March 19th, 2018: Penn at St. John's (WNIT)

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Strong defense and balanced scoring powered St. John's to a 53-48 win over Penn in the second round of the postseason WNIT. Qadashah Hoppie had a team-high 12 points off the bench for the Red Storm. Lauren Whitlatch had 12 of her 15 in the first half to spur the Quakers, who were led overall by the 15 points and 11 rebounds of Eleah Parker.

For senior warriors, superstitious whispering, nifty posters, defensive stands, injury added to insult, and the chance for vengeance, join your intrepid and squishy blogger after the jump.


Second round, here we go! This time St. John's is hosting the best the Ivy League has left to offer, the Quakers of Penn. I'm a bit nervous about their size. I don't know how well we match up with them. But let's see how it shakes out on the court.

The Penn warm-up shirts with the Palestra on the back are even cooler in person than they were on TV. They seem to have a lot of inactive players, which might bode well-ish for us? But goodness, there are a lot of them.

There's a Philadelphia team playing, so of course we have a Mel Greenberg sighting.

Curteeona, you are a sweetheart and your taste in jersey numbers is impeccable, but please don't ever wear that pink sweater with those moss-green slacks again. You look like an upside-down Hoppip.

Getting the gang back together: Sky Lindsay chilling on the bench with Da'Shena Stevens and Shenneika Smith. I'm squeeing right now. (Not squeezing, autocarrot. NOBODY ASKED YOU.)

Would it kill one of these Ivy League schools with their millions in endowments to put their band on the bus for a WNIT game? Pretty please with sugar on top? Half the fun of seeing an Ivy team is seeing their band.

Lost Quinnipiac fan is lost. Someone did not want to see UConn open up a can of whoop-ass on their squad, I see.

What is it about the row behind us that attracts fans of the opposing team? Is it my jersey? The St. John's flag I wave? My loud and vocal support for the home team? STOP IT. GO AWAY. There is an entire side of the arena closer to your bench.

It's 24-22 Penn at halftime. It could be worse. It could be better- we had a 16-8 lead- but Imani Littleton has been attached to Michelle Nwokedi like someone hit her with super glue. Penn's mostly beating us on three-point shooting- Lauren Whitlatch has 12 on four treys to lead everyone. We look terrified to shoot, which is where I think Penn's greater height is kicking in. Imani has gone all out. I love it.

We have enough alumnae for a starting five- I see you, Briana Brown and Kendyl Nunn. (Don't worry, Neika's used to playing stretch four.)

Penn's going to lose a lot with Nwokedi and Ross graduating. I think they'll take a step back next year. But Eleah Parker's got game, and once she learns to have better touch around the basket she'll be an anchor for them down low.

Tori Crawford got two very quick fouls in the first half, one defensive and one offensive, and that forced Penn to shorten their rotation more than I think they wanted to, at least in the first half. They did get good minutes out of Princess Aghayere, who was physical down low to tear away rebounds from our posts, especially in the second half when it was a bit less convenient for us to put up resistance to such handling. Phoebe Sterba lists as a guard, but I'm pretty sure she's taller than most of our posts, so that's a thing. I don't remember if she came in in the second half or not- I know she played briefly in the first.

Kendall Grasela had family in the stands, unless there was an unrelated reason why that one dude was wearing a #11 jersey. She was scrappy to a fault on defense (I, personally, object to defenders humping their assigned players, at least without asking politely and maybe bringing a nice bouquet of flowers) and seemed to get an awful lot of benefit of the doubt from the refs (but not the rim). I can't fault her motor, but I can question her judgment. Katie Kinum got herself a bucket late, on a wild putback in the lane if I recall correctly (which I may not). Beth Brzozowski saw brief minutes in both halves, and in a less contested game I would have liked to see her come back in at the end to get a proper senior send-off. I know it wasn't a home game for Penn and that's not always a thing you do on the road, but seniors deserve respect no matter who they play for.

Anna Ross played defense in the second half like her life depended on the ball not being in the hands of a St. John's player. She was everywhere on deflections, breaking up fast breaks and tipping passes like she decided to start moonlighting at cornerback. I remembered her being more of a shooter, but she concentrated her energy on defense, and it was spectacular. I think in the third quarter alone she had three big deflections. So much energy. Lauren Whitlatch decided to remind us all about the stereotype of guards from Indiana being three-point specialists by launching a whole bunch of threes- she killed us in the first half, and when she fired one off in the second half I started to get real nervous. Ashley Russell also got in on the... oh, I'm feeling polite, let's call it overambitious... Penn defensive rebounding.

