Friday, December 21, 2018

December 21st, 2018: Fordham at Iona

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A slow first quarter for both teams led into a second-quarter run for Fordham, and the Rams didn't look back in their 57-40 win over Iona. Bre Cavanaugh had 15 points and 12 rebounds to lead Fordham. Shyan Mwai and Morgan Rachu each had eight points to pace the Gaels.

For road tripping, avoided puns, procedural turnovers, discount Diet Coke, and being distracted by shiny objects, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.

I'd say good morning to y'all, but it's extremely not a good morning out there. There are no frozen cats, and nothing's been snapped off, but there are flash flood warnings all through southern New York, so I'd say it's still a wonderful day to play inside. It's up to Iona in enemy colors again, as the Gaels host a ridiculously early tip against Fordham. As you might expect, there are about two dozen people in the stands, and that's if I count gameday staff.

Ashley Martin, I admire and respect you, but what in the world have you done to your hair, and why are you trying to look like a cross between Sailor Moon and Betty Boop? (On the other hand, Halei Gillis's partial braids look really good on her. The 'do softens her face a bit.)

Ralene's out of the boot, at least, though she does not appear to be dressing out today.

The one thing I miss most about being on good terms with Iona is the wi-fi password, not gonna lie. At least I can tap into the Spectrum network from here.

This is your perennial reminder that #14 should be retired on the women's side at Iona, and Billi Chambers can go straight to sod off until such time as it happens.

I don't applaud recorded anthems, please don't side-eye me.

I should probably learn the name of the DOBO/PR lady for Fordham. She's lovely and she brought chocolate and pom-poms. What's not to like?

This is your perennial reminder that Monica Barefield, Ashley Martin, and any other player who chooses to kneel for the anthem has my unconditional support of their right to freedom of speech and expression.

At halftime, it's 29-18 Fordham, after a rough start for the Rams and a strong start for Iona. Bre Cavanaugh has put on her metaphorical cape, with nine points and six boards in the first half, most of that coming in the second quarter. Juana Camilión is the real deal for Iona, with seven points to lead the Gaels. She had a scary moment early in the first, when she slid hard on a wet patch on the floor and limped off. She came back in, but Iona's offense lost a lot of explosiveness when she was out, and didn't get it back when she returned. They're falling back on their volume shooters, Rachu and Mwai, and it's not going well. On the other hand, they're getting good penetration against our defense.

Quite a few folks have made their way here to support the Rams, but it seems to be a social occasion more than a sporting occasion. There's a dude a couple of rows behind me who's giving good commentary on the game, though; I think he's a youth coach. Katie McLoughlin has an especially big contingent on hand, one that got very excited when she got some first half run.

And now the wi-fi is acting up. Stop that, Iona.

So that turned out rather more satisfying than I expected, which is good, since it is raining and I am not the world's biggest fan of slogging around in the rain. Live by the three, die by the three, and some of our dubious three-point shots could have killed us against better teams. But we survived to tell the tale.

With about two minutes left in the game, Coach Chambers blinked first and sent in her deep reserves, at which point Coach Gaitley arranged a line change. I am not happy with how long it took her to sub out Bre and Lauren Holden. She's going to run those two into the ground if she's not careful. Waiting for the other coach to capitulate may be emotionally satisfying, but if you're up 15 with three or four minutes to go, it's probably okay to take out your workhorses, especially against bad teams or teams that tend to lash out in losses. I realize this is never going to change, but I'm going to rail against it anyway on the off chance that it does.

Anyway. I can't remember the last time I saw a bench this hyped for free throws, but the squad was loving Vilisi Tavui getting to the line (shame the shot didn't go in- that was a really nice pass from Halei). Some good hustle plays from Halei and from Catherine Polisano, even if Catherine got called for a foul on it. Lauren Murphy's free throw motion is not good, and she probably needs to work on that if she's going to move up in the rotation at any point.

Katie McLoughlin needs to extend her range just a hair- that long two could have been a three with another step or two back. I like her hustle, and she's got potential, but there are a lot of things she needs to work on. I'm glad Coach Gaitley is showing a little confidence in her, though. We could use a little more depth on the bench. Zara Jillings continues to bring the hustle- there was one play where Iona was loosey-goosey with the ball, and she was on it like a hawk. I wish she could have hit the looks she got, because they were good looks, if a little too quick. Megan Jonassen continues to develop. I really like how she's coming along. She's physical inside, and she had one little baby hook in the second half that got a few whoops from the crowd.

I also like how Kaitlyn Downey is coming along. She's finishing better on the inside, while still retaining the ability to step outside and hit the three. I think she was missing that balance early in the season. She's boxing out well, too. Mary Goulding is unreal sometimes. How she went from hands and knees crying with pain to back in the game and hitting in the paint, I don't know. She's ridiculously tough. She wasn't afraid to get into the scrum for rebounds, and there were times, especially in the second half, that scrum was the only applicable word.

