Houston Cougars 80, Buffalo Bulls 62
Houston holds a lead this time, and long skinny posts are all the rage.
Okay, we've now established that Houston likes to build big leads and Buffalo isn't all that good. Sorry, Coach Hill-McDonald. You were really nice to the strange Liberty fan, and those bony posts of yours are fun to watch on the boards, but your team's got a long way to go.
Courtney Taylor is something else, I'm starting to think. Around the face a little, she looks like Thompson, and she's got game with some range. A nice array of moves, and killer on the boards, too. I'm still liking Brittney Scott, too. If nothing else, it always amazes me when a sophomore jumps the queue to become a team captain. We got to see a little more of their bench today, as Houston let up on the Bulls. I like Jasmine Johnson a lot. But just in general, they've got a good passing game- I'd say most of their turnovers were on technical violations, not on bad plays. With only the one senior, I think the next couple of years will be good for the Cougars- which is good, women's hoops fans in Houston could use a boost.
Despite allowing 80 points, Buffalo did have some great defensive plays. Brown, Matthys, and Kendricks all had nice blocks, and Hedderson and Kendricks were all over the boards. Holmes dueled well with Houston's Landry- I do love to watch the small guards go at each other. Am I wrong for that? Hitting their free thows might have made a difference, and I'll give Hill-McDonald a lot of credit for adjusting her lineup as quickly as she did- she almost completely shuffled her starting lineup from the St. John's game, taking the players who played well in that game and giving them the start this time 'round.
Play of the game for Houston: Roxana Button's steal and fast-break layup. It was a thing of beauty.
Play of the game for Buffalo: Brittany Hedderson's rebound and save on the baseline.
Extremely inconsistent refereeing. And the crew chief was behind some of the worst calls.
Apparently, I spent more time pondering the folks in the stands than I did the game. Recee was hanging out with one of the Houston families, and the crew for the next game was watching from a corner. I was very tempted to ask them about some of the questionable calls, but I thought that might be either tacky or creepy. Still, there's nothing quite as heart-warming as Denise Brooks-Clauser watching the halftime biddy game and cheering on the little kids, at one point yelling "Shoot it!" to one of them.
It's going to be a long season for the Bulls in the MAC, but I think it'll be a good season for the Cougars in C-USA.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
December 21st, 2008: Houston at Buffalo (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
Saturday, December 20, 2008
December 20th, 2008: Houston at Boston College (Chartwells Holiday Classic)
Boston College Eagles 62, Houston Cougars 56
Just when Houston thinks they have it in the bag, enter Mickel Picco, and let the butt-whooping begin.
I'll tell you, I think we were the only St. John's fans not directly related to players who actually stayed for the second game. Not that there weren't fans- Boston College and Houston both traveled pretty well, considering the weather in New England and the distance from Texas. (Kelly's mom cheerfully reported eight inches in Massachusetts and more expected tomorrow. Bless her heart for coming out here as religiously as she does- and the rest of the family, too.)
The Houston folks were really nice to us. My mom's got bigger cojones than I do, and it was driving us absolutely nuts where we thought we'd seen one of their assistants before. I'm now relieved that I didn't completely hallucinate recognizing Amanda Barksdale's name (from "Nice Girls Finish First"). We thank them for their patience with the strange St. John's fans next to them.
Brittney Scott reminded us both a lot of Vickie Johnson, in terms of style, look, and ability to keep her team together. Courtney Taylor brought the offense. And the rebounding. And some very powerful blocks. I rather liked Jasmine Johnson, too. We were sort of rooting for Roxana Button, because we were sitting by her family, and she did have a nice steal to set up a bucket by Johnson. For a freshman, she's not bad. Not bad at all. Landry seemed to be pushing too hard sometimes. They have some really big girls on that team- Ashlee Joseph and Cobilyn Hill both made me go o.O "wow, everything is bigger in Texas!" I like Hill, despite her penchant for fouling- she's got a good head for the game.
Coach Crawley was rocking a very nice suit, which says a lot for a woman as tall as she is. I was disappointed in Carolyn Swords- she played really well against us last year, but she seems to have become a lot more passive, consistently getting beaten to balls that she should have without contest. Murphy wasn't so hot on the offensive end, but late in the game, she did a great job of forcing the Cougars to change their shots. Lauren Whitehurst might actually have been the best defensive post to play for BC today, or at least the most interesting. Ayla Brown, for much of the game, seemed to be the only Eagle who was into the game. Brittanny Johnson looks so disconcertingly like St. John's Coco Hart that there was a point late in the game where I- sleep-deprived and exhausted from four hours of basketball- genuinely wondered what the fuck Coco was doing checking in for Boston College. Jasmine Gill did her damnedest to keep Boston College in the game in the first half, but she just wasn't enough, and they were getting doubled up at halftime, 28-14.
And then the second half started and Mickel Picco took over. I've been to WNBA games, I've been to college games all over the place, I've seen some of the best players in the world. And in all the games I've been to, I've never seen a player completely dominate a stretch of the game and singlehandedly wrench the tide in her team's direction the way that redheaded firecracker did in the first 10:08 of the second half. She had two points at halftime. She finished with 29. Looking back at the play-by-play, 22 of her points were in those ten minutes; her two steals in that time also resulted in three points for the Eagles.
I still think Crawley climbed the ladder too fast. In that first half, she looked completely lost, and there were a couple of situations where no one was sure who was supposed to be coming into the game. Maybe it was just a one time thing, but I'd worry about that, and about Swords's game, if this goes on tomorrow.
Dennis, you disappoint me. Your crew did a crap job today, especially in the first half, which could best be described as slop-and-go. After two great games, this is below your standards.
Play of the game: Mickel Picco from the far corner. Kinda happened a lot.
So I'm really looking forward to the shootout tomorrow between Little Sista and Picco.