January 18th, 2018: Iona at Manhattan

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Iona staged a 17-point comeback in the second half, but it wasn't enough, as Manhattan came away with the home win 67-63. Taylor Williams had a game-high 18 points for the Jaspers, while Kayla Grimme notched a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Alexis Lewis tallied 19 points for Iona.

For country music, the courage of one's convictions, team colors, finding friends, WTF face, ballistic freshmen, dissonance, and fast breaks, join your intrepid and stardust-laden blogger after the jump.



Whether they want me around or not, I'm determined to love the hell out of Iona, at least through the end of Treyanna Clay and Alexis Lewis's careers. I still believe in Phee and Phee still believes in them. This is why I'm sitting in a Five Guys somewhere between the Upper West Side and Harlem, typing up pregame notes before I hie me to Manhattan for some MAAC magic. (Can't call it MAACtion. The Mid-American Conference might get upset. And I like them.)

Granted, I am also hieing me the long way around because I want to put some distance on my 10K eggs in anticipation of the Pokémon Go double XP event on Saturday and because I need to grind stardust, but there's no reason I can't multi-task, right? I get to have the spiritual superiority of having caught a Kyogre before the difficulty nerf, and yet have the chance to get more before month's end. Today is so far a good day.

Getting to Manhattan was a little more complicated than usual, and I did have to abandon the bus plan midway through. One of the elevators at Manhattan is broken, which led to a couple of flights of stairs, but let's be honest, I could probably use the extra cardio.

Unfortunately, I didn't get in in time to determine which bench is which, and I don't remember from the Fordham game. Well, if I'm on the wrong side, I'll move over, but the team just came out and the staff seem to be on this side.

Shoutout to whoever's picking the music for the game, because they are rocking out. "Superstition" and "Centuries" in the same mix will make me a very happy blogger. And we've just segued into "You're Unbelievable".

Tori Lesko is still in a boot. Poor Tori. I do believe that's part of how we've lost our way; she's the closest thing we have to a leader on this roster, but she's the kind of leader who has to be on the floor to be at her most effective.

I don't know if Manhattan ran out of ticket paper or if that's just how they roll, but my ticket was printed out on paper with a bar code. Whatever floats your boat.

There are a surprising number of people here, or maybe it just seems that way because the kids around me haven't run out of energy yet. There's an awful lot of running to do, indeed.

Anthem singer didn't quite have the voice for what she wanted to do. (Also, I'm proud to report that Ashley Martin kneels on the road as well. I love seeing young people with the courage of their convictions.)

This could be worse than it is. It's 33-28 Manhattan at halftime. Alexis Lewis has 13 for the Gaels, with Jayden Eggleston adding eight. Gabby Cajou has seven to lead the balanced Jaspers attack. Their drive and dish to the corner has been exceptional tonight, and we'll see if Iona can adjust at the half.

Even the Boys and Girls Club biddy game is themed to this game, with "Iona" and "Manhattan" teams.

Manhattan's band has a very jazzy sound to it. Pleasant but not exactly inspiring. And St. John's does "Chelsea Dagger" better by light-years.

The student section is very full but has mostly been very quiet.

Ran into DSPN. I guess my secret's out, inasmuch as it was going to be a secret.

If I'm reading the end of the sequence correctly, drummer got so enthusiastic that one of the Iona family folks had to go get his drumstick.

All I want out of life is a good wi-fi connection. Is that so hard to ask of schools? Just set up a good guest network and let me pull up Twitter and the scoreboard.

I think I have sacrificed one of my Iona pom-poms forever, but it's for a good cause. One of the Manhattan band kids thought she was being slick offering Ashley's baby brother a Manhattan-colored pom-pom. Well, we couldn't be having with that, and Ashley's mom agreed. Don't worry; I have another one and a rally towel. (As it turned out, Jackie returned it after the game; she has plenty more at home, but she just needed to make sure her son didn't get attached to the wrong color. Truly, she's raising them up right.)

