November 3rd, 2017: Hofstra at Fordham

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Hofstra led by as much as 17 in their 55-46 win at Fordham. Aleana León had 20 points on 7-7 shooting to lead all scorers, adding a team-high seven rebounds. G’mrice Davis led Fordham with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Lauren Holden added 16 points, 14 in the second half.

For improvising, rebounding, raw freshmen, a lack of concessions, blonde hair, international players, and arguing with wi-fi, join your intrepid and hectic blogger after the jump.

If you don’t hear from me by the end of Sunday, that’s probably because I’ve passed out and I’m drooling adorably into the keyboard. I’m off to Fordham right now, for their fundraiser against Hofstra. I was going to stay for the second half of the double-header, but instead it’s D&D night down in Sheepshead Bay, and then it’s off to South Orange. And I did laundry this morning. I’m just that good.

It takes rather a while to get to the Bronx from southern Queens. That jackass with the “the train is going nonstop!” schtick was back again. Dude, I’m not saying you’re wrong about Trump and police brutality against people of color, but you’re not going to make friends scaring the hell out of people on their way home. We also had a candy vendor and a panhandler.

We are here. Concessions are not. Officially the exhibition is free, but there was a suggested donation of $10. Since that was what I was planning to donate anyway, I took that suggestion, but not until I could get a twenty broken by a friendly Hofstra fan.

Bre Cavanaugh seems to have taken inspiration from Layshia Clarendon. That is a lot of very blonde hair.

Samantha Clark looks strange in street clothes. I barely recognize her.

I think between these two rosters we have a dozen countries represented. International basketball, eff yeah!

At halftime, Hofstra is up 27-14. Aleana León has 14 to lead the Pride, perhaps unsurprisingly inspired on account of being Puerto Rican and this game being a fundraiser for hurricane relief/recovery in Puerto Rico. G’mrice Davis has seven points and eight rebounds for Fordham. The Rams seem to be working the freshmen into the game more than I was led to expect from pregame conversations. It has had mixed results, to say the least.

Rose Hill’s acoustics are good enough, and I’m close enough, and it’s quiet enough, that using the Seattle “BRICK!” on opposing free throw shooters is drawing the “what the hell is that noise?!” looks back from three of the Fordham bench players.

Dance team is at half speed, from the looks of it, but I might also be spoiled.

I’m really not comfortable with Fordham insisting I download and install something to access the wi-fi. I mean, it’s better than St. John’s, but that’s not saying much.

I could kill for a soda right now. Y’all really couldn’t open up concessions an hour early for this game? I want to give you money, Fordham. Why do you not want me to give you money? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.

The Rams came up with a spirited comeback in the second half behind their captains, but they missed too many shots in the clutch and couldn’t hold on to the ball if their lives depended on it. If you’re going to rely on G’mrice Davis to the extent it looks like Fordham is, everyone’s got to be ready to come help when the double and triple teams come down on her. I don’t know if the freshmen understand that, and if they do, whether they’re ready for it.

Hofstra seemed to have it a little more together, but I think that might be the experience talking; even sophomores have that year under their belts that freshmen don’t. Coach Kilburn-Stevesky wasn’t afraid to let the officials know what she thought about G’mrice Davis in the paint, and I’m not saying she’s wrong, but I’m also not saying that she wasn’t getting pushed around down there either.

Petra Krupenko was mostly in to be a warm body when Hofstra was juggling some foul trouble. Ditto for Mie Hoff, who was in and out in the space of a possession. For guard minutes, Hofstra mostly went to Sica Cuzic, who demonstrated a distressing knack for good timing- the two shots she hit were a three (that I thought she was over the line on) to end the first half and a driving lay-up to end the third quarter. She’s a little pell-mell, but she’ll do. Sandra Karsten provided a little back up in the post positions, usually for Ashunae Durant, but was unremarkable.

