November 26th, 2016: Central Connecticut at Seton Hall

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A halfcourt buzzer-beater forced OT, but Seton Hall dominated the extra period to come away with a 78-70 win over Central Connecticut State. Kaela Hilaire led all scorers with 24 points, while Lubirdia Gordon (13 points, 15 rebounds) and LaTecia Smith (13 points, 10 rebounds) each notched a double-double. Aleah Epps led Central Connecticut State with 19.

For so many rebounds, drama, flat butts, arguing, contact, and so much blue, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.
On to the second half of our doubleheader, and to Seton Hall apparently the only game that matters- the Pirates hosting the Blue Devils of Central Connecticut.

Looks like everyone's got colors today. Central Connecticut is wearing road blue, and Seton Hall is working the grays.

Tiny guard not with the team, are you Shakena?

At halftime, Seton Hall is up 34-28, and the lead is as small as it is mostly because we can't hit water falling out of a boat. That, and about two-thirds of our offensive possessions are either ill-advised threes or attempts at finger rolls that are highly photogenic but not well-aimed. Claire Lundberg has come up big for the Hall, with 10 points, some of them even being in the paint. Sydney Hines has a trio of threes to lead the Blue Devils.

Well. That certainly turned out somewhat more dramatic than I was expecting, or than I would have liked. Really, if I wanted to see a close game with CCSU, I would go see them when they play LIU.

Nothing particularly stands out about Central Connecticut, except their offensive rebounding- they were all over the boards, and they made us pay. They did a better job of recovering from their mistakes than we did. And they kept their poise- probably better than we did.

Taylor Goode played in the first half and made enough of a splash with a quick bucket and a solid rebound that I had to make the joke, "I guess she is." I don't even remember Chayla Lewis playing, so you can tell how much of an impact she had on the game. Cebria Outlow had to pick up a lot of minutes near the end and in overtime with Reynoso fouling out, and she was unremarkable, save for her inability to hit at the rim.

Sydney Hines kept CCSU in it with her shooting. She established herself as a long-range threat who had to be respected, even if our defense didn't always acknowledge that. Brianna Jacobs was a beast on the boards, out-rebounding and boxing out taller and larger posts. (The hair might have helped cushion some of the impacts she was taking, though.) She made a lot of good things happen for the Blue Devils.

I'm pretty sure at some point Giocelis Reynoso played volleyball. Either that, or she stepped out of a time machine from Cuba in the early '90s. With the slight Afro (and even that's an exaggeration, but I don't know the proper term), the headband, the build, and even the jersey style, she looked like something out of a picture from the '96 Olympics. She went often to the basket and got swatted, and we're not completely certain whether her one basket was truly hers or if it was an own goal by Shadeen that was credited to her. Ashley Chin didn't stand out, but I think her shots were more midrange than her skill set- I don't think she was hitting a lot of shots. Andi Lydon picked up her game in the fourth quarter and overtime- she was in in the crunch. They needed her to be bigger than she was, but she was pretty damn good on the boards.

Aleah Epps is fun to watch. I mean, she's the cause of profanity if she's playing against your team, because she gets low on defense and she drives hard on offense, and she has no off switch, but if you can separate yourself from your feelings about your own team, she's really fun to watch. She's energetic, and she makes a lot of good things happen on offense. Kiana Patterson was a three-point specialist, and there are worse things to be. As mentioned above, she forced overtime with the buzzer-beater, and it was a beauty. She got up in the ref's face near the end of the game, when Bird was shooting free throws. I'm not sure if she was questioning whether it was a foul, whether it was a shooting foul, or whether Bird should have been the shooter. (Given that Bird shoots free throws like your average center, I would think an opponent would be totally cool with her being the shooter.)

I was surprised Seton Hall didn't go to Skyler Snider at all in the second half. She was pretty solid on defense, and it was clear the starters were getting pretty run down by the end of the fourth quarter. Deja Winters got three-happy, especially in the first half, and I suspect that's why her minutes were cut as the game went on- you have to choose your moments, and I don't think Deja did that. She's also got to learn when not to initiate contact. But she's a freshman, like so many of these Pirates, and I get the feeling she'll learn. Shadeen Samuels had a lot of very good looks at the basket that she missed short, and damn near put it in her own net at the other end. I love the hustle, but this was not her day, to put it lightly. Lubirdia Gordon did work on the boards, but I think the rebounding numbers given her in the box score were a bit generous- she had a lot of balls fall out of her hands. Plenty of times she had a teammate around to recover, which helped, but it just looked like she lost a lot of her hand strength while she was laid up. Her teammates did a great job of finding her down low, and she did a great job of being available down low for easy looks at the basket (or putbacks off said easy looks).

I'm starting to understand what Coach sees in Kaity Healy. She's not affecting the box score as much as I'd like, but she's tenacious on defense, she recovers well, she anchors the team, and she keeps her head (which is pretty good for a college kid, even if she's a redshirt and thus a year older/more mature than a regular freshman). I'm still not sold on her as a starter, and she might even be more useful as the captain of the second unit than as part of the first unit (think Erin Thorn with the Liberty, only she doesn't have to also coach the team). Kaela Hilaire was perhaps too willing to call her own number- I'm not sure how many plays were supposed to be run through her. But she came on stronger as the game went on, and if it wasn't for her and TT, we would have lost to an NEC team, which is not good for the Big East. This was important for her. Ditto for LaTecia Smith, whose stat lines always give me the urge to append "and a partridge in a pear tree" to the end of them. She's so quick on the ball, and she spearheads the defense really well. I could do without some of the one-handed pull-up shots in the lane, and some remedial clock awareness work, but other than that, I really, really like her.

Claire Lundberg got the team off to a quick start with a trey five seconds into the game. (I detect a theme here.) She played big out of position, in more ways than one- injuries have plopped her in the four slot, and that's not her strength. I like the moves she made in the paint as much as the three-pointers. Jayla Jones-Pack has to get stronger and more assertive- she spent way too much time looking dazed, confused, lost, or several seconds behind the play, and that's not going to fly. Coach Bozzella went with the senior experience over the freshman in her case down the stretch, and I don't blame him one iota. I think Jayla has the potential to be a solid center, but right now she's still on the learning curve.

The officials really let 'em play out there. Lots of contact in the lane that could have been called and wasn't- but heaven forfend you stay in the lane too long, because they were on that. The coaches didn't seem too upset, but the players were.

Central Connecticut brought fans, but they really only got into the game in the fourth quarter, though it was close throughout. I'm disappointed in that, in a way; I would have thought they'd stay with it the whole time.

Have you ever literally had to put your jaw back into place? That's what Patterson's shot did to me. Thank the sweet hypothetical baby Jeebus for KK and TT in the OT.