December 16th, 2017: Manhattan at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: LIU scored the first basket, but it was all downhill from there for the Blackbirds as Manhattan built up as much as a 40-point lead on their way to a 72-38 win. Kayla Grimme led the Jaspers with 15 points, while Courtney Warley added 14 points and 12 rebounds. Denisha Petty-Evans led LIU with 11 points.

For putrid offense, soft defense, bad shots, a lot of guessing, a lot of green people, throwing freshman spaghetti at the wall, and the nagging feeling I should have done my laundry instead, join your intrepid and refrigerated blogger after the jump.

And now, the storm before the calm. Your intrepid blogger will be at five games in the next six days, including the big UCLA East Coast trip that I've been looking forward to for quite some time. And then there will be massive amounts of holiday baking, followed by a stretch of falling over.

We're starting this run off at LIU, where the Blackbirds will be taking on Manhattan of the MAAC.

The original plan for the day was to experiment with bus routes, but I spent too much time looking for cheap vanilla extract at Marshall's, so it's train time again. Should still make it in plenty of time for the game, but I'm a little bummed I couldn't go the long way around. Then again, no rules about doing it on the way home... after all, I'm flying solo today.

(On second thought, I'm down to 34% battery and my power bank is dead. Guess it's the train to the 56 after all.)

Manhattan has a custom bus. I mean, it's not the fanciest bus, but it's got their name and hashtag on it.

Looks like Lynette Taitt isn't dressed for the Jaspers, which means they might have to go a little deeper into their guard rotation. Or, I guess, ask Gabby "mini-Moriah" Cajou to play more minutes.

Alex Smith, whoever told you that you looked good with sideburns lied to you and is not your friend.

It's 43-19 Manhattan at the half, with the Jaspers ending each quarter with a trey. We ended the half by fumbling the ball on the inbounds- not fumbling the inbounds, but fumbling it before it ever came inbounds. Kayla Grimme and Amani Tatum each have 11 for Manhattan. Jeydah Johnson has seven for LIU, while Denisha Petty-Evans and Stylz Sanders each have six. If you do the math, you will realize the even bigger problem with that scoring distribution for the Blackbirds. Quirky stat here: Stylz's baskets all came on and-1s... and she's missed all three free throws.

At the end of the first quarter, I tweeted, "Have Coke. Send rum." I stand by that statement.

Hostos's team is across the aisle in the next section over. Boss letter jackets.

There is a tiny child behind the Manhattan bench area in an equally tiny Manhattan jersey. Okay, I guess that's cute. If you're into that kind of thing.

Those who have been following the GNoD since my cross-posting days understand that I have developed a policy of not swearing in the GNoD. I would like to be all-ages-friendly. So my exact opinion of this game will have to remain at my Twitter (@NYCScribbler, shameless plug) and the words you will read below are but a lengthy paraphrase of the pithy summation posted there.

The Manhattan bench was rooting really hard for Pamela Miceus when she came in at the end of the game, and they seemed bummed when she missed the look right at the basket. Nyala Pendergrass is long and lanky (her build reminds me of a volleyball player) and did good work on the offensive glass. Julie Høier brought height off the bench- I'm not entirely sure where she fits in Manhattan's scheme yet, though. They seem to like small guards and really big forwards, and she seems to be more the traditional European forward who shoots threes despite her height. Alex Smith is a very large woman. This is a problem for a team that regularly expects a 5-9 player to guard post players. We put DeAngelique Waithe on her, and she bumped her right out of the way to score at the basket. She's not mobile, and I'm still not sold on her stamina, but she certainly makes herself a target down low. Especially if the officials aren't calling three-seconds, she provides Manhattan with a size advantage on offense.

I don't know why Gabby Cajou doesn't start. I'm sure Manhattan has their reasons, and I certainly don't begrudge them their seniors. But she's damn good. She gives them killer speed- the ball is not safe coming up the floor if she's behind the ballhandler. I think during the Battle of the Bronx I compared her to Moriah Jefferson if you accidentally left her in the dryer, and I'll stick to that comparison (and not just because I like that turn of phrase). I don't know if she has a jumper or if her only source of offense is the rocket-fueled drive to the basket. Lizahya Morgan is of similar size, but seems to have more of a jumper when she does shoot. She seemed quieter, somehow. Kelly Anne O'Reilly came into the game late and hustled on defense. Her three-point shot was not pretty, though. Nyasha Irizarry missed her one shot badly (probably one of the high points for the LIU supporters in the stands was being able to give her the "airball" chant). I think she was part of an offense-defense switch, but honestly, there were so many Jaspers the numbers are starting to blur together in my head.