I love what Michelle Nwokedi brings to the floor for Penn. She was held in check offensively for most of the night, but she rebounded well, and she does a lot of really heady things out there- there was one play that stuck out to me where she made a very precise save at the midline to prevent a backcourt violation. She's got a nice mix of power and shooting touch for her size. Shutting her down for most of the game was one of the biggest keys to the game; the times she scored were mostly when either we got caught on the switch, or when both of our starting posts were in foul trouble and it was time for Improv with Akina. Eleah Parker got off to a rough start on the inside, missing chippies, but was better able to take advantage of our defense in the fourth quarter (though I again note that our two bigs were both in foul trouble, so we ended up with a lot of Improv with Akina and Q, or with Imani backing away rapidly). She's got great size, and when she's able to take advantage of it she gets good position down low. She's not so good at dealing with people her own height yet, but she's a freshman. That's something that'll come with time. She's got incredible potential.

Very impressed with Penn's defense in this one. They made us very scared to shoot. I mean, that doesn't always take a lot, but they exploited our tendencies better than most teams do. I shouldn't be surprised that an Ivy League team plays smart, though, right?

I'm not exactly sure why Joe inserted Shamachya Duncan in the first half, though it did almost pay dividends at the buzzer. I thought answering a three-point shooter with a three-point shooter was not a good plan; I thought we needed more defense, and that's not Machi's strength. Kayla Charles gave some goot spot minutes in the post, though you can definitely still tell she's a freshman. There's a lot of work to be done with her, especially on defense, but I see the potential.

This was probably one of the best defensive games I've seen out of Qadashah Hoppie this year. For the first time I got the sense that she realizes she's tall for a guard and used it to her advantage. She was doing work out on the perimeter, and had an emphatic block on a Kinum drive. If she can get that defense working regularly, she'll be a terror out there, and I want it. I want it bad. Someone with her clutch shooting coupled with clutch defense... yes, please. Andrayah Adams got buckets, but more and more with her I'm getting the sense that her offense is not necessarily what the play calls for. Sometimes that's a good thing- someone on this team has to want to shoot- but seeing everything break down when she decides she's going up is not always fun.

Alisha Kebbe was all over the floor and the glass. Her shots weren't necessarily going down, but they were clutch when they did. She made big defensive plays and big plays on the boards. She's streaky on offense, but I'll take every ounce of the defense that she brings. Tiana England had some slick passes, but her willingness to slow the offense down played right into Penn's hands. She spent way too much time dribbling the clock away, and her hesitation at the timeline cost her in turnovers. She's got to look at the clock more and be aware that sometimes she needs to be the shooter. Akina Wellere got put into the unenviable position of having to guard Penn's posts for stretches, which is not her forte. Her lack of speed and mobility definitely shows there. She hasn't done well with teams keying on her, and last night she was a wee tiny bit too three-happy for my liking.

Maya Singleton got caught helping on defense one time too many- that was the source of a lot of her foul trouble, plus an ill-advised attempt to drive that fouled her out of the game. You can't realistically expect to get the benefit of the doubt when the player is that set and the play's not really that close. She was tough on the glass and hit a clutch midrange jumper. Stat lines be damned, though, Imani Littleton took over the night once again. Someone does not want her college career to end any time soon, and I love what I'm seeing out of her. This WNIT run really seems like the first time she's using her height to its full effect, deflecting passes and making monster blocks. Her defense has been the reason we've been in every game. She's going all out, and even when she loses the gamble on the swat, she gets back up and she does it again. She's got nothing left to lose.

I'm sorry if I'm a bit incoherent. The heart Imani has shown these last two games is making my heart all squishy.

I don't want to say we were getting the short end of the stick when it came to calls and physical contact, but even the refs were smacking us around with no consequences. No, seriously. Late in the game, one of the officials popped Akina Wellere in the mouth while making a call. I missed the entire sequence, but I saw him make the call, and then I saw Akina holding her mouth with a very confused expression on her face. Someone in the crowd was baying for a technical, which makes me wonder if they thought Akina initiated contact somehow. Either that, or she had the reaction that is to be expected when the ref hits you in the mouth and someone had the vapors over her language.

We've been a team that prides ourselves on our defense for a very long time. It's really stepped up in this postseason. Let's keep it going against Duquesne. Duquesne must suffer, after all. I still hold a grudge or two against them.

We're going to need a bigger crowd, though. I'm tired of being the loudest person in the arena. I don't know how much more of this my diaphragm can take.

Parting shot- Sky Lindsay doing small Rockette kicks as the band played the team out to "New York, New York". Never change, Sky.