the passing lanes way too well to be trying to find the perfect shot at the pefect time. Playing like this made it clear that we can't have Sandie and Crystal out there at the same time, or either of them with Akina. Too many players trying to follow, not enough to lead.

There were some curious choices of call to make on the baseline, but my biggest issue with the crew was that they seemed to be calling the foul on the wrong player much of the time. I'd be sure it was on Jade, and then it was on Imani. Or Aliyyah, which was super annoying.

I won the auction! And it came with shorts! Now I have a couple of options for what to wear to the gym! (As long as Selina doesn't want her stuff back.) (This meant that I didn't buy ducks this year. Next year, perhaps, we'll see a little flock of Wildwings and Jillians.) (Yes, I name my ducks. Yes, I name them after Ducks.)

This was the wakeup call we needed. Now it's off to the Old Northwest Territory, and perhaps history for Aliyyah. Gotta keep rolling. Can't afford any bad losses against the back end of the conference.