January 14, 2017: St. Francis at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Rachel Iozzia's three-pointer with nine seconds left turned out to be the game-winner in St. Francis's 56-54 win at LIU. Game MVP Kat Phipps had 11 points off the bench to lead the Terriers, notching nine of them in the fourth quarter to erase the Blackbirds' five-point lead. Shanovia Dove of LIU led all scorers with 20 points, with Brianna Farris canning four threes for 12 points in reserve.

For missed opportunities, riding the hot hand, a change of seasons, lousy officiating, and once again skipping intersectional discussions, join your intrepid and fuming blogger after the jump.

Hello, hello, hello! It's game day in Brooklyn, and it's one of the only LIU games that, no matter what, you have to watch. The Terriers of St. Francis College have hopped the train, or perhaps the B38 bus, or even just bundled up and walked down Flatbush, to take on the Blackbirds of LIU in the Battle of Brooklyn.

LIU has extra security out, but they've closed one of the bathrooms. Because closing facilities makes sense when you're expecting a big crowd, yes.

Fanfriggingtastic. A family of St. Francis fans has decided to park directly behind us. There are maybe 100 people in the entire building, and that might be including the players. Go away. Go sit across from your own bench.

(Yes, as a matter of fact, I have issues with St. Francis and their incredible whiteness. You want to represent Brooklyn, and New York, and the toughness of my city, and its vibrant diversity, your own diversity shouldn't be "our hair colors range from blondish brown to brownish blonde, except for the token black chick". And your coach shouldn't be getting players across four continents to achieve that look.)

(Yes, there are a whole bundle of intersectional issues to unpack here, thank you for asking. But I'm tired and this is a double-header. That discussion will not be today.)

At halftime, it's tied at 26, thanks to a really strong defensive stretch in the second quarter by LIU- St. Francis was held scoreless for the first six minutes of the quarter and without a field goal for the first eight. Shanovia Dove is doing work for LIU, and Brianna Farris's three-point shot from the corner has shown up. For St. Francis, Alex Delaney has done a good job of getting to the line, and Tori Wagner is strong defensively under the basket.

We're being treated to an adorable JV cheer performance with some pretty impressive gymnastics for elementary school kids. They might actually be more skilled than St. John's. And... that was the JV. Now the varsity is performing, and I think the primary difference is better synchronization than the JV. I'm a little intimidated, but in a good way.

Bless your heart, Angel, my most favorite flake. Coach Oliver got ready to put DeAngelique Waithe in the game, and Angel took off her warm-up shirt and ran to the scorer's table... whereupon Coach Oliver discovered Angel was not wearing her jersey. Angel did a couple of double-takes, realized that she was wearing her undershirt but not her jersey, and sprinted back to the locker room. Coach pulled back the sub after that.

You know what should never turn into a refshow? The final minute of a close, heated rivalry game. That was one of the biggest debacles I've ever seen in officiating, and I've been at games where the band all but chased the officials out the door. That was a disaster on top of shame on top of incompetence. We had our chances, and we were certainly given one, but the end-game officiating was not worthy of this game and this rivalry.

Kat Phipps was game MVP, and deservedly so. She stepped her game up in the fourth quarter, hitting big shots and big free throws. Samantha Keltos was tall, and took up space in the lane, but needs rather a lot of help offensively. She threw a lot of stuff at the rim without rhyme or reason. They were the primary reserves for SFC.

I was impressed with Tori Wagner in the few minutes she played. She needs to polish her offense somewhat, but her defensive instincts are very good. She had a very clever deflection down low that led to a rebound for Keltos. I was surprised she got as few minutes as she did. Etta Andersen saw a couple of minutes of relief time in the first quarter; Lorraine Hickman saw a few minutes in the third quarter. Neither made any noticeable impact.

I really do not like Alex Delaney. I'm not talking about her ability to draw free throws, either. I'm talking about the endless reaching, and grabbing, and holding, and other such behavior that crosses from aggression to dirty play. She hustles well, but not always in a good way. Olivia Levey was ballhogging a bit in the first half, and has an inexplicable love for the long jumper. It doesn't work for her. But we've been down this road in the STJ game notes with Jade Walker; I don't care enough about SFC to dissect it further for her. Maria Palarino did her work close to the rim, making backdoor cuts and cleaning up offensive rebounds.