Ashunae Durant drew the unenviable task of primary defender on G’mrice Davis, and made G’mrice’s life pretty miserable in the post. There was holding, and there was grabbing. She had a lot of wild shots miss at the rim, but I don’t blame her for being tired. Marianne Kalin was solid for the Pride, with nifty turnaround moves over her shoulder that shook off the less experienced Fordham defenders, a knack for rebounds, some good (if borderline legal) screens, and big help defense on G’mrice.

Maybe this was just a good match-up for Aleana León. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. But she had herself a day- I didn’t realize until I looked at the stats that she literally didn’t miss a shot. She was on fire early, keeping pace with the entire dang Fordham team for most of the first half. She cooled off a little in the second half, but stepped it up on defense as if to compensate. She had a big block on G’mrice Davis that was awesome on one hand and a little embarrassing for G’mrice on the other. E’Lexus Davis had a couple of back-and-forth sequences with G’mrice as if they were trying to prove who the superior punctuated Davis was. (I mean, duh, it’s still G’mrice.) Olivia Askin seemed to be a three-point specialist, judging from the shot she hit and the shot that she was fouled on. She was quiet, but that might be by design. I think I’d need to see Hofstra again to determine that, and that’s not in the cards this year.

Ralene Kwiatkowski was inserted briefly in both halves, and her shot looks pretty, but it went all kinds of places, none of them the bottom of the basket. I love the defense Zara Jillings brought off the bench. She was all over loose balls and making really good plays on the ball. I like the quickness of her three-point release, but she needs to work on accuracy and range- it was pretty short. Kendell Heremaia brought a change inlineups when she came in, because she was usually subbing for the center Halei Gillis. I like her toughness, but she still has a lot of rough edges to work off.

Halei Gillis, on the other hand, might be made up of more rough edges than actual potential at this point. You’re not supposed to sawhorse your own teammates, Halei. She’s a big body, but she’s got to learn how to use her size. She’s physical, and not in good ways. I don’t know whether I want her to tone down the physicality or get more assertive on offense. Someone’s also got to work on her free throw motion and get that double-pump out of it. It’s heinous. She got benched to start the second half, and I can’t say I blame Coach Gaitley for making that swap. G’mrice Davis needs to stop leading with the forearm, because she’s going to get called for it and it’s going to keep her out of games at the wrong time. She als oneeds to improve her footwork. I was impressed with her ballhandling, though, and when she decides to take the ball to the hole, it’s going to take two or three defenders to stop her. Fordham’s going to be painful to watch this year, but she’s worth the price of admission. I was also impressed with Johanna Klug- she needs to work on her defense and her conditioning, but I like what she brings to the table on offense. Nice shot, good hustle.

On one hand, I don’t necessarily think Lauren Holden needs to be launching those three-pointers from Cape May. On the other hand, when they go down, they have a tendency to go down in bunches, as they did in the third quarter, and that gets both the team and the crowd going. I kinda get the feeling she and G’mrice aren’t on the same page when it comes to where G’mrice wants to get her passes- G’mrice had to reach awkwardly for a couple of them, but I’m not sure if it was Lauren’s pass or G’mrice’s positioning that was off. Bre Cavanaugh definitely looked like she was in her first game in over year. She was slow to her spots, she threw up a couple of airballs, and she committed intensely stupid fouls. I know she has to be smarter than that- Cal’s a good school, and Fordham’s no slouch academically either. But she looked bad out there. I really hope that was the worst game of her collegiate career and it’s only going to get better from here.

A fair amount of contact was allowed on both sides. Both coaches had their issues with the officials, and I’m not saying either of them was wrong. I suspect that if the game were called completely by the book, both G’mrice Davis and Ashunae Durant would have fouled out in the middle of the fourth quarter. I’m not entirely certain Johanna’s footwork is as bad as the officials made it out to be (most of her turnovers were on travels).

Does Fordham not actually have any cheers beyond the basic “DE-FENSE!” chant? Because the cheerleaders didn’t really seem to be into it, and I don’t know Fordham’s traditions well enough to start anything myself. If it’s another round of them saving themselves for the men’s game, I might be a tiny bit annoyed (which these days seems to be my baseline state).

I think it’s going to be a long year for both teams, but I can see potential for both of them next year. But maybe we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on later in the season.