January 15th, 2018: Mount St. Mary's at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Strong defense in the clutch helped LIU hold off Mount St. Mary's, 53-48. DeAngelique Waithe had 17 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks to spearhead the Blackbirds' attack. Juliette Lawless had 13 points and nine rebounds to lead the Mountaineers in the loss.

For totally being a responsible adult, returning basketball to sender, post players breaking ankles, mean mugging the opponent to sleep, RedBullRedBullRedBull, and signs, join your intrepid and introspective blogger after the jump.

I have already adulted responsibly today. My mom had cataract surgery and I escorted her there and back again, carried her stuff, dropped off her laundry, and picked up her dry cleaning. So I feel no guilt in taking the R train back towards Manhattan three stops and going to LIU's game against Mount St. Mary's.

That is one big Mount on the Mountaineers' jerseys. I mean, dang.

Band anthems are almost always the best anthems.

At halftime, LIU is up 27-20. My most favorite DeAngelique Waithe is playing like she wants to get real paid, with 11 points and some monster blocks. Scoring is rather more scattered for the Mount, with Daly Sullivan's two long threes leading the way.

Bad news is that Jeydah Johnson is almost certainly concussed. She was on the bench with a towel over her head and her hands over her ears for the longest time, and she had to leave the bench for a while, though she's emerged about two minutes before the start of the third quarter. If she can't go- and from here I'd be very surprised if she even tried to give it a go- I don't know if we have the depth to hold anyone off, even a team as sloppy as Mount St. Mary's has been.

Well, so much for that theory. No, this is a good thing. Jeydah stayed on the bench the whole time (which is actually comforting, given the light/sound sensitivity it looked like she was showing in the immediate aftermath of the scrum) and we immediately got into major foul trouble, so Coach Del Preore had to go rather deeper into her bench for longer than I think she wanted to, and the reserves answered the bell.

Hunter Rowson entered the game for the Mountaineers in the first half, after a timeout, so it took a moment to recognize that she was in in the first place. I think we got into her head during the free throws she took. I'm okay with that. That's part of my job. Bridget Birkhead was mostly set up outside, but with her lack of scoring, she didn't leave much of an impression.

Rebecca Lee is a fairly big center for the NEC. She grabbed a couple of nice boards early. I felt really bad about trying to disconcert a fellow member of the sisterhood when she went to the line in the first half, but it's about the name on the front, not the name on the back, as it were. (I'm protective of my fellow Rebeccas. It comes from not having met another one in the flesh for the first nine years of my life. I thought we were all fictional!) Jatarrikah Settle played the bulk of the minutes off the bench for the Mount. She's got a nice jump shot and some good moves in the lane. I think she'll be good for them in a couple of years, and I think that's why she's coming off the bench now- she still seems to have a lot to learn.

Juliette Lawless did not make herself popular with the swinging elbows, but I have to admire her coast-to-coast drives. Shaky ballhandling along the edges of the court got her in a lot of trouble and caused LIU to strip her of the ball. She forces a lot of contact, and I guess I should respect that. (It just annoys me when officials go on long stretches of calls one way or another. But we'll get to that later.) Caroline Hummell has a surprisingly nice outside shot for a big center, but her hands were a hot hard mess. Lots of passes and deflections bouncing off them, which meant that loose balls occurred, which meant that LIU came out of a lot of scrums with the ball. I'd have to look at the play-by-play to see if it was her shots or Lawless's shots that Angel was sending back to Maryland the hard way.

Katrice Dickson needs to work on her footwork. Refs didn't catch it often, but she was walking all over the place- there was one drive where she scored after two fairly blatant travels. There's something about her I like, but I can't put my finger on it. I'd have to watch them again to see if she was doing the leadership type stuff that's usually why a player catches my eye for non-statistical reasons. Daly Sullivan's shot is aesthetically pleasing, with a high, high arc. When it goes down, it's nothing but net, but from where I was sitting, I don't know how anyone can read the arc to see where it's going to bounce when she misses. Those were some tough rebounds. She was a bit physical on defense, and I was surprised the Mount's coach left her to defend the ballhandler late in the game after her fourth foul, in what seemed to be an intentional foul situation. I guess they'd already conceded at that point. Kayla Agentowicz has an awesome last name that gives rise to all kinds of "ex-spy who has no idea how to live in the real world" story ideas. She also has no fear of shooting the three. She hit one late that put the game close, but was mostly ineffective.

