February 29th, 2016: Wagner at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: LIU gave up a 14-point first quarter lead, then came back in the fourth quarter to beat Wagner, 71-66. Shanovia Dove led the Blackbirds with 20 points and 10 rebounds, with Shanice Vaughan adding 13 points and seven assists, and Brianna Farris scoring 11 second-half points to key the comeback. Jasmine Nwajei led Wagner with game-highs of 37 points, eight assists, and five steals.

For walking the Fulton Mall, look-away passes, living up to some of the hype, bad words, free throws not winning shootouts, the learning curve, long shots, and finishing strong, join your intrepid and conclusive blogger after the jump.


One last bit of business, I heard you ask yesterday? Well, LIU might have done their senior day Saturday, but there's one last game to go in the regular season home slate, and that's against the Seahawks of Wagner and the nation's leading scorer, Jasmine Nwajei. I'm actually a little excited to see her and see if there's anything to be said for the hype.

You know, LIU, you could probably clean up the rosters and stuff from the men's game on Saturday. I don't think that's going to be relevant.

Don't tell anyone, but I managed to sneak dinner into the arena. Mmmm, food truck halal combo.

There are signs up from Senior Day, or perhaps still signs up. They're nice.

At halftime, LIU is up 37-31, but that's after being up 23-12 at the quarter break. Jasmine Nwajei has gotten loose a little. She plays at such a different pace from the rest of her team that it's fascinating.

I'm pretty sure Stephanie Oliver is going to throttle Shanovia Dove by the end of the game. Shanovia hit a couple of threes early and now is under the impression that that gives her carte blanche to fire at will. Stephanie does not agree with this assessment of the situation.

Those kids were going hard in the biddy game! And I'm not just saying that because they're sitting in front of me.

Nwajei almost brought Wagner back by herself, but as I have often learned to my despair as a Johnnie and as a Gael, one superlative scorer does not a basketball team make. LIU came up with a couple of big stops down the stretch and hit their free throws.

Jackie Dluhi played briefly in both halves and did nothing of note other than bring a little height to the game. Tanasia Russell threw up more shots than I realized (I think I was mixing her up with Jazmine Hamlet on some plays) and got involved in some of the many loose balls that turned into jump balls. Tessa Wade definitely looked like this was her first time encountering LIU's unique homecourt features- she seemed startled in the early going at the sound of the pep squad behind her. She can shoot a little and hustle a little.

I was really impressed with Sofia Roma's muscle on the glass. She knows what she wants and she's going to make sure she gets it. If she could shoot through contact, she'd be a hell of a player, and she's only a sophomore, so she could learn. Taylor Butigian didn't make a lot of friends out there, pushing people around and hitting shots early. Julia McClure was often in the middle of things, and it felt like a lot of her fouls were being passed round to other players. She hit a three in the second quarter off an exceptionally nice look-away pass from Nwajei.

Jazmine Hamlet put up a nasty block on Shanovia Dove in the first quarter, but was pretty quiet otherwise. She kept busy on defense, though. Jasmine Nwajei is something to watch. She's as good as the numbers say she is- quick shot, super speed, not afraid to go after the ball. She had a couple of nifty steals right off the inbounds to get easy baskets, and she seems to thrive on being the star of the show. She loves her look-away passes. Everything seems to get faster when it runs through her. But she doesn't have nearly as much body control as she thinks she does- she got deked off her line twice during free throws, and she lost the ball far too easily- and her shot is not as automatic as she's convinced it is. I understand if she's being told not to waste energy on rebounding, but I loathe when players stand there and watch their shot as it bounces off the rim and falls into someone else's hands.

Wagner had a fair amount of balance in the early going, but as the game went on, it looked like they were content to watch Nwajei do her thing. And her thing is pretty impressive, but you can't get caught up in that if you're on the floor.

Stylz Sanders had her shot going in all different directions today- she was throwing it up too strong, or with too much English on it, and it was bouncing all around the rim. She made up for it by sneaking in for rebounds on both ends of the floor, jarring balls loose for her team. Brianna Farris catalyzed the comeback after they choked away the big lead- the two threes she hit were huge, she anchored the defense, and she hit her free throws down the stretch. Her shot selection could use some work, but I love the work she puts in.

Ashley Brown does not seem to have gelled with Coach Oliver. I guess when you're a grad student it doesn't matter. She did a little work at the beginning off a nice pass down low from Shanice Vaughan, and a little bit at the end, and mostly sat in the middle. Shanovia Dove hit two threes in the first quarter and seemed happy to settle for taking a lot of shots. Coach was not pleased with that, and as the game went on, I could see her stop, get ready to pop, bring the ball back down, and reset the offense, with the coach's apparent approval. Going in more seemed to help her out. Shanice Vaughan was the boss at passing from the lane to the corner for three. Beautiful play, and they ran it at least three times with different players. I don't know what she said to get that technical, but it must have been one of the seven words, because it came like lightning as soon as Ashley Brown committed her foul. She didn't even have enough time to say anything about the referee's mother!

DeAngelique Waithe was overcompensating on her shots, throwing them up way too hard to get around the big girls from Wagner. She made up for it on defense, with active hands and occasionally feet (we got to see the Dance of Inbounding Denial a couple of times). She's raw, but there's a lot that can be done with her. Jolanna Ford came up with the big boards and some really nifty cuts to the basket. I think they might have been studying film of the Liberty- that extra hot pass right under the basket to confuse the defense is a favorite of Bill Laimbeer's. They both got pushed around a lot and took a lot of contact with very little reward.

They still need to be more disciplined on offense- the end of the first half was a bit of a flustercluck, and Shanice has a tendency to throw up ridiculous shots as soon as someone even starts counting the clock down.

Officiating got tight against LIU in the fourth quarter, though that may as much have been tired players making stupid mistakes. Still, it seems odd that after committing six fouls over the first three quarters combined, we were in the penalty halfway through the fourth quarter (oh, and Wagner had zero fouls for the quarter). Wagner found themselves in the position of having too many fouls to give in the last twenty seconds or so.

Someone (I think the band director) got to experience the awkward feeling of being part of the "Free throws win ballgames!" yell, and then bombing out on the free throw portion of the shooting contest. Pep squad was in hysterics after his first airball.

That was a really good way to end the regular season. You could almost see the steps that Coach Oliver was making to get through to her players, and the steps they were taking to improve. I was starting to wonder if she was the right fit for this school, but I think she's making herself a better fit than I thought she could.