Courtney Warley mostly kept her elbows to herself this time around. She's smooth around the basket, and she got good position on our shorter players to snag offensive rebounds. She and Kayla Grimme work well together- if one missed a shot, the other was there for the putback, and if it was someone else missing the shot, they were both in position. Grimme had a simple go-to move with a single strong dribble and a single step to the basket. It was impossibly simple and equally impossible to defend. She can step outside a little bit, too- she ended the half with a straight-away three.

Amani Tatum is one of the most frustrating players I've ever seen as an opposing fan. I don't know whether it's one of those "love to hate her" or "hate to love her" situations. She plays with a chip on her shoulder, and I can always do without the diving theatrics from players. At the same time, I can't question the ice in her veins, or the leadership she shows on the floor- every stoppage, she was gathering her teammates around her to keep them fired up. She set the tone for Manhattan, scoring early and often, before leaning back to let her teammates carry the load the rest of the way. Taylor Williams was strong defensively, giving LIU no quarter. She made some solid plays on the offensive glass. Sini Mäkelä bombed from long-range, with mixed results. She needs to work on her defense a little bit.

Manhattan has a lot of size and rebounds well. This is not a good match-up for a team that starts a 5-9 power forward. They beat us on the boards and sealed us off defensively.

As an aside, I don't know what's making me angrier about this bus, the 40-minute wait for it to arrive, the fact that the driver then took his layover because schedules don't mean anything anyway, or the fact that I'm balancing my laptop on my backpack because I've been chasing a cockroach around my seating area. (Can't change seats. There's only one set of seats with enough leg room for the computer.) Honorable mention goes to the bus in front of us, which didn't flip its sign to reveal the route closer to my house until after we were both out of the last transfer point. There are times when I really don't like the MTA very much.

Daisha Davis was, IMO, one of the few bright spots in the game for LIU. She has a great nose for the ball. She crashed the glass hard and pursued loose balls. I think she's got a lot of potential, assuming her spirit isn't crushed. It looked like Tia Montagne was dealing with some lingering stiffness- she opened the second half riding the exercise machine to nowhere. I like her speed and the high arc of her shot, but she's got to be a touch more offensive-minded, unless she's supposed to be a strict distributor, which means she needs to work on her ballhandling instead. Ella Vaatanen gave me the urge to learn Finnish just so I could yell "What exactly were you thinking?!" in it at least twice today. If she's going to be a three-point shooter, she needs to actually be able to shoot from the NCAA line. Her shots were almost consistently short, and not even all that deep. If she had confidence at any point in her Blackbird career, she doesn't seem to have it now.

Destoni Willock got the benefit of the doubt on her drives (most of them should have been travels), but even with that advantage couldn't convert them. Her rebounding improved as the game went on, but I don't know if she looked better because she was learning from her mistakes, or because she was going up against inferior opposition. Seneca Richards chucked threes most of the afternoon, some of them rather deeper than necessary. She did make some good hustle plays on loose balls, though.

DeAngelique Waithe. You know you're my favorite. You know I usually only castigate you for offensive ineptitude and usually I am singing your praises about defense and rebounding. But in order for me to do that, you actually have to rebound and defend. These are not things that happened with great frequency in this game. She found some energy in the third quarter, but it was gone pretty quickly. I'd have to check the play-by-play, but I think it was the sequence where we had four shots and ended the possession with a bad pass by Drew that took the wind out of her sails. 404 error, damns not found. Stylz Sanders did yeoman's work in the paint, but there was only so much she could deal with, being consistently outsized and outmuscled. I'm not necessarily giving her a pass, but I think she did everything she could out there and then some.

Drew Winter has to stop with the bunny hop. There are a lot of things that are technically travels that are never called. That's the kind of thing that's too blatant not to call. She keeps doing it, and she keeps turning the ball over. Denisha Petty-Evans needs to finish at the basket if she's going to get the fast break opportunities. She was throwing it up there without seeming to make any real attempt to hit the shot. Jeydah Johnson showed more range than I was used to out of her, but couldn't hit when she got closer to the basket, and seemed to be backing out of plays a lot.

Where do I begin to dissect this collective trainwreck? Our passing was bad. Our ballhandling was bad. Our shot selection was bad. Our defense was soft. We played like we were mired in concrete. Do I think we were at least partially cowed by their size? Yes. Does Manhattan have team leaders and players who can take over a game? Yes. But we should have at least looked competitive out there. We had to come back just to cut it under 40.

I would love to blame the officiating, but except for a couple of stumbles (#15 is not #30 and Stylz is not Denisha, and I'm pretty sure Manhattan's coach lobbied for a call that was made about five seconds of real time after the initial infraction) I can't put it all on them, as much as I might like to.

I can't think of anything else to say about this game that isn't profane, so I'm wrapping up and going to bed. Tomorrow's a big game with a lot of travel involved.