February 16th, 2019: LIU at St. Francis NY

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A competitive first half turned into a rout in the second half, as St. Francis of Brooklyn took down their local rivals from LIU 87-64. Jade Johnson exploded for 31 points, while Amy O'Neill added a triple-double with 16 points, 11 assists, and 10 rebounds. Brandy Thomas had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead the Blackbirds in the loss.

For milestones, scoring oddities, the walking and limping wounded, taking the elevator, going the long way home, and just general head-shaking, join your intrepid and very tired blogger after the jump.


Even if the Game Notes of Doom stop sometimes, basketball doesn't, and your intrepid blogger is juggling three different windows of notes on a C train to Metrotech, on my way to the Battle of Brooklyn at St. Francis. I think the trophy game was technically the first game of the series, the one in January I couldn't get to, but they're all battles to me.

Our LIU crew came through with swag. The husband is currently wearing the troll hair.

Either Coach Cimino is jealous of Tia Montagne's eyelashes, or the coaches both have opinions on whether she should be wearing them. There's a lot of respect between Coach Cimino and Coach Del Preore, which makes this rivalry a lot easier to live with than Awkward Bowl.

We're down 44-36 at halftime, and honestly, this is better than I was expecting.

For some reason, I find it incredibly funny that St. Francis piled into an elevator to get to their locker room. Meanwhile, poor Destoni Willock has to wait for them to go and the elevator to come back, because she's on crutches and definitely can't take the stairs.

Jade Johnson is absolutely killing us. She's already got 20 points, including her 1000th. Brandy Thomas, once she stopped shooting three-pointers and started powering inside, got going and has 12 to lead the Blackbirds.

I guess the dance performance at halftime is pretty good, but I have to write all the doom and Community Day starts in 12 minutes, so I haven't been paying that much attention.

Well, this was honestly what I was expecting, in the end. We're not that good and we're extremely short-handed. We gave it as much as we could, but we didn't have that much to give.

Daisha Davis has one move in the paint, and if she's able to power the ball in, she's set. Otherwise, she's lost. I'd like to see her develop more than one move, and learn to stop bringing the ball down where all the short people can get to it. The power dribble only works if there aren't three defenders around you all hounding the ball. Autumn Ashe brings a lot of energy and enthusiasm on defense, and she had a nice hustle play on the baseline, but her offense needs a lot of work. Ryan Weise was called upon for a lot of minutes, both because her three-point shot was going down and because of the injury scare with Tiya Misir in the first half. I'd like to see her be a little less scared to take the midrange shot- she looked like she was passing off midrange and free-throw line shots that she could have gotten off without getting stuffed. She's young. Maybe she'll get over it.

Ella Vaatanen looked like she was devoutly wishing she weren't 6-1, because there were expectations being put on her that I don't think she can handle. She's the only height we have that Coach Del Preore feels like she can rely on, and she seems like she has no idea what to do with this responsibility and this size. I'd be sympathetic, but I also would like her to do the things Coach is asking her to do. I would greatly appreciate if Brandy Thomas never took a perimeter shot again, because her strength is so clearly at the basket that it's a waste of her time for her to be launching threes or long twos. Not only is it a shot she's more likely to miss, but then there's also no one to rebound the missed shot. So it's a two-for-one disaster scene. I love the work she does in the lane, and I'd love to see her do more of it.

Tiya Misir gave us all a scare when she went down hard with the ankle injury in the first half. It looked really bad, but then she got up and was able to put a little weight on it, and then she came back into the game. I'm glad she was okay, because I think her family was sitting next to us, and that's just not something you want people to have to see, you know? She seems like a really nice kid, if a bit tentative on the floor. But being tentative is pretty much the story of LIU's life. Tia Montagne seems to have found a little more confidence running the offense, but there are still times when she's backing off shots she needs to take and slowing down the offense too much. I think she's one of the few players who seems able to respond to Coach Del Preore's style. Jeydah Johnson started the game red hot, but slowed down as St. Francis adjusted their defense and she started taking worse shots.

It just seems like there's so much more we could be doing and should be doing, and we're too scared to- as if we freak out as soon as we see a defense of any sort. That's not a good sign, and I don't know if these are the right players to deal with that, or if this is the right coach to help these players deal with that fear.

Coach Cimino used her deep bench at the ends of quarters a lot, to pick up cheap fouls and give her main rotation players some extra rest. It got ridiculous at one point when she had four players enter in three successive waves. I mean, really, that was some delay of game worthy stuff there. Kate Bauhof committed a lot of stupid fouls, but I'm not sure how much of that was actually in her job description, in terms of using up team fouls at the end of the first quarter. She's enthusiastic, but I can see why her minutes have gone down as the season's gone on. I'm more surprised that some of the upperclassmen have been relegated to mop-up duty, which is pretty much my collective comment on Dana DiRenzo, Mia Ehling, and Lorraine Hickman. I know these aren't Coach Cim's players, but you work with what you have, right?

I'm glad she's using Samantha Keltos a little more- I think she's got good potential around the rim. She's decently tough. Abby Anderson doesn't show quite the same potential, to me, but she's also younger and maybe has to develop more. Ebony Horton was a hot mess on offense, but her defense was really solid- she made life miserable for our ballhandlers. But her night was done after she committed a boneheaded mistake that you usually only hear about in blooper reels, and I'm so sorry that this had to happen.

