December 12th, 2017: Fordham at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Bre Cavanaugh’s lay-up with forty-six seconds left in double overtime turned out to be the deciding basket in Fordham’s 67-64 win at St. John’s. Cavanaugh finished with a game-high 20 points, 18 coming after halftime. G’mrice Davis (11 points, 14 rebounds) and Mary Goulding (12 points, 10 rebounds) both notched double-doubles for the Rams. Tiana England had a team-high 17 points for St. John’s. Maya Singleton added 13 points and 15 rebounds.

For bad timing, transit distractions, a missing filter, terrible life choices, slowing the pace of the game, and unintentionally sabotaging your own team, join your intrepid and unspeakably frustrated blogger after the jump.
So, we meet again. It’s time for a lower-level Awkward Bowl. I’ve seen Fordham so many times this year that I’m actually starting to get attached to them, even if their offense is frustrating. But St. John’s is my primary team, first and foremost, so I’m in my jersey and waving my flag tonight.

Speaking of flag-waving, it’s Military Appreciation Night. We’re at halftime, and a group of ROTC are taking their oaths at center court. Thank you for your willingness to be maimed, psychologically scarred, and possibly killed in the name of freedom and oil before being written off as liabilities.

This also meant that there was a color guard, which the team didn’t realize, so they lined up to face the flag in its usual position. A whole bunch of yelling “COLOR GUARD!” got the squad to turn around in time.

Solid anthem performance. Then again, my standards are a bit lax at the moment.

At halftime, St. John’s is up 27-22. Maya Singleton has 9 points, while Alisha Kebbe’s been an offensive spark off the bench. Johanna Klug seems to have shaken off some of the freshman jitters and leads the Rams with 7. May be important later: G’mrice Davis and Bre Cavanaugh both picked up their second fouls late in the second quarter.

Dear refs: can y’all stop backsliding? Can y’all at least know the rules of the game you’re calling? St. John’s got into the bonus on a defensive foul, and the crew set everyone up for an inbounds. Um. No. Free throw time.

We see you, Lauren Holden. We see your elbows. WE SEE EVERYTHING.

I have twenty-five stops to go, the convenience store had flat Mountain Dew instead of Diet Coke, and some panhandler just got in my face, so boy howdy are these notes going to be cranky, even without factoring in basketball-related reasons to be cranky.

Fordham rarely goes deep into their bench, but Coach Gaitley rode her starters in this one even longer than usual. I like Kendell Heremaia’s new hairdo- something about the way she’s braiding it sets her face off well. She played in the first half, in her usual spot in the rotation, though she seemed to be handling more point guard-esque duties at the top of the key. She didn’t play in the second half. Zara Jillings entered as a spot defender, half of the offense-defense switch with Johanna Klug. The shot she did attempt was not pretty.

Lauren Holden can be a little bit of a punk, but she’s certainly fearless. She should probably pick on people her own size- in most cases, blatantly shoving the opposing post would cause a small guard a problem, but Imani Littleton is entirely too chill for her own good sometimes. She scrapped for loose balls on the sideline. After the Pittsburgh game, during the autograph session, I jokingly asked Bre Cavanaugh if that was blood in her veins, or ice water. Conclusion: it’s ice water. She wanted the ball late in the game and she hit big shots with it, whether it was the three in overtime or the and-1 in the second OT. She stepped up on both sides of the floor. I may object to her propensity to hit the floor at a weather forecaster’s indication of a slight breeze, and I may think she’s a little bit of a punk sometimes when she claps in the free throw shooter’s face (a couple of inches closer and she would have booped Tiana England’s nose). But I want her on my team, and I’m glad she’s on one of my teams (even if it wasn’t the team I was rooting for tonight). I think when this is her team, it’s going to be a very dynamic team to watch.

Holy crap, how did I never notice the holographic artwork at Lex-63rd on the F train before? That’s gorgeous!

As a long-time Johnny fan, I tend to compare players to former St. John’s players, because they’re the ones I know best. So y’all shouldn’t be surprised if I compare Mary Goulding to Coco Hart. Coco, bless her heart, could do some of the dumbest things you’d ever see on a basketball court. And Mary has a lot of those moments, with dubious ballhandling and missed chippies. But Coco was also tough as nails, showing the Memphis grit and grind before the Grizzlies really made it a thing. And Mary is too. She was a killer on the offensive glass tonight, getting brilliant position and taking advantage of it. For every possession she ended with a turnover, she probably earned two more on rebounds and loose ball hustle. Johanna Klug got the Rams off to a good start with her first half offense- I know Fordham likes to shoot threes, but I’m not used to them coming from her. She smooshed Akina Wellere on a block that was a terrible life choice by Akina. G’mrice Davis got very few easy shots, and even some of the ones she managed to shake loose for didn’t go down. But holy damn can the woman rebound, and she seemed to pick up momentum on the glass as the game went on, which is pretty impressive for someone whose only rest came right before halftime. She has more midrange than I thought, though I think the almost three-point attempt was pushing her luck.

If I had my Fordham hat on right now, the biggest worry I would have is communication breakdown. G’mrice and Bre, and G’mrice and Lauren, didn’t always seem to be on the same page. There was one sequence where Bre was on the left wing and yelling for G’mrice to come set a screen for her, and G’mrice was yelling back that Bre should come over to her. Not the first time I’ve seen that kind of cross-up, which is part of why I think the team will be different, and not necessarily worse, when G’mrice graduates. (They may not necessarily be better, either, but they’ll be different.)