We fought the good fight. That's our motto. That's who we are. That's what we do. We made Manhattan flinch. Moral victories don't go in the record book, but they go a long way towards getting the ones that do. I keep getting "Find Out Who Your Friends Are" stuck in my head, but it's more about finding out who you are when the deficit keeps growing and the shots don't fall.

I'm very glad that Ashley Martin's family finally got to see her take the floor for the first time in what seems like forever, but perhaps throwing her directly at Amani Tatum went past "baptism by fire" straight into "baptism in Mount Doom". She wasn't ready for that. Better players have been not ready for that. I don't know what Amelia Motz did, or didn't do, to get thrown in the doghouse as thoroughly as she was in this game, though she was eminently forgettable in the minutes she did play. Tilasha Okey-Williams, to me, indicates that Coach Chambers is starting to panic and needs someone who's willing to shoot without hesitation alongside Lexi. She's the desperation move, the panic button made flesh. That sounds like a terrible thing to say about a person, now that I put it in written form, but it's more a statement about her role than about her personally.

I'm starting to think I understand why Alexis Lewis has been consigned to the bench. Yes, she's electric offensively, but she's inconsistent and she's streaky. I'm also starting to think that Lex has decided that the playbook is not relevant to her interests- it looked a couple of times like she was ignoring the play call and taking it herself. I sort of understand the urge, but I also understand why the coach might object and act accordingly. Kristin Mahoney, for a senior and a point guard, has a lot of trouble finding open players, especially when inbounding the ball. She really looks like she's going to freak out if she doesn't have someone by the two-second mark. (At the same time, if you have a choice between two equally mediocre point guards, all things being equal you should probably start the senior. Your only senior. Since you chased off the other one.)

(Yes, I'm going to harp on the Phee thing until someone gives me a good reason not to.)

Adrienne DiGioia is not yet ready to ride this ride. Her vision isn't there, her handle isn't there, and she doesn't have the gravitas to drag the team with her. Manhattan pressed her, and she either coughed up the ball or attempted to pass to people who were guarded by Kayla Grimme. Do not attempt to pass the ball to people who are being fronted by Kayla Grimme. Toyosi Abiola really, really needs to work on her handle Being one of the fastest people on the floor does you little good if you don't bring the ball with you. She also seemed lost on the floor- there were a couple of sequences where pretty much everyone in maroon was yelling at her where to go. I know, I know, she's a freshman, and freshmen are sort of clueless, but she either isn't picking up new schemes quickly or still hasn't quite picked up the old ones.

I love everything about Treyanna Clay's WTF face except the things that cause her to make it. She got tagged with some touch fouls that limited her minutes in the second and third quarters. I though Coach Chambers handled her foul trouble well in the fourth with good subs. She's moving better than she was the last time I saw Iona, which I consider to be a good sign. I'm not the world's biggest fan of her taking deep perimeter shots except when they go in. I was much more hyped about the slick backdoor cut as part of the fourth quarter run. Rebekah Justice is a big girl, and if she can adjust to the pace of the college game and maybe convert more of that mass into muscle, she can be a major presence for us on the inside. There were moments when she was going head to head with Grimme and holding her own on the glass, but they were only moments. This was probably the strongest game I've seen out of Jayden Eggleston- not just the best, though it certainly was that, but the one where she went most confidently to the basket and got buckets. She was fantastic tonight, and for the first time I was genuinely impressed with her. If we can get more of that out of her this season, we're not going to drop the table. Keep going to the hoop, Jayden! Take that away from this game!

I think Coach Chambers's interpersonal skills leave a lot to be desired, but I was impressed with some of her tactics in this game. She managed minutes well and rode the hot hand (which is why Alexis Lewis started the second half over Rebekah Justice).

Dear Manhattan: if you're going to play people with diacritical marks in their names, could you make sure you play them enough minutes to be worth writing about? My keyboard isn't equipped to write about Julie Høier. She gave them a couple of brief minutes, as did KellyAnne O'Reilly, whose primary function seems to be annoying the hell out of the ballhandler for one play per game on the baseline. Alex Smith is an absolute load in the middle, and not a particularly mobile one. We were able to get around her enough that Coach Vulin decided she wasn't worth the risk and sat her down. If she had anything that remotely resembled stamina... well, let's be honest, she'd probably still be at Middle Tennessee.

