February 4th, 2018: Xavier at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's held Xavier scoreless for ten minutes, and used that run to propel themselves to a 70-36 win. Alisha Kebbe had 15 points and nine rebounds to lead a balanced Red Storm attack. Imani Partlow had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Xavier.

For playing the fight song too often, slick dance moves, fighting too hard for rebounds, runaway ribbons, and laying the smackdown, join your intrepid and pink blogger after the jump.


Good afternoon! It's the second half of the pod today, as St. John's takes on Xavier in our Pink Zone/Play 4 Kay/BHA game.

Unfortunately for the tattered remnants of my sanity, St. John's went all out on the pink, so not only are there heinously pink jerseys in the house, the team colors are reversed. I'm going to spend so much of today so confused. At least Xavier only has the pink outlines. It still doesn't go with their colors, but it's at least subtle.

Well, Xavier at least has more players than Butler.

Ducks have been acquired. I put my money where my mouth is when it comes to BHA- I won't wear pink, but y'all can have my money.

NYCFC has their youth team at Belson, though I don't know if it's a friendly against another developmental squad or a practice. But they have a supporters section with NY flags! I don't know if it's part of the regular supporters section, if they have their own supporters, if the supporters section also has a developmental team, or what. But I drew inspiration off their vibe today. Which is good, because I'm pretty much flying solo.

One of these years, y'all will be getting that post on why y'all can miss me with all pink everything, but today is not that day. I'm too tired and I need to put my thoughts together without swear words.

Well, that escalated quickly. Again. It's 35-14 St. John's at halftime. Alisha Kebbe has a team-high eight points, but the scoring has been very balanced. Xavier's shooting is a hot mess, and I take credit for the 1-of-4 free throw shooting.

Our halftime entertainment, after the dance team put out a fantastically synchronized performance, is a game of two-player Mario Kart- one in real life, one on console. It's an interesting concept.

Moment that might sum up the game for Xavier: A'riana Gray smashing a Machi Duncan shot... right into Brian Neal's head.

Cool pregame ceremony with a group of breast cancer survivors, who got a picture at center court and signed pink sneakers (they had fewer survivors than pairs of sneakers, though, so I don't know what the plan is for the remaining sneakers).

St. John's just came out of the locker room like Joe told them they were down 21. I get not wanting them to be cocky, but c'mon. Meanwhile, we're at 2:30 before the second half and Xavier is just now running out onto the floor.

I think it's safe to say this is a weekend of "well, that escalated quickly" for St. John's. We got lucky in that we faced a good team that was severely undermanned and a bad team that had all their players available. If the situations were reversed, I don't think we'd be coming out of this weekend with a sweep.

I think Deja Ross had the worst day of any Musketeer- not just because of the loss, but it looked like the necklace she was wearing broke while the team was leaving the arena (mom and I passed Xavier on their way out of the building). She's got good size, but I'm not sure she knows how to use it. And I don't know if she's ever going to learn to use it if she's coached by Neal all four of her years. Megan Christopher saw her first minutes in the second half; when the first thing she did was commit a tripping foul on Maya Singleton... let's just say she didn't make a lot of friends at Carnesecca Arena in that moment. We dared her to take midrange shots, and she refused the dare. A'riana Gray (who apparently goes by A'ri, as that was how she was announced by the PA guy) has adorable goggles. I don't know if they're permanent or temporary, but in either case, they're not helping her shooting eye- she had a lot of looks very close to the basket and was consistently off. I like her hustle, though.

Ashley Gomez got her minutes in the first half, turned the ball over, and was pretty much never seen again. Princess Stewart brought a little bit of hustle (though I keep thinking her parents should have aimed higher, because I'm a terrible person). Aaliyah Dunham got her points close to the basket- I think one was on a putback, but don't hold me to that. There were a lot of Xavier players and they don't wear names on their jerseys. Aly Reiff saw her first time in the second half and was grabby inside- first time I noticed she was in the game was when she committed a foul.

Imani Partlow knows how to make space for herself on the inside. She didn't have an easy time of it with our regular defenders inside- about half her points came when she was matched up with Kayla Charles, who she had a size advantage on and more experience than. I think she's the closest thing they've got to a star player, or at least someone who can be relied on for points on a regular basis, and that's not good for them. One of the funniest moments of the game was when she got the ball, either after a defensive rebound or a St. John's basket, and it seemed like her teammates were expecting her to bring the ball up, but she 'noped' her way out of it, standing there with the ball until a guard came to get it from her. Alisha Kebbe seemed amused at how easy it was to defend her that way. Anniina Äijänen likes to shoot threes, and Imani Littleton was not ready for that- she kept leaving her open beyond the arc, and we're luck that Äijänen's shot got worse and worse as the game went on (she had an airball and another that was close to it).

