December 29th, 2018: MTSU at Chattanooga

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Middle Tennessee started out on a big run and never surrendered control as the Blue Raiders beat Chattanooga 58-47. A'Queen Hayes had 18 points and seven rebounds to lead MTSU, with Alex Johnson adding 17. The Mocs got strong scoring off their bench, with Bria Dial's 12 points leading the way and Mya Long adding 11, but no other Chattanooga player had more than eight points.

For fashion commentary, putting names to shimmies, ill-advised passes, insecure bandages, shutting down everything, and burning clock, join your intrepid and geographically displaced blogger after the jump.

On to the next one! Strange for a couple of teams from Tennessee to run into each other up here in New York, but I don't question the scheduler. Chattanooga is the designated home team today, and since I don't feel like getting up, I guess we're sort of rooting for them. Besides, I like the kid who liked the drum corps.

Huh, this is awfully early for the captains' meeting with the refs. It's just under fifteen minutes until tip.

Scoreboard operator fell asleep sometime after the first quarter, I'm about 40% certain the PA guy accidentally called Taylor Sutton Taylor Swift, and at least one turnover has been caused by insufficient mopping. The perils of the neutral half of a doubleheader. Middle Tennessee is up 36-24 on Chattanooga at the half. Alex Johnson has 11 points to lead the Blue Raiders, with A'Queen Hayes adding 10 (and one spectacular block). Bria Dial has nine on three threes to lead Chattanooga.

MTSU has a Jersey girl, so they have a pretty big cheering section behind their bench, but a few people have come up from Chattanooga as well.

In the end, MTSU had the better players and made fewer mistakes, just fewer enough to win. Chattanooga showed some heart, but they were too clumsy for their own good and got in their own way too much.

I loathe MTSU's uniforms. I get that they're the Blue Raiders, and that there should naturally be an emphasis on the blue. But there's no trim, and there are no names, and both of these combine with the rounded neckline to make their uniforms look like very nice practice jerseys- but practice jerseys nevertheless. Do better, MTSU. (Also, I realize that this is a neutral-site holiday tournament, but please, can y'all put your coaches in real clothes and not polos?)

Lasonja Edwards came in briefly in each half to relieve Alex Johnson. She did not contribute very much. Jordan Majors played much the same role, though there were stretches when he played alongside Johnson. She's got good height off the bench for them, but she's a little careless with the ball. She wrecked Lakelyn Bouldin on

Alexis Whittington was in barely long enough for the PA guy to notice her existence (which, to be fair, is nothing new for some subs). Tall for a guard. Katie Collier is small and blonde, and there was a sequence where MTSU turned the ball over on what I can only call a collective blonde moment with her and Anna Jones, wherein one of them was sure that the inbounds play involved a handoff and the other was equally sure it did not. It did not go well. There was recriminating. It looked like the Spider-Man meme.

Anna Jones did start the game out like gangbusters with a three and a couple of nifty defensive deflections (I think she was the one who stopped Mollie Melton dead on a fast break). But she was more careless with the ball as the game went on. Taylor Sutton is small, and quick, two qualities that tend to go together in high-level basketball. She seemed to be a lot more omnipresent than the box score would indicate. She kept busy on defense. A'Queen Hayes has great explosiveness ot the basket, and wonderful slashing ability, but her tendency to run the clock down and blithely assume she was going to successfully make the play bit MTSU in the rear a couple of times when Chattanooga answered with a block. She's got ups- the ridiculous block on Arianne Whitaker showed that- but I think she relies too heavily on her perceived ability, which may not pan out against defenses that are prepared for her.

Alex Johnson is a load down low, and she took Arianne Whitaker apart in the early going. She's got a nice passing eye, and I like that she's not a complete ballhog- there were one or two occasions where she called off the ball and set the screen instead. But I don't know how much more there is to her offensive game- the three-pointer that completely deflated Chattanooga can only be described as a desperation heave- and when Chattanooga brought in a different defender, she didn't seem to know how to react immediately. Jess Louro shoots threes. That's literally every shot she took today. She seems to be a pretty streaky shooter- she hit three in the first quarter and then her shot went dead until the fourth. She made a pretty good stop in the first quarter. (But, uh. How to say this delicately? Insell does not appear to value the weight room for his bigs? And Louro's jersey, um, seemed to especially emphasize her, um, chest.)

Rochelle Lee was the player in love with the drum corps in the first half of the doubleheader, and she was the first post off the bench for the Mocs. She gave them good height and an ability to change up the defense on Johnson. Once she got those arms up, and was bending with the pressure, suddenly Johnson was a lot less comfortable. She's got to finish better at the rim, though. Eboni Williams came into the game, committed two quick fouls, one offensive and one frankly unnecessary, and that was pretty much the last we saw of her.

Bria Dial got the second-half start, possibly based on her nice shooting in the first half from beyond the arc. As you may imagine, there were many "dial" puns to be had, because why not? It was interesting to see how Chattanooga's coach handled her hot and cold shooting, and knew when to take her out and put her back in for maximum effectiveness. Mya Long also started the second half, though this may have been due to injury instead of play. She ran point okay, though there were some stupid turnovers in there.

Mollie Melton is fast, though I don't know if she's as fast as she thinks she is- the injury that took her out of the game looked to be some kind of strain or sprain that came from overextending herself. I love the work she did on the fast break, both spurring it for the Mocs and stopping it for the Blue Raiders, and given that her family traveled to see her, I'm really sorry her game had to end like that. Brooke Burns started the game, but was benched for the second half and didn't reenter until late in the third quarter. I can't say I'm surprised. She really contributed nothing except an inability to finish inside. Lakelyn Bouldin got some tough looks to go down, and did a good job of getting to the line.

Arianne Whitaker, for all the grief I gave her about defending Alex Johnson, came up with some big blocks at the end of the clock, when they counted most. She did well inside as well, though I think she may have been one of the many players who had second or third chances at the baket that she just couldn't put down. There was a lot of that going around, enough of it that Chattanooga could have made a real game of it if they'd been able to finish. And while I hate to pile on a player, there were a lot of unforced errors from Shelbie Davenport. I love her heart and hustle, but it seemed really undirected, and caused as much trouble for her team as it did for the opposition. I'm looking at this box score, and I'm amazed at how the turnovers were distributed.

I don't know if Chattanooga is a bad team, but no one in this game really seemed like the kind of player who could take the team on her shoulders and will them to a win. MTSU has that in Johnson and Hayes (whether you want Hayes to be that player or not is a question for another time, perhaps one when I am somewhat more conscious). They seem too much like a team that can't cope with pressure yet- they're fairly young, though.

Officiating was mostly unremarkable, though I remain amazed at their astonishing ability to not call mid-air body slams on people. I mean, really. Wrestling is not a thing here, people.

I honestly expected the traveling fans to be louder, but they really didn't find their stride on either side until the second half, when Chattanooga cut it to six a couple of times. Do better, Tennesseeans and people who root for teams in Tennessee. Y'all didn't come to New York to sit on your hands, right?

I honestly have no idea what Fordham is going to do with Alex Johnson tomorrow, and I don't think Chattanooga is going to enjoy Maine's defense very much.