December 21st, 2017: Buffalo at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Stephanie Reid's basket and free throw with 5.2 seconds left sealed a 73-72 win for Buffalo at St. John's. Reid finished with 16, while Autumn Jones led the Bulls with 17 points off the bench, including three triples in the fourth quarter. Maya Singleton had 15 points to lead St. John's.

For frustration, friction, a distaste for children, people not understanding schedules, exhaustion, and general crankiness, join your intrepid and culinary blogger after the jump.


You're probably heartily sick of me at this point, and I can't say I blame you. All things considered, I'm starting to get sick of myself. This long crazy streak of games ends today, with Kids Day at St. John's as the Red Storm welcome Buffalo downstate.

It's too bright for this. It's too early for this. I don't like mornings, okay? Especially if you peep the timestamp on the Fordham-UCLA notes. I'm running on fumes, adrenaline, and entirely too much sugar. But it's almost over now, almost over now. One more game, three batches of cookies, and then sweet blessed temporary oblivion. On the plus side, these should be fairly entertaining notes. Sleep deprivation makes me act like I'm drunk and filters out the filter.

All, right, I guess if Q is on the floor we have to still count Staten Island as a borough. ;)

They're starting these kids off with such easy trivia questions that you'd think softball was sponsoring the event. I mean, really. How many days in a year and they don't have 366 as a curveball?

Lies. Coca-Cola is the most important drink of the day. Mama needs her caffeine.

Some of the Buffalo players seem fascinated by the emcee and the trivia going on in the stands in the upper deck. I guess it's something to keep yourself entertained while stretching.

The braids/dreads are working for Andrayah Adams.

Oh, dear. The annoying emcee is the same dude from Red Storm Tip-Off. At least he doesn't seem to have brought his air horn.

:/ If you're going to have a trivia question at a women's basketball game where the answer to "what sport does this team play?" is "basketball", I feel like the question should be about the Liberty, not the Knicks. A small thing, I know, but it rankles. It normalizes men's sports as the default, and I don't like it.

Someone on Buffalo seems to have dumped her hair in the Kool-Aid by accident. Grape, from the looks of it. Stefanie Dolson she is not.

I hate kids days. Camp, field trip, school, whatever. I hate kids using my leg as a backrest and kids' knees in my back and no space to put anything down. And I really hate day games like this when we lose, when the game turns suddenly, and sharply, and cruelly.

Ayoleka Sodade had a quick flurry of points in the first half on an and-1. I like her moves, but I can't say I'm surprised she didn't play in the second half- Buffalo was getting what they needed from the players who were in. Mariah Suchan was the one with the grape-stained hair. She did her best down low, but that wasn't saying very much.

I've never seen a player go from hero to goat on the same play before, but Autmn Jones just about managed it. She hit the three to put Buffalo up four- and then got called for a technical (I think she was taunting, but I didn't see the play). That led to a five-point possession from St. John's and Andrayah Adams. She was stroking threes from the corners in the fourth quarter, and had a nice steal and lay-up to give Buffalo their first lead near the end of the third quarter. Brittany Morrison is solid for her height. She set solid screens to open her teammates up for jumpers, laid a monster block on Akina Wellere, and scooped up a big steal. She's solid for them; if she were just a little taller, she'd probably be playing somewhere further up the food chain.

People don't usually flip the script and drop the thunder on Maya Singleton, but Summer Hemphill did as part of Buffalo's run and stand in the fourth quarter. She's slim and quick inside. Cassie Oursler was a match-up problem all night- we struggle with height, and she knows how to get close to the basket. If she had been hitting through the slightest bit of contact with any consistency, Buffalo wouldn't have had to have fourth-quarter heroics to win the game. Speaking in general, as a fan of many teams, I’m getting real sick of this two-man game wherein the other team collects offensive rebounds like they were going out of style

Stephanie Reid was the hero of the day for the Bulls, with the basket and the foul to give them the winning points. She's so tiny, but she's so fierce, and she knows how to leverage her size for steals. Cierra Dillard is somewhat less delicate, to put it lightly, but she has a good rapport on the floor with Morrison. They seemed to set each other up better than average (one of her passes was to assists was to Morrison, while Morrison got her loose for a three). I'm completely blanking on Katherine Ups, save the charge call.

I can't honestly say I was impressed with Buffalo. They were opportunistic, and they never gave up. That might win them more games that they have no business being in, but I don't see anything special about them.

For the first time since the exhibition game, Joe gave Kayla Charles some extended run, and I can't say the results were terrible, though one could argue that this was a sign of how lightly he was taking this game. She still needs to work on being in the right place at the right time, both on the boards and on defense, but I saw the potential that was there in the preseason game. But knowing Joe, he'll take this game as a sign that she needs to keep moldering on the bench with Machi and Sox. Andrayah Adams was fantastic, playing to her strengths as a shooter while also getting into the lane for free throws. It's actually a little refreshing to see a Johnnie prioritize offense. Qadashah Hoppie seems to be playing a little bit scared. A cynical part of me is wondering how badly she miscalculated where she would fit in at St. John's. I'd love for her to stay, but I don't know that I'd blame her if she left.

And again I say: Akina Wellere has got to be more careful with her footwork. And I'm getting tired of yelling "FOLLOW YOUR SHOT!" every time she backpedals after putting up a three. No one's shot is so automatic that you can assume it's going in, and no rebounder is so good that you can assume they'll save your bacon. She's not ready to carry the heaviest part of the offensive load the way Jade or Danaejah did, and I don't know that she'll ever be that kind of player. The more I see of her, the more I'm convinced she's a fantastic complementary player and absolute pants as a star. Imani Littleton has got to stop missing the fast break lay-ups, but I don’t mind if she keeps dropping the boom like she did on Katherine Ups. I love her defense and I love her rebounding, but I just wish she had more confidence on offense. (Which... is pretty much the story of being a St. John's fan, come to think of it.) Maya Singleton took it to the hole in the fourth quarter and got free throws, but Buffalo worked to box her out, and she wasn't able to pull down all the rebounds like she did against Kansas.

I'd love to see the +/- for Alisha Kebbe, because I remember her being quiet for long stretches, but the line is fairly efficient, so I'm wondering if something else is going on. It's been a day by now and my brain is still extremely tired; not only that, but it is full of cookies. So many cookies. Tiana England has got to stop with the endless dribbling, but we've covered this in other rounds of the GNoD. She can find the right person in the right place, but she's running the clock too far down for my comfort. And I realize my comfort is irrelevant in this situation. I'm also starting to understand that people are not necessarily in the right place and that's not Tiana's fault.

Oh, my dear sweet hot mess of a team. I love y'all, but y'all are a mess.

Refs overlooked an awful lot of travels, and I think St. John's got the benefit of the doubt on a lot of contact.

So that was our chance of an at-large up in smoke. Woo. Does this team not understand that Maya can't be the only person rebounding? That someone actually has to score points? We pride ourselves on our defense, and that's a thing I love, but even that's not working for us. We have a week to get our act together before starting Big East play with one of the toughest road trips in the conference. No pressure, kids.