Dana DiRenzo lists as a guard, but most of what I remember her doing was in the paint and on the glass, disrupting rebounds and pulling a few down herself. I was impressed with her strength and her tenacity. Rachel Iozzia hit the game-winning shot and is thus not one of my favorite people right now, but that's because I am saltier than the Morton's girl skipping across the Dead Sea at this moment. She has a nice shot. I am just not in the headspace to appreciate it.

Stylz Sanders got a few minutes on defense in the first half, but either she did something to get into Coach Oliver's doghouse or Coach decided to ride the hot hand. She might have been helpful. DeAngelique Waithe was okay on defense, but a step slow on reaction time. The jersey thing didn't help, and may even have been a symptom. (I mean. Really. How do you forget your jersey?!)

This is the first really extended look I've gotten at Autumn Ashe, and she impressed me defensively. I really like her instincts that way. The offensive ball thought will come, I think. It's easier to teach offense than defense, or at least it's easier to teach offensive ball thought than it is defensive ball thought, in my experience as a basketball fan. Drew Winter came on strong in the second half. She's really starting to find herself as a point guard, which might explain why Dionne Coe was a DNP-CD. (I am perfectly okay with this. Dionne has sort of captained the failboat this season.) Brianna Farris, despite the missed free throws at the end of the game, had one of the best games I've ever seen out of her. She had a rough start, fumbling the ball and having passes go off her hands, but came on strong from the second quarter on with her three-point shot and her defense. She had the right play to tie the game after the missed free throw- just a moment too late. Hold your head high, Brianna. You deserve it.

Seneca Richards started the game, but after one mind-numbingly stupid play, she got benched, and that was the last anyone saw of her on the court. I can't say I'm surprised. (Honestly, if Dionne is the captain of the LIU failboat, Seneca is the first mate.) Gabrielle Caponegro played scared, and she played tentative, and she has to grow out of that. She's going to lose minutes in a hurry if she doesn't. Aja Boyd needs extra spirit finger mojo to hit free throws, or at least that's the story I'm telling myself. She has to work on her footwork- she travels pretty much every possession, and it's up to the Random Number Gods whether the officials call it or not. I like her strength, and I think she's going to get better, but someone's gotta get back down to fundamentals with her.

Victoria Powell got the start, but Drew Winter took the bulk of the minutes at point. Victoria came back in late, and came up with a bucket in the fourth quarter. Shanovia Dove took control of the offense, almost to the point where none of the other perimeter players really knew what to do when she wasn't in the game. She was playing at a different speed from everyone else, which was an advantage when she was driving and rather a disadvantage when she was dishing out to her teammates. I sometimes get the feeling that Shanovia is doing her own thing out there, and Coach just has to let it happen because otherwise the offense doesn't exist.

I get the feeling most of the roster needs assertiveness training. They need to step up and show out. Everyone seems afraid to shoot. Shanovia's a senior, guys. She's only going to be with you for a few more months, and then someone else has to be the center of the offense. Who's it going to be? Who wants it?

So now we're going to talk about the officiating. More specifically, we're going to talk about how the final minute turned into an absolute refshow. We're going to talk about the rebound stolen from LIU, and the fact that St. Francis was trying to foul and never got called for the hacks and the shoves that led to three offensive rebounds. Then we're going to look at Rachel Iozzia's game-winning shot, and the fact that she traveled to get it, and that she was over the line and the officials never reviewed it. We're going to talk about the blatant jersey pull on Drew by one of the SFC forwards, either Palarino or Delaney, that went uncalled. All of this was not unnoticed. The crew was sub-standard all day, but this took the cake.

That all being said, at least they did call the three-point foul correctly. And as much as it tears my heart out of my chest to admit it, Brianna's putback was late. They were correct to not count it, and while counting it might have been karmic balance, it would have only exacerbated their failure as neutral arbiters of the game.

I am kind of hoping Coach Oliver has the LIU band mantra of "Free throws win ball games!" carved into every locker by the end of the week, though...