You see, a keen-eyed reader of the box score will notice that LIU has 64 points, yet LIU players only scored 62 points. And that would be because Tia Montagne missed a free throw, every Blackbird was on the other side of the court, and Ebony Horton proceeded to secure the rebound and put it back up, as you do. Except, I must remind you, Ebony Horton plays for St. Francis of Brooklyn, not LIU-Brooklyn. Thus, this is an own goal. And since there were no nearby LIU players to credit for it, it goes down as a "team" basket in the play-by-play. Horton was officially 0-3 from the field. No LIU player got an extra field goal. No one gets to add it to their tally. I don't think I've ever seen a player get subbed out so fast.

Dominique Ward killed us inside. She's got guard skills, but her length against our distinct lack of it made her a match-up nightmare. She had a few monster blocks, especially one on Brandy Thomas in the third quarter that I think killed our momentum. She plays with something less than a chip on her shoulder and something that isn't quite swagger, but lies somewhere on that spectrum- a confidence that in turn saps the confidence of her opponents. Ally Lassen really appears to be blossoming under Coach Cimino, or maybe it's just how she plays against us. She goes to the paint and she looks confident doing it. She killed us on the offensive glass, and that's where I'm going to get annoyed at our tall people for not stepping up and doing their jobs.

I don't usually have reason to pull out the "I'm starting to take a profound dislike to that woman" line in the first half, but Jade Johnson was pretty much single-handedly kicking our arses. Her pull-up game was a thing of beauty, her threes were falling, and we either couldn't or wouldn't stop her. If this was the game plan, it was a terrible game plan. The game plan where you allow one player to score and stop everyone else only works when you actually stop everyone else. Amy O'Neill has pretty much one move- drive the lane, penetrate so deep she's practically out of bounds, and throw up a wild one-handed shot. But she knows how to hit it with style, and she knows how to draw contact really well on those drives. Okay, she has two moves- option two is to pass once she drives deep. And she hounded our ballhandlers on the sideline and forced us into a lot of turnovers. Don't ask me how she got all those rebounds, though. The only thing I can think of is we were just letting a lot of balls go. Maria Palarino had a solid game, but for whatever reason, the way the PA guy does her name makes me think of '90s advertising. I don't get it, it doesn't make sense, but you didn't come to the Game Notes of Doom for dry analysis and posts that made sense, did you?

Pregame ceremony for Maria Palarino's 1000th point, and then Jade Johnson hit hers in the first half. I'd like to be happy for them, but this just feels like overkill somehow.

Not to say that the refs were bad or anything, but as we headed back towards the train station, I heard someone on the phone behind us talking about how the refs weren't making calls on penetration... and then I recognized the braids and the #5 backpack of Tia Montagne. Yes, as it turns out, the team does walk to and from St. Francis when the Battle is on.

I thought St. Francis had more than five people on their dance team, but it's been a long time.

We may not have won the game, but we took their money! One of the LIU fans won the 50/50 raffle and claimed the money off the dance group that had performed at halftime. I believe this might be a definite moral victory, or possibly an immoral victory, depending on what you believe about money being the root of all evil.

I don't know how much I can even say about LIU at this point. The team's short-handed and missing a lot of experience, and has a coach that doesn't do well with young players who need instruction in the fundamentals. I didn't exactly have high expectations for them in the first place, but this season has gone from bad to worse to lost in a hurry. With St. Francis, I can at least look forward to the old coach's players being gone so I can cheer for Coach Cimino with a clear conscience.

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November 17th, 2018: LIU at Saint Peter's

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Saint Peter's started off strong and stayed well out in front of LIU in their 86-59 win. Zoe Pero had 19 points and 10 rebounds, leading five Peacocks in double digits. Kiara Bell had a team-high 16 points off the bench for LIU, with Brandy Thomas adding 13 points and 14 rebounds.

For freshmen, getting turned around, insistent terminology, epic fails, dodgeball, and a lack of experience, join your intrepid and perturbed blogger after the jump.

Road trip! It's not a very exotic road trip, but it's a road trip nevertheless, to the wilds, or at least the unfamiliars, of Jersey City, to cheer on LIU at Saint Peter's.

It's astonishing what better lighting and better bleacher placement can do to make a multi-use gym actually look like a place where basketball should be happening. Saint Peter's doesn't look like they have a terrible facility anymore. It looks bare-bones and minimalist, to be sure, but it doesn't look like unmitigated crap like St. Francis's gym does.

Just for the record, I still maintain that Saint Peter's should have kept Peahens for their women's teams, and I will continue to maintain this throughout any game notes that feature Saint Peter's. Also just for the record, the school seems to eschew the St. abbreviation for Saint, so I'll be doing my best to use their preferred style.

If this dude uses "ladies and gentlemen" to preface one more segment of the pregame announcements, I may blow a gasket.

There are a lot of people here in LIU gear. I know we have a few kids from Jersey, but on the other hand, almost everyone for Saint Peter's is from Jersey, so...?

I do like the pattern adidas is using for the background of the shooting shirts. Can't tell from here if it's tribal or feathers or camo or random, but it's cool. The shirts and the shorts don't quite match, though.

Tia Montagne is in a walking boot. I'm sad.