Paris Jones is back in action, and not a moment too soon! I think this is the first time I've seen her play in over a year, and she definitely looks like she's still trying to figure out where she belongs on the floor at times. But it was good to see her be assertive on offense, and she hustled hardcore in the fourth quarter to hold off Mount St. Mary's when they went on a run to close within one possession in the final minutes. Seneca Richards canned back to back corner threes to extend the lead in the third, and was called on for a lot of defensive work that I don't think she's used to. We needed her height and her reach, and she did what we needed her to do. Tia Montagne's shot continues to be highly unpredictable, and she needs to be more assertive as a point guard- she spent a lot of time looking for someone to give the ball to to make decisions instead of initiating herself. I mean, I'm a Libra, I get being indecisive and wanting someone else to make choices, but if part of your job description is to make choices, do it.

Destoni Willock didn't play much- her seconds were super brief at the end of the third quarter, just to give the starters a little bit of a rest at a meaningless stop. Ella Vaatanen looked a little overmatched, especially on defense. She was very much not ready for this. That happens with freshmen.

I think DeAngelique Waithe wants to get real paid in Europe, because she's been playing the best ball I've seen out of her in a long time, and it is glorious. I hope if she ever hears me use the phrase "demented spider" that she understands it's a compliment. Those long arms of hers are up in everyone's business, everywhere, every time. Her read on rebounds, always strong, has been fantastic the last few times I've seen her. She's scoring at the rim. She's rejecting shots with authority. She's also getting called for a lot of travels, but if she's in Europe that might not be a problem. She's been fantastic and I just love her to pieces, and I have no qualms about being biased about her. Stylz Sanders does not match up well against really big centers. We had her defending all over the court today, both inside and out, and I think we were asking more of her than she was able to give. That all being said, watching her on the floor, communicating on offense and bringing the team in during stoppages, I'm starting to think she'll make a really good coach if that's the direction she wants to take her life. I guess when you're a 5-9 power forward, you have to learn a lot more about reads, angles, and positioning than the average power forward.

I swear to the sweet suffering hypothetical nine-pound twelve-ounce reason-for-the-season baby Jesus, if Denisha Petty-Evans doesn't figure out how to follow her shot I'm going to end up popping a blood vessel before the end of the season. Her shot's not that great. Her percentages aren't that great. It's great when the shot goes in, but if it doesn't, you've pretty much either given up a fast break to the opposing team or Angel has to put in double work to keep the ball. She's taken a step back from the start of the season, and that makes me sad. Jeydah Johnson hustled after loose balls, which was what led to her being in the scrum that got her hit in the head. I didn't actually see what happened, only what she looked like after she was subbed out of the game, and it didn't look good. Poor Jeydah. :( Drew Winter started the game like she'd chugged three Red Bulls and an energy shot- fast-moving, jittery, and fired up. She had a lot of trouble getting the ball inbounds today, though I couldn't tell you if it was because she couldn't see through the Mountaineer defense or because her teammates weren't coming to the ball. It's distinctly possible it was a combination of both. Her concentration started to slip in the second half, to the point where Coach was putting in Paris or Seneca for her.

There were a lot of great connective plays, for lack of my brain actually creating coherent words today. LIU's box scores don't have a place for team rebounds, but I think there were quite a few rebounds one would characterize as "team", where one player (usually DeAngelique) deflected it over to another Blackbird (usually Drew, though Jeydah and Paris both got in on the action). There were multi-player defensive sequences that were a joy to behold. They look like they're starting to gel (or is it jell in this context?) and I am inordinately proud of them.

Officiating was the usual NEC hot mess. A lot of things went uncalled on both teams. I couldn't tell you why the Mount's coach got her tech, though I'm going to guess she used strong language, given how thoroughly Stephanie was haranguing the refs about the non-calls on the baseline. (Seriously. Y'all have got to stop knocking Stylz out of bounds like that. It's not fair and it's not nice.) I think it's nervy of a coach to complain about calls when there was a stretch where the fouls were 6-0 LIU, but I'm just a fan in the stands.

Trying to beat the line at the concession stand doesn't work when the concessionaire has neither the food you want to buy nor enough change to take the money you have. Had to wait until halftime, but worth it. I needed the caffeine and I needed the liquid.

I really hope this team really is hitting its stride. They seem like really nice kids and I want all kinds of wonderful things for them.