(My dude. You are not supposed to smoke on the train. This... is not complicated. There's a pictogram and everything. Yes, it bothers me. At least he put it out when he noticed me holding my nose, because smoke and I are not friends, but dude. You are not supposed to smoke anything on the train.)

Sini Mäkelä got looks for three from the corner and hit them. She's a spot shooter. It's who she is. It's what she does. Her teammates get her open and she hits shots. Mikki Guiton had an absolutely perfect screen wasted by a missed open Cajou jumper. I mean, c'mon, Fun Size Moriah Jefferson, you get that much open space from a screen, it's your responsibility to hit that shot and make your post player feel good about it. I'd say Guiton gives them more of a perimeter game, but Grimme's no slouch there herself. Gabby Cajou is very, very fast. She probably stripped the ball while you were reading this sentence. You didn't think I was comparing her to Jefferson just because she looks like a smaller version of her, did you? She's a different kind of offensive player, but she has a nice balance of drives and jumpers, and she's a nightmare in transition.

Amani Tatum is very intense and a little bit terrifying. She goes after everything with everything that has to offer, and that makes her one of the most dangerous players on the floor. Her shots weren't falling, but she more than made up for it on the defensive end, igniting the fast break with steals and either taking it to the basket herself or dishing it ahead. After those two missed free throws left the door open for Iona, I'm pretty sure she's either already back in the gym at the line, or she's going to be at the earliest possible moment; she strikes me as that kind of "no imperfections allowed" player. (Like I said, very intense and a little bit terrifying.) Lizahya Morgan is tiny and a little bit cute, and when Coach Vulin runs her in the backcourt with Cajou, there is too much tiny for me to handle. I think I see what her coach might see in her potential-wise, but I think I'd still take Cajou over her. Taylor Williams was hitting three-pointers all over the place (but not from "way" downtown like the PA guy was enthusing; bro, she was barely behind the line on that one). She's tough, I have to grant her that.

Kayla Grimme was impressive today. She got into position in the paint for rebounds, and no one was getting them away from her. We don't really have anyone who can compete with her in terms of size, but that's not to diminish the numbers she put up. Having a big body doesn't mean you know how to use it. See above regarding Alex Smith, or two and a half years of me yelling at Karynda DuPree. We attempted to drive on her. This did not end well. We sent her to the line. This did not end well- she has a surprisingly nice stroke from the line for a post player. She's big for them in every way she can be. Courtney Warley brought a lot of energy on the glass, deflecting sure offensive rebounds for the Gaels and keeping Jasper possessions alive. She's toned down some of her wildness from the early part of the season.

Manhattan did two things really well on offense tonight: drive and dish for the three, or get the steal and run the fast break. Setting things up other than that didn't go well for them, but they really didn't need too much other than that.

Jayden should really go apologize to the Manhattan dance team for crashing into them like that. It looked like one of the dancers took a really hard fall (and Jayden may have given her an additional shove, whether intentionally or not- that looked rough). Play nice with the people on the sidelines, Jayden.

Officiating was more or less okay. They were lax on travels and a little too harsh on touch fouls, in my opinion.

If you're going to fill the student section, fill it with people who'll actually start making noise before the 19-point lead kicks into place. That was pathetic for stretches. It's not like there were even that many Iona people to out-yell. I mean, at least put some effort into it. (As an aside, the listed attendance actually looks low; I wonder if Manhattan didn't count comp tickets or something. I was impressed with the size of the crowd.)

I don't know if this Iona team has the moxie to match them, but this year reminds me so much of the step back St. John's took after the 2006 tournament bid- a lot of freshmen, a couple of upperclassmen, the inexplicable loss of a team leader, key injuries at all the wrong times. 2006-07 wasn't easy in Jamaica. But you find out who you are in times like these. You find out who has the mettle and who has the ability to lead even as an underclassman. You find out who can't deal with the losing. You find out who's going to bend and who's going to snap.

This too shall pass, Gaels. In the meantime, we fight the good fight, because that's what we do.