It should be taken for granted that I love the royal purple of Coach Del Preore's dress. Or maybe it shouldn't. I was about to say, "have you people met me?" but then I remembered most of you probably haven't, and given that my teams wear various shades of red, blue, maroon, black, and maize, you would have no idea that I gravitate towards purple like fouls gravitate towards post players.

Well. This is going about as well as I could have expected. It's 42-17 Saint Peter's at halftime, and frankly, it could even be worse. We are not good at basketball. Maybe this is a thing that will change at some point? It doesn't help that we have very, very little experience coming back, and a good part of it is already injured. I'm convinced Autumn Ashe is a figment of our collective imagination. Coach has already undone and redone her ponytail multiple times. For Saint Peter's, Briyanah Richardson has been a revelation, and she and D'Aviyon Magazine will be a heck of a one-two punch for the Peacocks for quite some time.

There are hairdos I have come to expect from cheerleaders, and lavender buzzcut is not one of them. I don't object, mind you. I'm a little amused that they just completely gave up on the giant white bow for her, though.

Free throws win ballgames. In the absence of an ability to win the ballgame, they do at least make you look like a D-I team, not a train wreck masquerading as one.

Well, that could have gone worse, I guess. I mean, I'm sure it could have gone better, but I can see ways where it could have gone worse. Saint Peter's has brought in a lot of talent, and while it might take some time for them all to mesh, they're not going to get beat up in the MAAC like last year. They have a lot of firepower. LIU's got a lot of freshmen, and they all look like they're scared of their own shadows, and anyone with experience is either injured, AWOL, or has regressed. It's going to be a long season in Fort Greene. Still my team, but doesn't mean I don't find them frustrating.

Kiara Bell was the one bright spot off the bench. She brings size that we sorely needed. She needs to work on her conditioning and extending her game ever so slightly, but she did an admirable job of finishing at the rim, especially with putbacks. I wish we'd been able to get more from Seneca Richards. And just to make it clear, by "more", I mean "anything other than an inexplicable refusal to either play her height or play the skill set she showed last year".

Ryan Weise got run later in each half and spent it either taking long threes or committing fouls. I don't think she's ready for prime time, but I think she was forced up in the rotation due to a lack of personnel. Shyla Sanford did a good job of getting in position to make defensive plays on the break, but I'm not sure about her on offense.

Ella Vaatanen shouldn't have to be taking the opening tip-off. She has a little bit of the height, but that's it. She's in over her head here, and I think it shows. Defensively, she had a world of trouble getting into position. Offensively, I don't know that she knew what she was supposed to be doing, posting up or launching jumpers. She got tasked with trying to guard Zoe Pero, who's a pure post, and it did not go well. At all. Brandy Thomas doesn't have the stamina she needs for the college game yet, but she's hard-nosed and gets the job done inside. I love her toughness. But she needs someone to complement her, and Ella is not that player.

Jeydah Johnson's shot was off. Way off. Side of the backboard off. Short of the rim off. She left the bench sometime in the second half with the trainer, holding her back, so maybe she's hurt- if I recall correctly, she's had back trouble before. But it's a problem when the person who's most willing to shoot- for much of the game, apparently the only person willing to shoot- is unable to hit the broad side of a barn. Camille Gray has quick hands on defense, when she's in position. But I'm honestly not sure who's more terrified on the floor, her or Tiya Misir. Tiya seemed paralyzed whenever she was running the offense, constantly looking back for the call. She's got to show some initiative at some point. I realize it's early. I'm sure she'll get better at this sort of thing, especially if Tia comes back to relieve some of the pressure. (Also, Tia and Tiya are homophones, so this could be a confusing few years.)

I honestly thought Jordyn Hawthorne got more time than she did. Maybe it was just time elapsed; she tended to finish quarters, and her minutes bridged the quarter break. Big body, but she didn't see a lot of use. Phylina Holmes got into the game late and made her biggest impression crashing out of bounds going for a loose ball. She's another big body Coach Mitchell needs to get refined, but she'll be good for them by the time Pero graduates.

Anna Maguire has a ridiculously quick shot. The word "snap" comes to mind. Instant offense, though I can see her going cold for stretches and shooting her team out of games just as easily as she shoots them in. Sammy Lochner also provided solid offense off the bench. Tyara McQueen had quick hands, which served her well when she got the steals, but not so well when she got called for the hand-check. She'll have to learn to restrain herself in that regard. But she's good.

I love Cinnamon Dockery's hustle. She made a lot of plays happen on the offensive glass and on defense. Her ball-hawking is on point. Briyanah Richardson puton a show, and I'm really excited about what she'll be able to do for the Peacocks in the next few years. She's already very well-rounded and poised for a freshman. She brings the driving game, and D'Aviyon Magazine brings the outside shooting. It's a deadly combination.

Zoe Pero killed us inside, and would have done a lot more if she'd been able to hold on to the ball consistently. She did a fantastic job of getting to the line and converting. Wil'lisha Jackson set screens and did the little things for the Peacocks.

I don't think we saw either coach at their best in this game- lots of sloppy mistakes from the plethora of freshmen for both teams. Officiating left something to be desired as well- at one point it looked like they were really going to go "no blood, no foul" rules- which is not going to work with two very passionate coaches.

(Speaking of which, Stephanie, you do know other people can hear you swearing, right?)

Long season up ahead. They're my team and I love them. It's just going to be a long year.

