January 11th, 2019: Providence at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's was up as much as 11, but couldn't hold on, and Maddie Jolin's free throw with 0.7 seconds left in overtime made up the margin in Providence's 67-66 win at Carnesecca Arena. Jolin had 19 points to lead all scorers, with Mary Baskerville adding 14 points and 10 rebounds. Alisha Kebbe had a team-high 16 points. Curteeona Brelove had a double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds.

For too many kids, comfortable seats, rolling signs, lunch, cruelty to the common clipboard, and an inability to hit shots at the rim, join your intrepid and frustrated blogger after the jump.

Good morning! Again. I'm not built for morning games, even when they have my team. We're coming to you on the inevitable tape delay from Carnesecca Arena, where St. John's is osting Providence.

Okay, St. John's has handled ticketing well this year. Unaccompanied majors have their own section, in the chairback seats, center court. (Y'know, as opposed to unaccompanied minors.) So we have good seats and we're not directly surrounded by screaming children. I'm okay with this.

That is... okay, the blue suspenders and paint-splattered-looking white blouse is definitely something, but I have not had nearly enough caffeine to figure out what that something is. She's on the Providence bench, whoever she is.

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They're playing the "baby shark" song, and I feel like I have died and gone to a special hell.

Team just came out, and Machi Duncan's arm is in a sling. Machi, what did you do to yourself?! So we're down to eight players. This is why you bring in more than ten players. Or at least bring in walk-ons.

Oh, cool. There's a digital board on the other side of the court that lists the players on court at any given time. I never saw it before because I'm usually behind it.

And never mind the previous point. There's a group in front of us, but at least they seem to be older, so there will be less indiscriminate screaming. I don't mind screaming as long as it's vaguely focused.

The only thing more annoying than jerseys with no names on the back is jerseys with fake names on the back. Providence all have "Friars" in place of a name.

Well, really, would it have been an official Division I women's basketball game if it didn't turn into a refshow at some point? I think not. But we shouldn't have been in a position for the game to be in that spot in the first place. We had opportunities at the rim and we blew them, plain and simple.

Providence certainly doesn't mind slowing the game down and using every ounce of clock, which shouldn't be a surprise (and really, we should be prepared for). They showed a lot more heart on the glass, and I think their key players were fresher at the end than ours were.

Alyssa Geary certainly is tall, isn't she? She didn't seem to know how to be much else in this game, but her arms were up on defense and against a short team that can be enough. Andrea Cooper provided a contrast in styles, being stockier and shorter than Geary. She had a good interception in the third quarter.

I don't think Earlette Scott got into the game in the first half, though I could be wrong- I wasn't on my sub game because my view of the waiting area was obscured and the PA guy was off his game. But I like the energy she gave them in the second half. She read long Providence shots very well and cleaned up the offensive glass so that Providence could reset their offense. Chanell Williams does not seem to believe she has ever committed a foul in her life, nor that she has ever traveled. Sometimes it's like that, Miss Williams. Kyra Spiwak got her buckets close to the basket, sneaking behind the defense.

Is it just me, or does Yo-Yo Nogic always seem to have a bad game when she plays St. John's, even though Providence otherwise has our number? She gets all the preseason accolades and then shoots really badly and commits fouls. I don't get it. I don't know if it's that we did this one thing right and did terribly at everything else, or she just doesn't match up well with us, or what. She did have a big block on Akina Wellere at the end of the third quarter. Maddie Jolin killed us from outside. She started hot and hit a dagger in overtime. Providence's solid switching gave her a lot of mismatches to exploit with her size. Mary Baskerville is very raw and still needs a lot of development- her touch around the basket on offense could be a lot better- but something about her glass work and her build reminds me of Lubirdia Gordon from Seton Hall. She laid a monster block in the OT to help seal the game for Providence.

Their smaller guards were less impressive. There's something about Olivia Orlando's attitude I actually kind of like. Kaela Webb is small and fast, and I'm not sure how well she fits in this offense, but clearly something is working here. I get the sense this team can be really streaky, and if they get stopped, they get extremely stopped. But if they see an opportunity, they're going for your jugular.

Hey, at least writing about the bench will be easy, since Alissa is sitting out a transfer year, Machi's arm is in a sling, and Moochy was DNP-CD. And for whatever reason, Kayla Charles was on a really short leash. If she made a mistake, she came out quickly and didn't come back in for a very long time. No, she wasn't playing super great, but we needed her, and I don't think she got enough time to work through her mistakes. Kadaja Bailey had a pretty good game, all things considered. It's good to see her possibly turning the corner and finding her groove again. I'd like her to finish better at the rim- she had chances, and she didn't seem to be going up strong on the glass. Too many good looks, not enough makes.

I'm really disappointed in Akina Wellere this year. She's moved away from her strengths and not shored up her weaknesses. She doesn't have a power game, and her shot from the outside has gotten slower. It's very frustrating. Curteeona Brelove missed some easy ones at the rim, but her midrange game got stronger as the game went on. I can live with that. I don't think I can live with the dumb fouls that ultimately led to her being taken out of the game.

Qadashah Hoppie also made some dubious defensive decisions that got her into foul trouble (and honestly, there was at least one rake where she should have been called for a reach-in). Her driving game was strong, but her three-point shot was AWOL, and I wasn't impressed with her on defense- I know she can do better. Alisha Kebbe was cold-blooded from the corner. I don't know how I feel about her becoming our three-point specialist, but if it works for her, then I can't be too upset. I just feel like it takes away from one of her strengths on the glass- if she's not in there mixing it up and boxing out, we're not getting rebounds. Tiana England drove well when she drove, but she spent too much time hesitating, even when Joe was encouraging the team to run (and that seems like a pretty rare thing).

But sitting this close to the bench highlighted a point I've seen before- this is one of the quietest teams I've ever seen. No one seems to be cheering each other on. No one's calling out encouragement or screens or the shot clock from the bench. Is there a leader here? The most passion I see is Joe yelling at the refs or Shenneika being frustrated. (There was one sequence where she was ready to slam her clipboard against the railing behind the bench, then seemed to realize that that would be a bad idea and brought the clipboard down with a marked speed decrease.)

I can't speak to the call that gave Providence the winning free throw, because I missed the entire sequence because the group in front of us chose that moment to leave. But it seemed like a cheap way to end the game. This crew had trouble counting steps much of th etime, but we got the benefit of some no-calls on reach-in plays.

This is my team, and I love them, but it's getting harder and harder to do so when it's not entirely sure that they love themselves the way they should.