November 26th, 2017: East Carolina at Rider (Seton Hall Thanksgiving Classic)

Just the Facts, Ma’am: In a tightly contested game, it was East Carolina that came out on top, 66-63. Dominique Claytor and Thais Oliveira each had 14 points to lead the Pirates. Kamila Hoskova had 18 points in the loss.

For driving, tripping, so many games, local flavor, and things I’ve forgotten, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.

Sleep is of the weak. Basketball is of the strong.

Turnarounds don’t get much tighter than this; finished the notes on Seton Hall from yesterday and I’m already on my way out there again for the concluding games of the Seton Hall Thanksgiving Classic.

What is it about religion that makes people overshare in ways that would otherwise be considered socially unacceptable? There’s a woman singing hymns on this train and she’s been singing the same song for something like three stops. At least she’s singing along to her headphones instead of talking to people who seriously don’t exist, but if I wanted to listen to music on the train, I would have brought my headphones and my iPod.

It’s half an hour before the consolation game, which will feature Rider and East Carolina, and there are eight people in the stands. And I’m pretty sure two of them are school employees of some school or another. I don’t think anyone knows who’s got which bench, though we got to see East Carolina warming up, so we know they’re using the visiting bench, while Rider is using the home bench. Sometimes I wonder how those things are decided. Sometimes I’m too tired to care.

Someone here has a taste for country music, and I’m not sure if it’s one of the facilities guys or someone on East Carolina. I’m not saying I mind, I’m just surprised by the selection.

East Carolina’s warm-up shirts are even worse up close. Like, what are you supposed to do with that diagonal zipper? And why is the purple not quite right?

At halftime it’s 30-26 ECU. East Carolina has controlled most of the way, but Rider’s hanging tough. Foul differential is not helping the other Pirates.

There are a few of our Pirates in the stands. I am digging Shadeen Samuels’s jacket. She carries herself like she knows she’s got swag.

It’s nice to get external validation of my sense that the officiating is getting worse, not better.

Guys. Y’all really have to review whether a ball went out of bounds before the end of the half when the result is 0.2 going back on the clock? You can barely even do anything with that much time. It took longer to review it than it did to play it out (though not by much, since the initial inbounds pass actually hit the rim).

Well, that was an adventure. It was a close game, and it was certainly closely contested all the way through. I admire the guts of both teams, but there were a lot of times it bore more resemblance to amateur wrestling than basketball out there, and I have a problem with the officials letting that happen. We’re lucky none of the injuries in this game were serious.

Once again, Desiree Corbin: if you’re going to foul the shooter, make sure she doesn’t hit the shot. Cheap stupid fouls after the shot has been released don’t help anyone. She had to play some extra minutes with the injury to Dominique Claytor, and I don’t think that was the plan ECU’s coach wanted to go with. Tania Pierre-Emile got a couple of minutes and a nice backdoor lay-up with them. I’d have to check the box Score, but I think Destiny Campbell’s minutes tracked pretty closely with Desiree Corbin’s, though they were more effective (at least I will take a basket over a dumb foul). Mickayla Sanders was less physical than she was yesterday; she seemed to be backing off more plays and letting her teammates handle the rebounding. (And no, it wasn’t boxing out. I like boxing out.)

Raven Johnson was first off the bench in this one, sometimes very early. She had to sub that early in one half because of injury, but I’m not sure which one it was. Justice Gee did not have a good day- too many bad fouls, nto enough ball security. I can understand why she was benched from yesterday. Lashonda Monk is kind of tiny- for some reason, it didn’t seem so obvious yesterday. She was tenacious on defense, which sometimes worked out for her and usually ended in her getting called for a foul. There were a lot of fouls. SO many fouls. All the fouls on everyone.

I’m surprised Necole Hope’s mother (or other female relative who was on the floor yesterday when she was injured) didn’t get herself thrown out yelling at the refs. I know, I am the world’s biggest hypocrite in this regard, but I don’t stand up and yell at specific officials. The foul trouble really cut into her minutes, as did her inability to hit a basket. Yesterday’s game earned Ariyana Williams the start, and she definitely had the green light to shoot. She got off to a very strong start, with eight points in the first quarter, but outside shooters can be streaky, and there were times when her shots didn’t fall. There’s definitely something I like about Alex Frazier- she came up with big plays when her team needed them in the second half, whether it was the basket or the pass. She’s a strong leader for them.

Dominique Claytor bounced back from her injury in a hurry. She went down hard and spent a good chunk of time away from the bench (unfortunately, in double-headers like this, locker room facilities are not always fully available, so you get teams having to do medical stuff in the lobby). She really stepped her game up in this one, hitting the glass hard and intercepting passes. Her fourth quarter was huge in the win, and is probably what got her on the all-tournament team. Thais Oliveira had a good defensive game, blocking shots and getting perimeter steals. I didn’t think she had a jumper, but surprise, there it was from just past the three-point line. She occasionally needs to be yelled at to move into position, but that happens to a lot of players.

The Pirates really cranked up the defense when they needed to. They like to press, and they like to scramble, so they were able to force steals. Their style did come with disadvantages, like being over the foul limit in every quarter.

Rider tightened up their rotation somewhat in this one. I don’t think they subbed beyond Jaiden Morris in the second half at all. So let’s see if we can squeeze everyone into one paragraph. Taylour Jones showed some nice ballhandling moves on the crossover. Tracey Goodman had a nice steal and a block on Oliveira in the first quarter, though I can understand Rider going smaller in order to counter East Carolina’s all-guard sets. Daija Moses sneaked into the game sometime in the first half (the PA guy wasn’t as on the ball with sub announcements as he was yesterday, and I am also immensely more tired than I was four games ago) and did some work on the block. Bright-haired Jaiden Morris was an offensive spark off the bench for the Broncs, but more of her shots were contested than they were yesterday, and she couldn’t adjust her game plan. I think she’s got a lot of potential, though she’s got to learn shot selection.

Once Stella Johnson managed to keep out of foul trouble, she was pretty dang good. She threw up pretty shots in the lane and was able to draw contact. She had a nice steal and fast-break lay-up in the third quarter. I can see her value to Rider now that she’s not sitting on the bench with early fouls. Kamila Hoskova was able to consistently draw fouls and get to the line- her ability to penetrate and hit both shots and free throws fueled the Rider run in the third quarter that gave them the lead at the quarter break. She hit the floor a lot on those drives and going after loose balls on defense. Lexi Posset spent enough time falling dramatically on minimal contact that I think she actually got a formal warning from the official. She got enough of those calls that the East Carolina fans were up in arms.

Lea Favre did a good job of making the baseline cut and score. Rider was able to use her size more effectively than they did yesterday, using her (or at least the threat of her) to make space in the lane. Aubre Johnson started racking up the fouls early on, and ended up fouling out of the game, so Rider wasn’t really able to use her effectively.

Enough with the tripping, guys. Both teams were physical, but Rider was more dangerous. I’m not looking forward to them playing Iona.

And the officials let a lot of it happen. Again. We are so lucky that no one was seriously injured. I don’t know how long we’re going to be this lucky.

Surprisingly fun game. I thought Rider might pull it out at one point, but East Carolina did just enough to win.