January 20th, 2018: Siena at Iona

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Siena took off in the third quarter to win going away, 70-48, at Iona. Kollyns Scarbrough had 23 points to lead the Saints. Alexis Lewis's 21 points and 13 rebounds weren't enough to keep the Gaels in the game.

For harsh assessments, people who don’t know how to use headphones, changes of plans, defensive breakdowns, and language barriers, join your intrepid and lost for words blogger who can't remember her Greek curses.

I'm a glutton for punishment and an optimist sometimes when it comes to my team, so we've taken the multi-step trip up to Iona to see if they can get off the schneid this time, as they take on the Eight Nation Army of Siena. (No. No, it doesn't have the same ring as "Seven Nation Army", does it?)

If you went to the march instead, fabulous and tell me all about it. One of these days I'll get my act together and get my politics on.

Look, I get the point, but "Sexual assault is never your fault" does miss the fairly obvious conditional clause of "unless you're committing it, you unspeakable jerk".

I think I have some deep-seated issues with the choice of this particular song in the pregame mix.

Band is not yet ready for the anthem, though it's growing, and is at least good at the things they're good at.

Between her enthusiasm on the bench and her generosity off the court (she donated her hair before the season, which explains her crop of curls) I could really get to like Olivia Owens. I just can't get past her taste in numbers. And I know that's not her fault, because someone would have had to tell her about Damika, and clearly no one has. (I am now, however, open to the theory that she won the rights off Damika in a dance-off.)

At halftime, it's Siena by nine, 33-24. Our defense keeps breaking down and it's very frustrating. Kollyns Scarbrough has 12 to lead the Saints, with Sabrina Piper adding 10 off the bench. Balanced scoring for the Gaels.

Well, we can put that in the column of "welp, that was a thing that happened". We've put too many marks in that column this year. You'd think we'd have fewer communication problems than the team with five different languages in the rotation, but what do I know?

I do not like Anna Lundquist. She was a little too willing to give out the elbows and the trips, and not willing to take responsibility for the contact she did commit. I'm also not the world's biggest fan of people chucking threes when they're up 20 in the final minutes. She's physical, but she seems to be kind of a tweener, and I'm not sure where she fits in their scheme. Marilena Gerostergiou got hot in the fourth quarter, going with power in the paint and forcing our PA guy to get his tongue around her last name. I'm Greek and that one was giving me trouble. She's a big forward, broad-shouldered and not afraid to use it. Candela Hermida got into the game late and did a lot of moving around the three point arc. I don't know if that's her strength or not. Her teammates seemed to be giving her a lot more instruction than other players on the floor, but that might be a freshman thing. There were very many freshmen today. (I almost typed "there were very freshmen" and that wouldn't exactly be wrong either, but we'll get to that later.)

Sabrina Piper was a burst of offense off the bench, a long slim player with a nice jumper and some slashing skills. Looking at the numbers and the minutes, she was a straight-up direct replacement for Aaliyah Jones, which makes a lot of sense, considering their respective years. I was wondering why Piper wasn't starting, but it makes sense if Jones has senior privilege and Piper gets more of the minutes, or if the hot hand gets more of the minutes and we just didn't see Jones be the hot hand. DeAnna Winston came in late in the first half and early in the second half. I don't remember much about her on the floor except for her gold-tinted pouf of hair chasing the ballhandler. Hayley Winter tended to be late in the rotation. The one shot she took was a corner three.

Maddie Sims did very well when she didn't have Rebekah Justice going pound for pound and leap for leap with her. She had her share of blonde moments (though, to her credit, I don't think she was one of the players fighting for the ball with her own teammate) wherein the ball would go off some part of her body that she wasn't prepared for. She fought well for rebounds near the basket, and I'm pretty sure her hands were responsible for a couple of the Siena team rebounds. Aaliyah Jones played sparingly, and I don't think coming down funny on a rebound and tweaking her ankle helped very much on that front. She has very short shorts- I didn't even think it was possible to wear them that short without the ref looking at you funny.

Have yourself a day, Kollyns Scarbrough. She went shot for shot with Alexis Lewis in the second half, and she had gotten off to a better start. We couldn't keep up with her defensively, and she made us pay on the drive, in the midrange, and from deep. She got open, or her teammates got her open, and scoring resulted. Joella Gibson was aggressive on defense- a tough little guard, but not one of the slight itty bitties you sometimes see. Deja Rawls kept the pressure up defensively as well, and did a nice job running the point to direct Siena's offense.