Tamesha Alexander played two minutes in the second half, and they weren’t an unmitigated disaster, which is about all I ask of Sox. I have learned to lower my expectations for her. Alisha Kebbe’s shot was working in the first half. It went away for stretches of the second, but she found big ones. I think some of the fouls against her were absolute nonsense, but she was playing pretty tough defense, so I’m not surprised. Honestly, Andrayah Adams should have fouled out before she actually did- no matter how obnoxious Bre Cavanaugh is being, you can’t just chop her in the throat. It’s uncouth, and it’s not Minnesota nice. One of these days she’s going to miss one of those contested, outnumbered, floaters in the lane, and on that day Joe Tartamella will likely rip her the new one he looks like he’s saving up for every time she puts it up and it falls.

I don’t know how much more I can take of our small forwards playing out of position, I really don’t. I don’t think it’s good for Akina, or Andrayah, or Alisha.

Someone on that bench needs to do some footwork and ballhandling drills with Akina Wellere. For whatever reason, what she does with her dribble is almost automatically going to draw a traveling whistle from the ref, even when more blatant travels are being ignored. But if that’s what’s being called on her, then that’s what she needs to change. She had a rough night- a lot of those misses in the lane were bad ones, wide to one side or flat out over the rainbow. Qadashah Hoppie had a quiet night, and because Andrayah and Alisha both had the hot hand and a better sense of the defense, she spent a lot of time on the bench. I think this was a night where she needed to be more assertive and more aggressive, to shake up our stagnant offense and give Fordham’s defense a different look to handle. Tiana England is really starting to frustrate me. There are times when she’s running the point with good speed, making plays, throwing good passes, and generally keeping things moving. But there are too many times, especially late in the game, when she slows things down way, way too much. That final possession was hot trash on a platter, and I throw about 35% of the blame for it on her. She needs to be more confident in her decision-making. I know she’s only a freshman, so maybe that’ll come with time, but I don’t know if she’s going to get the kind of coaching that will give her that kind of confidence.

I came here to watch Maya Singleton rebound, and readers, I was not disappointed. While G’mrice is more athletic and has a quicker first step, Maya is stronger and more determined. I liked that she was willing to use her jumper a little bit- it does seem to be improving. I love her motor and I love her rebounding and I love her toughness. She goes so hard for the ball. Imani Littleton made solid defensive plays on the inside and came up with a lot of crucial rebounds. Like Fordham, St. John’s used the offense-defense switch- she was the defensive half, while Andrayah Adams was the offensive half. I’m always looking for her to be more of an option on offense, but I’ll take the solid defense and the hard rebounding.

Clock management. Dear sweet nine-pound-twelve-ounce-reason-for-the-season baby Jesus, clock management. Joe’s tendency to encourage his players to milk the clock, or at least not encourage them to get into gear before the shot clock dips into single figures, has never been one of my favorite things. And you really can’t do that against Fordham, because they are perfectly okay with you doing that. They’ll do it to themselves, even- and they can get away with it a lot more than St. John’s can, because they have more clutch shooters and better rebounders. I really think it’s impeding our guards’ development, especially Tiana and Qadashah. The last possession of this game was a dumpster fire- no one wanted to shoot, everyone was passing the ball. For that matter, the last possession of regulation was a hot mess with a desperation three by Tiana England. For that matter, the last St. John’s possession of the first OT was a disaster, with Tiana throwing up a bad shot in the lane as the shot clock expired, having perhaps forgotten about differential, giving Fordham three seconds to streak down the court and have Bre Cavanaugh almost win at the buzzer. Someone on this team has to step up and be willing to take the big shots. We don’t have Jade Walker. We don’t have Aaliyah Lewis. We don’t have Aliyyah Handford. We don’t have Nadirah McKenith. We have Shenneika Smith, but she’s dressed all fancy on the bench. Someone needs to be a leader on this team.

Yes, I have strong feelings about this, thank you for noticing. My filter went to bed about two hours ago.

The officiating didn’t help our enjoyment of the game, either. We had a five-minute video review on an out of bounds play that I’ll swear on Naismith’s original rules of basketball was off G’mrice Davis, not Maya Singleton. There was the aforementioned free throw issue. There was the inconsistency in traveling calls. There were consecutive crap calls, one that was a block on G’mrice that should have been an STJ charge, immediately followed by a dubious defensive foul on (I think) Imani Littleton. Out of bounds calls, for the most part, seemed about 60/40 in St. John’s favor (at least the incorrect ones). I didn’t count, but I’m fairly certain three seconds was ignored for most of the game. I feel like officiating is steadily getting worse instead of better, and I wish I knew why.

Not that I don’t appreciate the aesthetics, but I think the dance team brought in LIU’s choreographer for tonight’s second half routine.

Great variety of music by the band, though that might have been too long a timeout to do “Seven Nation Army” if you only do the intro. (And, well, Fordham does it better.)

We have got to put together play cards to coordinate with band, cheer, dance, and out three-man student section on chants. I’m open to suggestions.

I know Fordham’s good this year. I know they have top-notch talent in front and backcourt. They did a better job of taking care of the ball and had players willing to take the shot when they needed it. But I think we have the better team, and that was a loss we didn’t need to take. Maybe, just maybe, this will be the wake-up call Joe needs to stop trying to have everyone play in quicksand.