December 13th, 2016: St. John's at Fordham

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's broke open a close game late in the fourth behind strong defense and cold Fordham shooting to win 59-45 at Rose Hill Gymnasium. Jade Walker had 18 points and eight rebounds to lead the Red Storm, with Alisha Kebbe adding 16 points and seven rebounds. Danielle Burns had 13 points for Fordham.

For buses, trains, terrible shots, hands on hips, family affairs, tiny guards, loud guards, and an Onix that might not suck, join your intrepid and peripatetic blogger after the jump.
Road trip! Fordham's a pain in the whatsit to get to on a weeknight, but a bus and three trains later, here I am at Rose Hill. Missed the first few minutes and the pregame, so no grading on that point.

At halftime, St. John's is up 27-22. Alisha Kebbe and Jade Walker each have 8 points. Danielle Burns has 5 to lead a scattershot Fordham offense. Both teams have a key player in early foul trouble, with Akina Wellere picking up two first quarter fouls for St. John's and G'mrice Davis picking up her third in the second quarter for Fordham.

I think Jordan Agustus's family made it out; at least, there's someone here in a Jordan jersey, there's a woman here who kind of looks like her around the eyes, and they seem very excited when she does something.

It hasn't been a pretty game, what I've seen of it. Four subs on the floor with Aaliyah Lewis is not working. And just to make things worse, we have an Enterline officiating, so you know there are going to be an awful lot of bad calls; in this case, it's a phenomenal lack of calls under the basket. Someone's going to get hurt.

So far Fordham is my favorite campus for playing Pokémon Go. Lots of stops, lots of spawns. Mama needed an Onix that didn't suck.

We must be doing something wrong. Kathy Meehan was surprised I was here instead of at Rutgers (where Seton Hall is playing). For God's sake. I'm a Johnnie. I'm very often a Pirate, a Gael when I can be, a Wolverine when I can, occasionally a Blackbird, and sometimes even a Ram, but first and foremost I'm a Johnnie. This is my team, until such time as either I move out of range or the school moves out of range, along with a plethora of other potential factors (and let's face it, while Joe is not my favorite coach, I don't think he has the CVS level of crazy in him to warrant a ship-jumping).

Well, I can't say that was a great game, or a game that advanced the cause of women's basketball in New York City, or much of a rallying point for anybody. But as the saying goes, a win is a win, and at least the torturously twisted journey to and from Fordham isn't completely for naught. (One bus, three trains in; two buses and a train back, but one of the bus rides home can be summed up as "hella long".) (And at least I didn't go to Piscataway. Yeeeeeesh.)

Maya Singleton brought fight off the bench tonight, but for the most part, I don't think it was properly directed. She was physical, but not careful with that physicality, which led to fouls. Fordham knocked her off her spot on the glass, and she wasn't effective in getting back. Jordan Agustus threw up one shot that needed either bent knees or something vaguely resembling a follow-through; calling it a line drive might be an insult to baseball players. She had a really nice board on the baseline, though. I know Sandra Udobi went in, because I was sitting behind the bench and I watched her check into the game, and I can't remember a single thing she did on the floor. I'm sorry, Sandy.

As always, Crystal Simmons brought the defense- she had one great play at halfcourt that stands out in my mind, and she was very active. Offensively, she struggled- not just her shooting or an unwillingness to shoot, but as a passer as well. Andrayah Adams was her offensive counterpart, getting decent looks from the outside and hitting a couple of them (though upon further review, I think one of them was a lay-up in the paint). She also seemed to be running more of the offense when Aaliyah couldn't immediately take the reins. I feel like that might be promising?

We didn't get to see a lot of Akina Wellere due to the foul trouble, and she didn't look like herself- her shots weren't falling and she didn't seem like she was getting good looks. I thought her defensive game and her boxing out were stronger than usual, though; more of a forward than a guard, as it were. Imani Littleton seemed really checked out for most of the game- very passive, very careless, almost indifferent to what was happening on the floor. She asserted herself more in the fourth quarter, though I suspect that might have been through some of Coach's... ah, encouragement and attention. Let's just call it that. She's always had that Zen expression, SoCal chill attitude on the floor, but it seemed more pronounced today. Fortunately for all parties involved, except for Fordham, we had Jade Walker on hand, and this was a night when Jade was bound and determined to make her presence felt in the lane. She took contact and dished a fair amount of it out. She hit jumpers, but she was more impressive spinning in the lane. Do not taunt happy fun Jade. Jade will make you regret it.