I love how Kendell Heremaia's passing game has developed. I'm sorry it's coming at the expense of her once-sharp defensive game, but all things in life require sacrifices. She spent a lot of the game in foul trouble (the possession after she picked up her fourth, I was on pins and needles because we hadn't gotten the sub up in time, but then we forced the turnover and Lesko fouled to stop play) that hampered her effectiveness. Lauren Holden spent a good chunk of the game looking frustrated at foul calls both made and not made, or possibly at threes that weren't going down. I can understand some of her frustration, though; there should never be a sequence where Lauren is attempting to box out a player close to a foot taller than she is, and she got stuck with Gabrielle Joseph on a couple of sequences. This is not a good plan. Bre Cavanaugh continues to do Bre things. Her timing on the glass was exceptional, though, really, those are boards her posts should be getting instead of getting out of the way for her. (I don't necessarily mind Bre the double-double machine, but I am equally okay with Bre getting seven or eight boards if the balance of them go to Mary or Kaitlyn.) She killed Iona with her hesitation moves and quick hands. I just wish she didn't have to carry so much of the load.

I'm bummed for Amelia Motz. I don't think she's been recruited over, though I admit my bias here, but she seems to have been relegated to the end of the bench, only coming in at the end of each half for mop-up duty. She seems like a nice kid. She deserves better. I don’t know if Ashley Martin deserves better in basketball terms, but IMO she does in personal terms. Run! You can almost certainly do better!

I don't know if Monica Barefield has more than one speed or not, but the one speed she does have is fast. Very fast. She's got good, if inconsistent, shooting range. But her size is a liability, and it gets her in trouble as much as it keeps her out of trouble. She's the closest thing to a point guard that Iona has right now, and that's part of their problem. Shayla Middlebrooks drove hard into the lane. She got a little too fancy with her finishes and probably could have added another bucket to her tally if not for the flourish. She's physical, and I don't know if she's always on the right side of that line, but she does better than some of her teammates at trying to be. Jodi-Marie Ramil, on the other hand, is not so good at staying on the right side of the line, and admittedly, some of my thoughts about her play are ill-suited to a G-rated (or possibly PG?) blog such as this. Granted, Bre's teammates should have called out the screen, but it was an awfully hard screen. I don't know if Iona just wasn't going to her, or if we were able to shut her down when we weren't shutting down their guard penetration, but she could have been much more of a factor for them than she was, and I'm happy about that, believe me.

There are two different ways that Morgan Rachu's last name is pronounced in an alternate universe, both leading to the Pokémon Go joke that electric types are boosted in rainy weather. Unfortunately, in this universe, it's pronounced like a threat you make to a pile of leaves (rake-you) and I look like even more of a giant dork than I already am. She's got size, but her shot is just a mess. She's way too streaky, and when she's not on from beyond the arc, she doesn't seem to be able to contribute in other ways. Shyan Mwai penetrated well but couldn't always finish at the rim. Juana Camilión shows a lot of potential that I don't think she'll be able to fulfill at Iona. She's got a really nice crossover that she used to make space for herself, but she didn't always take advantage of that space. She'll have to be more aggressive in that regard going forward.

Gabrielle Joseph is another player with potential, but she's too tentative at times. Granted, she was being sealed off pretty well for stretches, but on the other hand, any post player worth her salt should be able to take advantage of a mismatch against Lauren Holden. She's also got to do a better job of getting out of the paint- she was getting for three-second calls, though she certainly wasn't the only Gael who lost track of time in the lane. There's potential there, but I don't know if she's ready for the starting position she so far has. Tori Lesko spent a lot of time playing out of position as the closest thing to a point guard in the Gaels' starting lineup. No one really seemed comfortable with the responsibility of bringing the ball up the floor, so it fell to her, and she took the bullet, for lack of a better word. She took charges, or at least attempted to, although sometimes I thought she crossed the line into flopping. She does that; she's done that for as long as I can remember. She took a couple of hard tumbles, including one near the end of the game that Coach Gaitley had to help her up from.

(As an aside: dear fellow Fordham backers, if you're talking about stepping on someone's fingers, you better either be talking about something I didn't see. That's not something you joke about a coach doing to a player. Seriously. Dudes. No. Miss me with that nonsense.)

Iona needs to shore up a lot of their fundamentals. They committed a lot of unforced turnovers like travels and three-second violations. Either they've got to react faster or they need drills on clock and spatial awareness.

Refs were letting a lot of physical contact go, but I can't fault their attention to detail on procedural calls. (Losing track of the foul count, on the other hand...)

Everyone's flaws were on display in this game, and something's going to have to give for Fordham, or it's going to be a very long A-10 season, at the end of which Bre will fall over.

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