March 15th, 2018: Marist at St. John's (WNIT)

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's started strong and never looked back in their 68-47 win over Marist in the first round of the WNIT. Andrayah Adams had 14 points off the bench to lead five Johnnies in double figures, with both Imani Littleton (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Maya Singleton (12 points, 11 rebounds) notching double-doubles. Maura Fitzpatrick of Marist led all scorers with 20 points.

For color coordination, a jump to the left, calling glass, offensive rebounding, and the little details on the floor, join your intrepid and soon to be freshly laundered blogger after the jump.

Good evening! The Big Dance has yet to begin, but the WNIT is upon us. St. John's has first-round hosting rights, and tonight we have Marist in the house.

Then again, Marist brought two busloads of fans and then some, so I'm really not sure we're using our host-rights to full advantage here. We've enticed students with ice cream, but they've been fairly quiet. Fortunately, band and a handful of students have stepped up.

Marist's band does an excellent rendition of the Time Warp. Of course, because I am petty and Iona is still one of my teams, I may have asked something along the lines of, "What, to when you were good and Quinnipiac wasn't eating your lunch?"

It's 37-22 St. John's at halftime. Imani Littleton started the game like her hair was on fire and she was taking the presence of every single Marist fan as a personal affront. Our offensive rebounding inside has been fantastic. Other than not being able to keep track of Alana Gilmer, and Maura Fitzpatrick's uncanny communion with the glass, we've been great on defense. Marist is doing a lot of little things well, in regards to floor positioning.

That awkward moment when one of your teams is coached by a fan/alumna of the opponent one of your other teams is playing. Hi, Stephanie, but go Red Storm, not Red Foxes.

That got a little dicey for a moment when Akina Wellere committed her fourth foul and had to come out of the game, but we hit a couple of big shots and put the Red Foxes away. My throat still hurts. You have to go hard when you're outnumbered in your own house. (You also get salty as Lot's wife, because, c'mon, people.)

I'm not used to Marist being this disorganized. Their passing game was... not good. Their shooting was ridiculously streaky- either the shot went in or it was a bad miss, no real in-between. There are a lot of little things they still do very well- no one draws charges better than Marist, no one tests the boundaries better than Marist. But the youth and inexperience of these players shines through, and I don't know if they know who their leader is, at least from what I saw in this game.

Kendall Baab came in at the end of the game, which was the best indicator to us that the game was over- give the senior one last hurrah before her career ends. She was marked pretty closely in her brief minutes, and she had trouble handling the passes her teammates sent her. We were almost hoping she would get a basket, but Imani Littleton was bound and determined that that wasn't going to happen. Gabi Redden saw a few minutes at the end of the game, and in the first half in relief of Alana Gilmer after Gilmer picked up the third foul. Big body, but way too tentative. Hasn't quite figured out that "play with your head" does not mean "deflect the pass meant for your teammate with your face".

Lovisa Henningsdóttir brings a different dimension off the Marist bench, and I think once she's fully settled into the Marist offense they'll be a lot better off. She gives them good height on the inside and on the glass while still providing the three-point offense they rely on. Allie Best played the bulk of the minutes off the bench at guard- smaller than most of the other players they put out on the floor, she ball-hawked more than the rest of her teammates.

I don't know what unholy spells Maura Fitzpatrick worked on the glass, but she had some of the best puck luck I've ever seen- two shots off the glass and one that danced all over the rim before dropping in. Granted, she also had some of the worst puck luck I've ever seen, with shots popping up out of the cylinder. She's a strange one. She did do a good job of driving the lane and drawing contact, usually off Akina Wellere, who didn't quite have the foot speed to keep up with her when she slipped screens. Rebekah Hand shoots pretty well, not surprisingly, but she also had some terrible shots that hit nothing. After her first airball, I was tempted to tell her she was embarrassing our shared, albeit differently spelled, name. I think she was the one who completely blew a gorgeous screen from one of her teammates and bricked the jumper.