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(belated) Senior Tributes 2018

I love all my seniors, don't get me wrong. Even the ones I vent my frustrations at, ultimately, I cherish as much as the rest of the squad. You have to be a pretty heinous excuse for a human being, the kind of person whose name will no longer cross my lips, to lose that. And usually those kinds of people get rooted out and tossed out summarily on their ear. Those, I do not miss and do not love; their betrayal is all the more bitter for the loyalty that was given.

But it's okay to love some of them more than others, right? And by a confluence of events, an awful lot of them happen to be in this year's class of seniors. These are young women who I may miss on the court as basketball players, but who I will miss even more as people.

That's the joy of this game: you meet some pretty great people. That's the exquisite pain of this game: you know your time with them is inherently limited.

I tend to bury the lede, in case you haven't noticed. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. I like to build up to what I most want to talk about. So we'll start with the furthest and circle back in to the heart and soul of why I write these tributes in the first place.

Michigan is mine because of their staff, and because of our mutual loathing of Ohio State. We don't get to see them a lot, so when we do, it's always special. This year, though, it's been extra special.

Katelynn Flaherty steals the show when she takes the floor. Her stroke is pure and her drive is unquestioned. We've been able to watch snippets of her run through the Michigan record books, and it's been a pleasure and a privilege to be along for the ride. She's adapted her game to the needs of her team, and not every scorer can do that. Playmaking for other people doesn't come naturally to everyone. She's a bright shining star, the brilliant herald of Michigan's rise.


But if you know why I'm a Michigan fan, and if you know why I wear the jersey I wear, you know who my favorite players are. Sure, give me a pretty jumper if you want. But give me grit. Give me hustle. Give me defense. Give me a head for the game. Give me the willingness to outwork your talent, to outwork your size, to outwork what the numbers say you should be bringing to the floor.

That's Jillian Dunston, jack of all trades, terrifyingly broad-shouldered for a guard, entirely too short for a post. No single element of her game is superlative- but that just means she has to think more about what she's doing on the floor. She works incredibly hard on the floor, usually in as literal a sense as possible as she scrambles for loose balls. I am completely unsurprised that she's in the "So You Want To Be A Coach" program and will be completely unsurprised when she's on a Power 5 staff in three years or less.



Iona only has one senior on the roster this year. And I keep thinking there should be two.

Let me make one thing clear: if Philecia Atkins-Gilmore were still on the Gaels' roster, no power on this earth would have kept me from Iona's Senior Day. Battle of Brooklyn be damned, long haul be damned, uncooperative bus schedules be damned. That date would be circled in red on the calendar. I'd probably even hit the following game, for the sake of it being the last, and walk over to the transit center to get the bus home.

There are a precious few people I have had the privilege of meeting in basketball for whom I would run through walls, whose team is my team and whose enemies are my enemies. Phee is one of those few. She is as determined and energetic a leader as I've ever seen. Even as a freshman she was leading her team on the bench, constantly supporting them, constantly bringing the noise.

I still remember Maryland. Do you remember Maryland? March 2016 was pure magic, pure joy. Everywhere I looked, a team that mattered to me or to a friend (and thus to me) was going dancing. We had three choices that March. We didn't go to Waco with St. John's, and we didn't go to Storrs with Seton Hall. We went with the team we knew was going to lose. We went to Maryland for Iona, because it was the first time, because this was what we had been waiting for. And Maryland did to us exactly what we expected- but Phee went down fighting, shooting three after three.

Injuries robbed her of some of her speed, of some of her motion- and they robbed her coach of her confidence, I'm certain. Phee kept leading from the bench anyway.

And then I looked at the roster at the beginning of the year, and after my initial reactions of "Why is anyone wearing 24?" and "Why is anyone wearing 14?" I noticed a gap between 10 and 14 where 11 should have been. My reaction to that was, shall we say, unprintable and would probably have earned me a ban on Twitter. They react badly to threats of violence, even if I doubt I would follow through with such threats. I'm a talker, not a fighter.

Love for a team is about the name on the front, not the name on the back, but for some people I make an exception. And I might have dropped Iona sooner- except for the days when I spotted Phee sitting behind the bench with the rest of us fans, exhorting her team with the same constant encouragement and advice she gave when she was still in uniform. Despite everything, she believes in this nearly winless team and this trainwreck of a season. And I believe in her.

That's why, if you look up, and you look through my Iona notes, you'll see that I chose my words carefully. Phee's not in uniform. She's not on the roster. But she's still the best leader her team has. And she's still my favorite.


So that leaves one senior on the Gaels' roster, and I'm starting to think Billi Chambers has a soft spot for the late bloomers, the ones who finally figure it out as seniors, when they maybe think they have no choice but to figure it out. It happened with Karynda DuPree, and I think it's happening again with Kristin Mahoney.

Kristin looked scared to even be on the court in the scant minutes she picked up her first few years. There are still times when she looks wide-eyed at the defense coming at her and you can imagine her life flashing before her eyes.

She's had to grow up this year, through one of the toughest seasons a team can have. If the losing grinds her down, I don't blame her one bit. But she gets knocked down and she gets up again. Like any good Iona Gael, she fights the good fight. And along the way, she's found a little bit of her footing. It turns out she's better when she's claling her own number than when she's trying to force things for other players. I'm glad she's figured that out. I want ot see her succeed.