Fortunately, we also had Alisha Kebbe on hand to drive to the rack and hit the hard shots in the lane. I'm a little worried about her defensively, because it looked like she was biting on fakes a lot, or really missing first steps, or something- one minute she'd be in front of her woman and the next she was two steps behind watching a lay-up. I hope she'll learn to not get faked, or she'll work on her lateral quickness, or something to fix that problem, because I'm not a big fan of offensive players who net out to zero because they give up as many points as they score. (I'm not objecting to Alisha's scoring output tonight, though!) Aaliyah Lewis ran the offense with her usual deft hand, but the thing I noticed most when I was this close in this small an arena is how loud she is. St. John's has long had a tendency to be a quiet team, but Aaliyah is most definitely an exception to that. She signals, she calls for players' attention. She also seems to take glee in tricky dribbling and metaphorical ankle injuries to opponents. She had a really nice takeaway at halfcourt that led to a scoring chance.

(That being said, either Andrayah or Crystal or Shamachya or someone has to step up next year, because otherwise we'll be the St. John's Headless Chickens. Everyone looks to Aaliyah.)

Fordham relied on a more balanced bench for much of the game, partially occasioned by the foul trouble of G'mrice Davis. I liked what I saw out of Anna Kelly in the first half- she strikes me as feisty, quick, and reasonably bright on the court- but clearly Coach Gaitley and I weren't looking at the same things, since Kelly didn't play in the second half (at least not that I noticed). Tiffany Suarez was unremarkable- she might have transferred in from a Power 5 school, but I think she was in over her head at this level of competition. She didn't look ready for the defense. Asnate Fomina came in looking like she was supposed to be an offensive option, but never really got a shot off.

Mary Goulding has a lot of potential. Her shot needs a little work, but all the pieces are there for her to be really great for them. Danielle Padovano is a good option to have on offense- she isn't quite as capable from beyond the arc as many of Fordham's forwards are (or have thought they were- I'm looking at you, Samantha Clark) but she's enough of a threat that you have to take her seriously. That being said, they needed better shots from her down low to take the place of the foul-plagued G'mrice Davis.

Lauren Holden is a firecracker, and sheer fun to watch. To quote Jim Butcher (so now you know the source of the line): "Tiny, but fierce!" She's fast, and she's fearless (one of her fouls was on a play where she was defending the daylights out of Jade Walker). Her shot is fast and has a sweet follow-through. And you can't question her confidence on the court. She makes an interesting contrast to Hannah Missry, who seems to have lost her confidence, or at least her shot, which is a bit of a problem for a player best known as a shooter. She rebounded well off long shots, including her own, though, so she's diversified her game a bit. It almost looks like she's moved to the point and Holden is playing more of an offensive role, though I don't know hwo sustainable that is. We'll see who's available next year.

Danielle Burns is really adaptable- gets it done all over the court, on both ends. She's not spectacular, but she's solid. Kate Kreslina has a pretty jumper, but relied on it a little too much. With our height, and often lack thereof, she might have been more effective going to the basket. I didn't see a lot of G'mrice Davis, because of the fouls- she was already out of the game when I arrived at the gym. When she was in, she was a powerful force inside, but a reckless one. The fifth foul was a great example of that- after bumping Jade, she then proceeded to smack her in the head with a forearm, which is not a terribly good idea. She's got to be more disciplined if Fordham is going to get anywhere.

And the shooting has to be consistent. This goes for both teams, really. For St. John's, they have to not look to shoot for the foul instead of the shot. There were too many undisciplined heaves in the paint thrown up in the hope that one of the officials would call a foul. And we had an Enterline on the court, so you know that wasn't going to end well. For Fordham, their offense fell apart completely in the fourth quarter. They were getting looks, and they were getting boards, but nothing went down. There are two plays that stand out in my mind in that regard: in the first, Lauren Holden had a wide open breakaway lay-up after a fumble by Aaliyah, and bricked it; in the second, Fordham had no less than five chances on a single possession, and came away with no points. The fourth quarter was nothing short of a disaster for the Rams, and I'm not sure whether it was fatigue or an inability to adjust to the defense.

The officiating was extremely unsatisfying. Let's just leave it at that.

The Fordham band, or at least a couple of guys in the Fordham band, took Joe Tartamella as the target of their taunts, which I guess is better than picking on the players (and yeah, Aaliyah had that "OH-FOR-THREE! OH-FOR-THREE!" chant coming), but seemed a little bit petty. I was also under the impression that the "right, left, right, left, SIT DOWN!" game was only for when players fouled out, not when they were subbing in and out.

All in all, it was good to get back on the road with the Red Storm. The disadvantage of playing a stronger schedule is that so much of it is out of the area, and I miss the days when we played at local schools.