February 15th, 2019: Marquette at St. John's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: St. John's used a strong second half to overcome a 14-point Marquette lead in an 81-74 win at Carnesecca Arena. Tiana England led four Johnnies in double figures with 20, adding six assists. Erika Davenport had 24 points and 13 rebounds to lead Marquette in the loss.

For defensive stalwarts, unsung heroes, pink jerseys, and slowly but steadily catching up to real time, join your intrepid and squeeful blogger after the jump.

We'll see how this whole GNoD thing goes tonight. I'm two games behind and I feel like pounded crap.

The jerseys are very pink. I think we may have reused last year's and just gotten new ones for the newcomers; the three new jerseys have a glow around the numbers that the returners' don't. I think they managed to correct the spelling of Brelove, though.

We seem to have an official anthem singer now. I'm okay with this, because he's good.

It's 40-32 Marquette at half, and it could honestly be a lot worse. They're killing us on the boards, but they've had at least two possessions with multiple o-boards that have come up empty. We're stopping the big threats, the preseason POY and the likely POY, but Erika Davenport has 12 points and Amani Wilborn has 11 points.

Okay, not for nothing, but if we keep playing like this in the pink jerseys, I will turn my hatred of them into a campaign to become the Pink Storm. Remember, it's only crazy if it doesn't work, and right now it's appearing to work. Seriously. I can't remember the last time the question "Should we act like we've been there before or should we consider attempting to storm the court?" popped into my brain.

Marquette is good, don't get me wrong. But they didn't look the same without Allazia Blockton being her old self Without her explosiveness and offensive versatility, they lose a big weapon, and they lose a lot of their depth. And her shot looked rusty. She got into good position for offensive rebounds, but even then she couldn't put them back. She was terrifyingly hesitant, and that led to strips and steals from the Red Storm defense. Lauren Van Kleunen barely played and her main contribution was a very long jumper that seemed ill-advised. Isabelle Spingola provided stability and a three-point shot, but she wasn't as much of a weapon as I was expecting against our defense (we're usually pretty vulnerable to the three).

Sometimes Danielle King gets the rolls, and sometimes she doesn't. In the first half, she did; in the second half she didn't. On such things can upsets be built. She's quick, and she's fast, and she's hellaciously determined (there was a sequence where she smacked the ball right out of a substantially taller player's hands like a flying comet). But I think we took her out of her game, and that does a lot to undermine Marquette. Natisha Hiedeman was a non-factor, which might have been the biggest factor for us. We shut her down. The fact that she got off only four shots says a lot to me about our defense. I admire her awareness of time and foul count, and the sacrifice she knew she had to make when she committed her fifth foul. Amani Wilborn put the offense on her shoulders in the backcourt, drawing a ton of free throws on penetration. She got herself into a little foul trouble in the second half, and that always seems to get into her head a little bit. Once there's a call on her that she thinks is a bad call, she starts acting out.

Erika Davenport is so good at getting around bigger players. She just stretches and stretches like she's made of taffy until she's at the basket. She did a number on Curteeona Brelove offensively, and switching defenders on her was part of how we won this game. She's so good close to the basket. If more of her putbacks had gone in instead of spinning out, Marquette might have been able to parlay that rebounding advantage into a win. Selena Lott has a lot of potential, no pun intended. She uses her length well on defense- she opened the fourth quarter with a bucket, a steal, and another bucket, and she rocked Alisha Kebbe on a block. It's definitely going to be a rebuilding year next year for Marquette, but she's a good piece to have during the process. I like her versatility a great deal.

When Marquette could get out and run their offense, they were in control. But when we were able to slow them down, or take them by surprise in transition, they were out of the game. I don't think they were expecting this kind of a fight from us (which is kind of silly, because we've always had trouble with each other) and when Moochy hit the go-ahead shot they didn't know how to counterpunch.

Speaking of which, if you're only going to hit one shot in a game, the go-ahead shot that gives your team a lead it doesn't relinquish is just about the perfect shot. The husband argues that Jasmine Sina being the player to hit that shot gave it even more of a psychological impact for the team. I don't know if I agree, but it definitely showed that she was equal to the moment (which is good, because her first attempt in the first half was…not good). Kadaja Bailey continues to regress. I don't think she realizes that her handle is not yet good enough on the collegiate level. She has to work on it if she's going to use it on this level, because otherwise she's going to get stripped and she's going to commit a lot of unforced turnovers. Kayla Charles had herself a day defensively. She's always had the potential, but so much of the time she takes herself out of the game mentally. Not tonight. She took Davenport out of the game when she was on her, using her height and her length to her advantage- at least two of her three blocks were on Davenport. But more importantly, she was hustling after loose balls, racking up floor burns like crazy. One sequence where she rolled out a steal and got it to Tiana for the fast break lay-up comes to mind (if only because Tiana tried to give her one right back and she blew the bunny in the lane). She pulled down big boards and gave us incredible defense, and I can't credit her enough for the work she did.

(And for that matter, I have to give credit to Joe for sticking with her. I don't give him a lot of compliments, but he saw how the match-ups worked out and didn't just ride his starters. This is unusual for him and I want to encourage it.)

Curteeona Brelove had a nifty defensive play in the third quarter that got her a bucket, but it was a rough night for her overall. She got her buckets, but she had a lot of trouble defensively with Erika Davenport, and racked up a lot of fouls. Also, I realize she does have some perimeter game, but I really would like for her to stop jacking threes. She's at her best for us when she's throwing her weight around inside. Alisha Kebbe was a monster on defense- her work on Natisha Hiedeman was probably the biggest reason we won this game. She contributed on the other end of the floor, too, but her defense was the reason she was the woman of the match.

Tiana England had a heck of a game. She's come on strong here at the end of the season, finding the gaps to make the good pass and hitting her shots inside and out (mostly inside- if that floater's going, she's absolutely unstoppable). She's just looked so good. She's occasionally done it in an understated fashion, and then you look up and she's got monster numbers. She doesn't control the game as overtly as many of our point guards in the past have, but I'm starting to believe she might get to that point now, when I wasn't sure before. I think Akina Wellere is also starting to get more comfortable with her role, which might not be the best timing given that the season is almost over, but at least she's starting to figure out how she fits into this mess of a lineup we have. (Okay, mess is too strong of a word, but there are a lot of players being forced to play to their weaknesses instead of their strengths, and their flaws become more evident in this way.) I'm still not comfortable with Qadashah Hoppie's shot selection.

We won this game on our defense. We hit big shots, but our defense put us in a position to hit those shots. This is the team that went toe-to-toe with UConn, not the team that got spanked by Butler. This was this team at its best. I am insanely, stupidly proud of them. This win could put the team on the right track and somehow sneak us into the WNIT.