It's been a long year. I wish her nothing but the best.



It's late in the year and the Rams don't have a lot of home games left. But if you have the chance to see G'mrice Davis, go see G'mrice Davis. Watching her rebound is worth the price of admission alone. (That's setting aside the work of her teammates, but most of them aren't seniors, so you'll have to find out about them for yourself.)

On her best days, G'mrice reminds me of Jonquel Jones, long limbs and a growing grace. She doesn't have Jones's outside shot, but what she does have is phenomenal rebounding skill. She seems to fly across the paint to claim the ball, and nothing will stand in her way.. Her relentlessness has allowed her to rise high on Fordham's all-time lists. She is a glory and a joy to watch, and if I have a regret about her it's that I let my distaste for Fordham's style of offense rob me of chances to have seen her in previous years.


About Asnate Fomina I can say little. It's been a rough year for her- she hasn't even had the chance to play, so far from home. She's been a steady hand for us at point when she has played, a good solid player who keeps the team grounded. I'll miss her, and miss the things she brought us, and miss the things she could have brought us.



We haven't had as much time as I think I would have liked with JaQuan Jackson. That's the one thing that's saddening about transfers. You get to know them just enough to wish you could have known them longer.

Fierce is the word that comes to mind for Quanny. There's something intense about her eyes that combines with her high cheekbones and the shape of her jaw and chin to make her stare flat-out terrifying when she puts her mind to it. (It also tends to make her photograph very badly, which is a shame, because she's very striking in person.) You get the sense she can intimidate an opponent just by looking them in the eye and making them back down.

Everything about her on the floor is fierce, whether it's her ability to jump the passing lanes or her relentless offensive assaults. She is passionate and electric and fiery. She's a jolt at the right time, or a lightning storm rolling over the opponent.

Fierce and fiery and indomitable, Quanny is the spearhead of the Seton Hall attack. She's a long way from home, and we're glad she came to join us for the time that she did.



You're probably reading this and thinking I wrote things in the wrong order, because ever since this tangle fell upon us I've held Seton Hall close in my heart, as close as I can without giving up that first and deepest loyalty I hold to St. John's.

But there's something about this LIU class of '18 that's special, something I can't help but love, something that calls out to the things I love about basketball. Yes, even in one year, in Nish's case. They don't have the talent of the upper echelon teams, but what they have is grit and determination that would make any coach proud.

What I enjoy most about Denisha Petty-Evans is the family she's brought us. It's good to get a crew together and bring the noise, and they support the team whole-heartedly. They feed the whole team energy. That's not always the case with player families, and it says a lot about Nish and her family that they do.

Nish is fearless. She's gonna keep shooting no matter what. Sometimes that's a bad thing, and usually I'm the first person to call it out. But LIU is a defensive-minded team. We're tentative offensively. Someone needs to step up at that end of the floor, and most of the time Denisha's been the one to do it. We brought her in to lead, and in both deed and word she does so.

It's been a pleasure and a privilege to have her on board, and I'm sorry it couldn't have been for longer.


I've often used the example of Stylz Sanders to explain the plight of LIU, and to remind myself that all complaints about a team's lack of size are relative. After all, how many teams can say with a straight face that they start a 5-9 power forward?

Watching more of LIU than ever this year, I've grown to appreciate the leadership and grit Stylz brings to the floor. She guards whoever, wherever, whenever. I've seen her out on the perimeter, dealing with distance shooters, and I've seen her on the inside, banging against posts who have half a foot on her. She does a little bit of everything, even knowing she's going to be overmatched. You can't measure that kind of heart. You can only quantify its results: floor burns, bruises, ice packs, loose balls recovered, minutes played.

But more than that: while our other two seniors step up with their younger teammates, Stylz is most often the team captain working with the officials, talking to them before games, calmly trying to get calls during games. She's not afraid of letting the officials know she doesn't like a call, but she mostly keeps her cool. She defends her teammates, and that's one of the things I've grown to love about her.

If she wants it, she has all the tools to be a fantastic coach- a good head on her shoulders and a great sense of the game. Maybe there are advantages to being a 5-9 power forward after all.


I can't tell you the exact moment when I decided DeAngelique Waithe was my favorite, but I can tell you what that moment probably was. Almost certainly, it had to be while she was defending an inbounding opponent, arms windmilling in the air, legs kicking out, the arrhythmic call of "Ball! Ball!" serving as a distraction. That is always the clearest picture I have of Angel, defending on the sideline, hands up and right foot out.

There is, of course, much more to her game than this. You don't get a D-I scholarship just for defending inbounds passes. She's a fantastic rebounder and a ferocious shotblocker. For much of this year, she's played with an incredible sense of urgency that has helped power this squad through a good chunk of the year. You see that sometimes with seniors, that sudden realization that this is it, so they kick it up a notch to take advantage of every last moment they have left to them.

I'm finding it hard to come up with words for Angel, not because I've seen so little of her or because there's nothing I can say about her game. It's because so much of it can be summed up in one phrase: I just love to watch her play. Seeing her on the floor makes me truly, deeply happy. I love her defense, I love her power moves in the lane, I love her rebounding. And I feel like I should find a more profound way to describe her play, but sometimes you just don't want to complicate things, you know?