I find myself wishing I wasn't giving Siena's other guards such short shift, but Scarbrough was just so damn good, especially when she broke the game open in the third quarter, that she tended to draw all of my attention. Just not the defense's...

Ashley Martin needs to work on tucking in her elbows on screens- she got called for one offensive foul and probably could have been dinged for two. I like the kid, and I admire her commitment to social justice, but I have yet to see Division I play out of her. Kristin Mahoney got into the game, threw a pass to an unprepared Treyanna Clay, and got pulled out of the game on the ensuing stoppage. I thought she'd been in for longer when she did that, but I guess not according to the box score. That benched her for the rest of the game. Our senior point guard, ladies and gentlemen. So what do you do when your point guard doesn't know what's going on and your other point guard is even more of a hot mess?

Well, you improvise, which was why Amelia Motz was running point for stretches. I love her instincts on the glass, and I love her hustle, but her offense is a problem. She scraps, but so far she just doesn't have the oomph to get to that next level. Tilasha Okey-Williams was surprisingly hesitant to shoot, but got low for loose balls. It's an interesting reversal of roles, but I like it. I'd love to see her develop into a two-way player. Alexis Lewis got hot in the second half, hitting midrange jumpers with fancy footwork. She rebounds with panache. Sometimes I get the feeling she's doing her own thing out there, and that's not always a good thing. But she's not the only person who has to understand that her teammates are out there to help her.

Toyosi Abiola has got to follow her shot. I understand that this might be difficult, because she has a high-arcing shot that's hard to get a read on once it leaves her hand. But you can't just stand there and watch it. She's got to either follow it or get back on defense, one or the other. I love her slashing to the lane, but she's got to convert. She was scrappy on defense, which I like, but someone needs to get her to a shot doctor, whether it happens here or in the offseason. Adrienne DiGioia is still too hesitant at pretty much everything. I know time cures that in freshmen, but I don't know if we have time for her to figure it out like that.

Treyanna Clay did work underneath, scoring on offensive rebounds and pulling down boards. She and Alexis Lewis have good chemistry on the floor, which shouldn't surprise me with the whole classmate thing. I'd like to see more plays run for her, and I'd like to see her get in better offensive position to have those plays run for her. I think we tried to get it in to her in less than optimal spots. Jayden Eggleston seems to have found all the confidence her teammates have lost. I'm not necessarily sold on her perimeter game, but she's bringing a lot of energy on the glass and she's finishing down low. She's finding her teammates, which is a very nice element to her game. She's growing on me. We'll see if she can sustain this, but I hope she can. Rebekah Justice has to not commit stupid reach-in fouls. I grant that an understanding of what risks to take comes with time, and she's only a freshman. I'd really like to see her do a lot more work inside and not take perimeter jumpers until she's solidified her interior play, or until she has another consistent rebounder in the game beside her- if she's out at the elbow taking jumpers, it's a lot easier for the other team to get the rebound underneath.

There were entirely too many sequences of dubious Iona shots where all that was underneath were people in green jerseys. Look, guys, Trey and Lex can't really do it by themselves. Someone's gotta track those shots.

Our crew chief had a flair for the dramatic. I'm pretty sure they could hear him announcing calls from the other side of campus. Not the worst thing in the world, all things considered. I thought they got a little tight on the touch fouls in the second half, and I'm not sure how much attention they were paying to Iona's dubious ability to get the ball over the midline neatly. Other than that, I was okay with the calls.

Nice to hear the band getting into the game. Stomp those bleachers, guys! The wood resonates fabulously.

I think it was admissions week, and I kept hoping one of the tour guides would take their group to the game.

Alexis Lewis seems to have a fan club. I can't say I'm surprised. She's sort of good at this basketball thing. She was honored before the game for hitting 1000 points (which we got to see a couple of weeks ago- I guess whoever they get the commemorative balls from has a long production time) and seemed pretty verklempt about it.

I still don't think this is a team with the ability to drop the table. I keep thinking they'll find a win somewhere. Somewhere along the line the pieces will fall together, or they'll run headlong into someone worse than they are.

Keep fighting the good fight, Gaels.