Alana Gilmer started off red hot, even with her unconventional over-the-head jumper. She showed impressive evasiveness for a woman of her frame, getting Maya Singleton (one of our better defenders) turned around in the early going. We switched defenses on her a couple of times, and got better results both from the length of Imani Littleton and the speed of our guards. Three fouls in the first half didn't help her either, and I think she tightened up in the second half. Willow Duffell brings them height, but right now I don't know what else she's giving them. Most of what I remember of her on the floor were mistakes- fouls, bad passes, airballs, and such. I get the sense that she was pressed into service before she was fully ready. Grace Vander Weide swung between positions a lot, and swung from extremes of shooting multiple terrible airballs to making big steals in the passing lanes. Hers was the screen referred to earlier.

There are things Marist still does very well. They rebounded off their missed free throws like they planned it all along. They still set up position outside the circle like someone built a tiny wall along its curve. They adapt their defense well. But I don't know if they planned to fiddle around in the backcourt for seven seconds almost every possession, or if they let our defense pressure them into that. Their shooting was unusually inconsistent, and their communication was off. They got looks, and either they went down or they most emphatically did not.

I'm glad Tamesha Alexander and Shamachya Duncan got to close the game out. I'm less glad neither of them got a shot off, though Sox did have a chance and promptly passed it off, because that's who Sox is and that's how she rolls. They're good kids. I'm passing fond of them. Kayla Charles has got to hang on to rebounds instead of tapping them around. Unless we have some tall people coming in next year's class that I don't know about, she's pretty much going to be the only post on the floor. She doesn't necessarily have anyone to tap the ball to.

Andrayah Adams did a lot of scoring in the fourth quarter, but I don't know if she was calling her own number or if there was some other perverse reason she was taking all the shots even when the deep bench was in the game. She spent way too much time driving one-on-everybody. She had better luck with her jumper, but even then it looked like she was just firing it off without thinking about the play sometimes. I feel like I'm being unreasonably hard on her, since we did win and she did lead us in scoring, but this was an unusually selfish game for her, and that's not necessarily a habit I want her to develop. Qadashah Hoppie hit a big three and did a good job of getting to the line, but I was most impressed with her defensive work. She stayed in front of the Marist guards and for the most part was successful in cutting off their drives.

Tiana England's hesitancy drove us a little bit crazy, but in a game like this where controlling the pace allowed us to milk the lead, it wasn't terrible. I wish her drives had gone down more often- she had a fantastic fast break off an interception that she just couldn't finish. But that inside pass to Imani Littleton was sweet- reminded me of some of the Liberty's interior passing under Laimbeer. Moments like those make me think she'll turn out all right at the point after all. Alisha Kebbe's so tough. I think her Philly is showing. She goes hard after loose balls, and the shots she comes up with seem to be at all the right times. She's got to work on her overall accuracy, but I'll take her toughness any day of the week. Akina Wellere had the three-ball working, and did some good work inside, but lost her mind on defense in the fourth quarter, committing three straight fouls, two of which were utterly unnecessary. We don't roll deep, 'Kina, we can't afford blatant reach-in fouls at the midcourt line. (I did enjoy her defense of her fourth foul, though; I think she was either arguing that the offensive player performed an illegal spin move or earnestly explaining to the ref that she needs a new dryer.)

I don't know how I feel about Maya Singleton's face-up game, but watching her own the shot clock like a boss on the one jump shot was pretty sweet. She was beasting on the glass. It was also very satisfying to watch her hit all of her free throws with the Marist band disconcerting her. But the player of the game was Imani Littleton, and what a time for her to shine. She took over on the inside, getting offensive rebounds and converting more of her opportunities than usual. She was assertive defensively, to the point of running herself out of plays. In every way she could, she made it abundantly clear that this was her game, her house, and her night, and she wasn't letting her career end here and now. I'm inordinately proud of how she played, and I hope we can keep seeing this through the WNIT.

Officiating was a bit ticky-tack for stretches, with stricter construction of the traveling rule than I've seen in a while (which made Akina's claim that the refs missed one even funnier).

I don't know who resents our spirit squads, but both cheer and dance had people knocked in the head with flying basketballs- cheer while in play, dance because someone's kid was messing around in the third deck without supervision. I am not okay with unsupervised children, by the way.

Perhaps we should minimize the use of our red-and-white chants when playing a team that shares our colors.

Too many Marist fans and not enough St. John's fans, but that's to be expected. Marist travels well and stays loyal. I remember some of those fans from my visits to McCann. And St. John's is not very good at expanding the fan base. Survive and advance. That's all that matters.