So these are my LIU seniors. They're not rewriting the history books. They're never going to make a ripple in the NCAA tournament, or even in the WNIT. In the grand scheme of women's basketball, they're barely a collective afterthought. But they're my seniors and I love them for what they are, and what they've done, and everything that they've meant to this program.



And, always, at the last, we come to St. John's, to my Johnnies who I love and support beyond all reason, beyond any of my other teams, the ones for whom I will always go to the wall. Even if they didn't start with us, they finished with us in the end. Having chosen, so defined.


I would have loved to have been able to cheer for Maya Singleton for a full four years. It's been pleasure and privilege enough to do it for two. Maybe over four years I would have become jaded, accustomed to her monster blocks and the intimidating staredowns that so often follow them. Maybe I would have demanded even more ferocious rebounding from her, even more of the rim protection and intense defense that she brings to the floor.

It makes sense that she's got military in her family, because there's something almost mission objective based in how she takes the court. She has a job to do and the job will get done. Other teams will throw obstacles in her way, and she'll get through or around those obstacles as they come, because she's not going to let them stay in her way. Her intensity is a sight to behold on the court, and I wouldn't want to be in her way.

But like many an enforcer, her off-court personality is completely different from the intimidating presence she has on the floor. The high cheekbones that turn her stare into a thing of terror also turn her smile into a thing of joy. She can light up a room when she wants to.

We've been blessed to have her for two years. It's not enough, but better that than to have never seen her at all.


Imani Littleton has been the steadiest, or at least the most constantly present, of our seniors. She's been here all four years and has the scars on her knee to prove it. She's suffered for us, been knocked down and picked herself up again for us. I think she might be the senior it's been hardest to get to know. She's quiet, introverted where her classmates are extroverted, polite but clearly uncomfortable in public situations. In some ways she's the least expressive player we have; her face always reflects the same cool, distant concentration no matter what's going on out there. But the rest of her body language is as easy to read as the rest of her... well, isn't. She'll slap the floor when she goes for a steal and misses, or swing her arms on a foul call.

Of our seniors, she's the one I think I would like to know most as a person, and to ask how she's changed in college on the other side of the country from home. There always seems to be a lot going on behind her eyes.

That's not to say she isn't also a damn fine basketball player. The torn ACL took away some of her mobility, and early on, maybe some of her confidence. But she's learned to adapt. She's the heart of our defense, the shotblocker down low to shut down paint penetration. She's not a scorer, and there are times when her missed lay-ups are intensely frustrating. But that doesn't make us love her any less. She's sacrificed too much for us not to cherish her. She's a fighter, and she brings that to the floor every night.


If you know me, you know I'm superstitious about jersey numbers. Numbers mean things, after all. I get a little testy when legendary ones are given out, and tend to see patterns where there probably aren't really any. So it's maybe not surprising when I describe Tamesha Alexander's personality as, "Like Sky Lindsay's, but without Sky's shy and retiring nature."

The joke, of course, is that Sky is one of the most gregarious people in the history of St. John's women's basketball, and possibly in overall Red Storm history.

Sox is just as outgoing as Sky, albeit a teeny bit less sarcastic. Maybe that's just the difference between New York and Philadelphia. She's got a personality bigger than she is, a quick laugh, a smile for everyone. She's a joy to be around, a social butterfly nonpareil. For four years she's been, at best, a second-string point guard, never a huge part of the team's on-court plan. By sheer force of heart and will and personality, she became one of my all-time favorites.

Because here's the thing about Sox as a player- she doesn't shoot the ball. Late in games, when the team's trying to get everyone on the scoreboard, they'll give her the ball- and she'll promptly pass it back. She seems genuinely happier to get the assist on someone else's basket, or to make a good defensive stand. I don't know how many games we've played where she's the last Johnnie yet to score- and refuses to shoot the ball. That's who she is. She doesn't want to run it up. She doesn't want to be the center of attention on the court.

I love Sox to itty-bitty pieces, not for what she does, but for who she is.



It's taken a long time to write this. Part of it is general basketball-related despair. Part of it is a general malaise. But I think part of it is simply denial. I don't want to lose these seniors, even though it's too late and they're already gone. This is, as it always has been, the price of college fandom: we know the clock is always ticking.

Some of them have been undeniable program-changers. Some of them have been game-changers. All of them are valued and treasured, and all of them will be missed.

And we get to do it all again next year.

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March 2nd, 2018: Bryant at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: LIU raced out to a 21-4 first quarter lead, then held on tight in the fourth quarter to preserve a 69-61 win over Bryant. Denisha Petty-Evans had 22 points and five steals to power the Blackbirds, with DeAngelique Waithe adding 20 points and four blocks. Sydney Holloway had 18 points and 11 rebounds to lead Bryant.

For reluctant farewells, seniors with traveling families, defensive stops, unexpected offense, people who are in the wrong section, gyrations, and no small amount of pride, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.

Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, and of course our well-mannered folks who defy and deny the gender binary! We're not quite the post office, but we're not going to let anything like a nor'easter keep us from a game. Your intrepid blogger comes to you as one of the eight people currently in the stands at LIU as they take on Bryant.

Believe me, I'd rather have skipped this game and gone Sunday for Senior Day, but of course that's the day the Liberty are doing their select-a-seat event up in White Plains, and there's no way we can do both.

For God's sake, Stylz, put a shirt on, you're making me cold just looking at you. Granted, the new t-shirts are reasonably pointless and I can understand not wanting to wear them, but still.