Jada Byrd got off to a hot start, slicing through the lane through a defense that seemed to have forgotten about her very existence. We were able to pressure her more as the game went on, forcing her into travels and bad passes. Kindell Fincher had a quiet game, though she hit a three in the middle of the second half that pulled Xavier close to pulling within 20, and in this game that was a pretty good moral victory. Na'Teshia Owens got to work some of her shot clock magic with a lay-up as the shot clock expired. She's got a lot of fire- I like her.

Xavier needs a shooting coach something fierce. Too many players got opportunities close to the basket and just threw up whatever. I appreciate it as a St. John's fan, but as a basketball fan and a Big East fan, Xavier needs to get their act together.

Well, at least this time Tamesha Alexander took a shot, even if she missed it. Would have loved to get her on the board, but I think she wanted the assist more than she wanted the basket. I love her hustle, even though I know she probably shouldn't be on the floor during any meaningful stretch. Shamachya Duncan continues to be the team's unofficial mascot- the starters got super hyped whenever she put up a shot, and even more excited when she hit. (I'm pretty sure little sister threw up the three-goggles.) Kayla Charles has got to do a better job of holding on to the ball when she grabs it on the boards, and she needs to pay attention on defense. I know she's coming in when we're up big, but she's got to learn good habits for the times when she's playing meaningful minutes.

Qadashah Hoppie forced a little too much offense. I'm going to worry when we have games when we're not clocking the ball. She had quick hands and helped deflect balls. Andrayah Adams has really honed that drive down the lane, taking all contact and bulling through. I'm still not a fan of playing her at the four, but I think Joe's thinking ahead to next year when we don't have Maya and Imani, and someone's got to play in the front court.

Tiana England had some beautiful passes, but was careless with the ball. I think she made Someone upstairs upset for some reason, because her shots keep spinning out. Mom says she's putting too much English on her shots, but if that's her problem I'm afraid it's going to be endemic. (Yes, she gave me the -_- face you're probably giving me right now for the pun, but she gave me the straight line. What else was I supposed to do with it?) Akina Wellere was quietly efficient, using her build effectively to force herself into spaces and then get space for herself on the outside. She's an important part of a balanced diet attack.

Alisha Kebbe would have gotten that double-double if Maya Singleton hadn't flat-out stolen a rebound from her. She was throwing her body all over the floor to get the ball. No loose ball was safe from her. I love that she's cranked up this part of her game, and is still scoring on top of it; usually when you see a change of emphasis like that from a player, she's sacrificing another part of her game. I don't know if this is sustainable or if she's going to burn out, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. Maya Singleton fought for every rebound, even the ones her teammates had already claimed, which was occasionally funny but sometimes painful. There was one board where she knocked Alisha pretty hard to the floor to get it, and something tells me Alisha wasn't thrilled about the hit. But Maya took a couple of hard hits herself, with minimal calls in her favor. That makes me angry. Treat Maya right, y'all. Imani Littleton's trouble with lay-ups continues to be a problem, though at least she was over fifty percent on them in this one. She gets knocked down a lot, and she has more trouble getting up than the rest of the team. I love what she brings defensively, but I do worry about her durability. I worry about these kids a lot, period, because they're stuck with me and they're kind of adorable.

I think we did a little better job of managing tempo in this one than we did against Butler, though that might have to do with having less of a lead to manage. Xavier made a little bit of a run in the third quarter, which brought a sense of urgency back to our offense. We weren't doing as much forced slowdown and instead kept it within the flow of the game.

(As an aside, I watched That Game Against UConn afterwards instead of the Super Bowl, and it highlighted the importance of having a commanding point guard, not just for her passing game and defensive prowess, but for her control of the game. I miss you, Nadirah.)

The team looked like a nice combination of loose and focused, like they knew they couldn't look past Xavier no matter how much they wanted to.

Officiating wasn't the worst, though there were a couple of spills that looked like they could have been called contact fouls. I can live with it, though. It wasn't the most embarrassing ref crew I've ever seen. Yes, the bar is low.

There was a large group behind the bench, and they cheered loudest when Tiana was introduced, so I'm assuming they know her somehow.

Someday Sox and I are going to have to exchange sock collection notes.

Also, Sox and Maya should do all the "Name That Tune" contests.

Also, Andrayah, coffee is still not a breakfast food.

Next up: Awkward Bowl, Round 2: The Grudge Match. I think I might actually have company for that one, though!