Denisha Petty-Evans just blocked a pass with her face, I'm starting to think this is going to be a long night.

Literally the entire sections behind and in front of the visiting bench are empty, why have the Bryant fans decided to park in the section across from the home bench? I hope Nish's family shows up and gives them whatfor. Come on, man. You literally have to walk past the visiting bench and the sections near it to sit over here.

Seneca Richards always looks like she's running on two hours less sleep than she actually needs, but now there's an enormous shiner under her left eye, and her right's not looking all that great either.

Drew Winter's still hurt, Paris Jones is hurt again, and Destoni Willock's been getting taped up for half of warm-ups. Injuries are really starting to take their toll. I mean, it's the end of the season, we have, at best, two more games left, so there are worse times, but it's rough, man. It's rough. (Actually, looking closer at Destoni, she also looks a little dinged up around the eyes. Who's been throwing 'bows in practice?)

I have no idea what this song is, but they just namedropped Pinky and the Brain, so hello new favorite artist. Now, if the DJ could turn the volume down so that it's not vibrating through my feet, preferably before my ears start bleeding, that would be great.

I've never had occasion to use this in the positive sense, but what even is happening?! It's 42-19 at the half. 42-19 LIU. Hands up, everyone who expected that. Bryant is shooting like they've never seen a basketball hoop before. Denisha Petty-Evans has 13 points and a ridiculous number of steals to lead both the Blackbird offense and defense. Haley Connors has 5 off the bench to lead the scattershot Bryant offense.

I don't know if we can keep this up in the second half. We're short-handed, after all; eventually the energy spent on defense is going to come back to haunt us. We just need to hold on to enough of it.

We held on to enough of it. Bryant made a big run in the fourth quarter, but they made their move too soon, and we were able to recover defensively to hold the line. I love what this team brings on defense so much. We are so terrible on offense and so determined on defense that it makes my teeth hurt sometimes.

Brooke Bjelko did some work on putbacks right at the basket, but also missed a bunny down there. She's got good height, but she still needs a little work. She's only a freshman. She'll learn, I'm sure. Kathleen Everson was the belle of the ball for the people behind us, who were her family and extremely proud of her. I would be more appreciative of their appreciating her if her dad didn't do that ear-piercing whistle thing. She set a beautiful screen to set up one of the threes for Stephanie Lesko. I'm pretty sure she got multiple offensive rebounds on the same possession- there was one sequence where Bryant had three or four cracks at the basket before getting it to go down.

When I put together the roster card/score card for this game, I spent entirely too much time trying to figure out whether Stephanie Lesko was related to Tori Lesko at Iona. I probably should have waited until gametime, because while I love Tori, she does not have a jump shot, and this Lesko definitely has a jump shot. She came up big for Bryant in the fourth quarter. Haley Connors had a spurt of offense from the right wing in the first half, enough that we knew we couldn't leave her open. Kandis Taylor tended to be on the defensive end of the offense-defense substitutions. She's pretty stocky, and wasn't afraid to body up on anyone (I'm pretty sure she ended up entangled with at least one of our posts at least once).

Sydney Holloway plays like she wanted to play for Mike Carey and his physical West Virginia teams. (Yes, if you're from Morgantown and every foul you commit involves checking someone into the boards, you will get Mountaineer references, put your sunglasses on and deal with it.) She was able to draw a lot of fouls on paint penetration, and credit where credit is due, she converted on them. That's an incredibly important and underappreciated skill. I was impressed with her hustle, even when it cost her team (she was so enthusiastic about following up on a free throw that she committed a lane violation and negated a made shot). The people who shouted "HOLLA!" when she hit shots were simultaneously annoying but appreciated. Despite my "get off my lawn" tendencies, I like passionate opposing fans. They just need to not be on my lawn. Hannah Scanlan showed touch at the basket in the third quarter, but I think Bryant was happier with what they were getting from Everson than from Scanlan.

Naomi Ashley was really tough. She made a lot of plays happen low to the ground, whether it was wrestling the ball out of our guards' hands or getting an offensive board on the baseline. She went hard in the paint and on the glass, and she got rewarded for it. She made a lot of good things happen for Bryant on both ends of the floor. I kept thinking Kierra Palmer didn't play much, and then I looked at the box score and saw that she played over half the game. That probably doesn't say a lot of good things about her. The box score tells me that she threw up a lot of threes, but I don't remember seeing Bryant put up a lot of threes. Most of the bad shots I remember them putting up were random heaves in the paint at the basket. Masey Zegarowski had a pretty, pretty pass to set up Bjelko for an outside jumper, and a steal in the fourth quarter- I'm trying to remember if she or Ashley was the one who brute forced the ball out of Denisha's hands.

I have to give Bryant credit- they figured out who they were in the second half. They got outside shots to fall from their shooters, and converted better on the inside against our tired defense. They adjusted. I'm glad they didn't adjust enough to win, though.

Destoni Willock is going to be the death of me, if she's not the death of Coach Del Preore. You can't fault her hustle. You can fault her occasional urges to play for the Maple Leafs, or her occasional inability to recognize her teammates, or her lack of a shot. She'd be less dangerous to us and more dangerous to the opponent if she could consistently control her physicality. I was surprised not to see more of Ella Vaatanen in the second half- I thought she brought good energy on defense and decent size to cover on the perimeter. Jeydah Johnson hit big shots in the second half, but I'm not sure whether she was paying attention to what the play call was supposed to be. Sometimes it worked out. Sometimes it didn't. She had to play out of position a lot thanks to our short bench, and I don't think it affected her game positively.

Tia Montagne had probably the most freshman game that it is possible for a freshman to freshman. She made a whole lot of horrific passes that had no business attempting to go where she was attempting them. (Although, to be fair to Tia, the worst passing situation of the night came from our grad student.) She looked like a freshman trying to spearhead an offense that isn't exactly much of a spear to start with. She also had a monster block on Zegarowski, played frenetic defense on the ball, and sank two clutch free throws late in the game. Up and down, with moments of facepalm and moments of glory- if that's not the definition of a freshman, I don't know what is. Denisha Petty-Evans slowed down, or was slowed down, in the second half, but came up with two huge threes to help ice it in the fourth. Sometimes I question her shot selection, but someone on this team has to shoot and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be Tia. That being said, when they say to hit your teammate with the pass, they don't mean it literally. This isn't dodgeball. (Also, I love Angel to pieces, but she should have had enough court awareness to, y'know, not literally get hit with the basketball.) Seneca Richards continues to impress me with her clock awareness, though that might be because no one else on this team seems to really have it. I look forward to seeing how she develops next year.

Solid, solid game from Stylz Sanders. That's the best word that comes to mind for her. She hit the shots she needed to hit on the inside, especially in the first quarter. She made the defensive stops she needed to make, save those that would have involved her needing to be several inches taller. She boxed out well and rebounded well. She spoke up for her teammates when the refs were being, well, NEC refs who probably weren't looking forward to going home in the teeth of a nor'easter. I've grown to admire her leadership this season, taking the kids in hand. DeAngelique Waithe had herself a day on the inside, though there was a stretch in the third quarter where it looked like the coffee wore off and she was completely tuned out of the game. A particularly emphatic teaching moment ensued, and Angel got her head on straight once more, making a big defensive stop down the stretch and finishing with a bang on the fast break lay-up. I love to watch her defend. I enjoy watching her take good shots in the paint, too, but I really love to watch those long arms in action.

I knew we couldn't sustain the offensive pace we were putting out in the first half. I was worried about the collapse in the fourth quarter, because Bryant is good enough, and we're mostly young enough, that it might have gone all the way down. But I should have remembered that our seniors and our grad student weren't going to let that happen. Nish made buckets, and Angel made stops, and we held the line.

Granted, this may also have been because the players were getting tired, but we went from a total of six fouls in the first half to something like fifteen fouls in the third quarter. It wasn't like it was dangerously physical in the first half and needed to be reined in, either. The refs just seemed to remember that there were whistles around their necks and wanted to take full advantage of them. And then Bryant didn't get called for a foul until midway through the fourth quarter. It looked a little fishy, but we got through it.

The halftime scrimmage involved unusually small Brooklyn Bulldogs. They didn't look old enough to be in college, but you know how kids are starting their education younger and younger these days. (The joke here is that Brooklyn College's teams are called the Bulldogs.)

Dance team has been working on their moves. Spines don't work that way!

We got to say goodbye to Denisha's mom and grandma after the game, and then to DeAngelique herself when she came out to say hi to her family. Man, I am so bummed I'm going to miss this Senior Day. This senior class has been so clutch for us.

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February 17th, 2018: LIU at St. Francis NY

Just the Facts, Ma'am: A strong third quarter from St. Francis cemented their 64-54 win in the Battle of Brooklyn. Jade Johnson took game MVP honors with 23 points for the Terriers. Jeydah Johnson had 15 points to lead LIU.

For bad calls, possibly having the entire arena staring at you, literal-mindedness, dance teams, winning raffle tickets, dubious shot selection, and the fierce joy of rivalry, join your intrepid and emotionally exhausted blogger after the jump.

Basketball never stops. Neither do rivalries. We go from the Awkward Bowl to the Battle of Brooklyn, as LIU travels to St. Francis.

There's no nice way to say this: St. Francis plays in a dump. Except for permanent seating, the gym where my high school played its games was better (or at least better lit). Hell, the gym where we actually had gym class wasn't that much worse, and there were support columns in the middle. Pope is small, and not well laid out- you literally have to go through the cafeteria to get behind the benches. The lighting is bad. The red padding on the walls combines with the blue of the sidelines to turn them a purple closer to Albany or Hunter than any color SFC has ever warn. The bleachers are probably older than I am, and not well kept. It looks like the low-budget mid-major facility it is, with an added gloss of no damns given.

That being said, the graffiti-style mural on the wall is pretty cool.

I love everything about the design on the back of LIU's warmup shirts, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the milk crate.

Jeydah Johnson just ran up four rows bleachers to greet the folks behind us, so I'm going to guess that her family came out for this game. Didn't turn around to look (it's not polite to stare).

SFC is wearing Play4Kay warm-up shirts and LIU is wearing pink socks; if they've turned a rivalry game into a pink game I will be very annoyed.

Dance team just showed up, and I don't mean the Terriers'. I told y'all this was a rivalry. One of them has a kidlet in tow.

Aaaaaand Drew Winter's not warming up with the rest of the team. At least Autumn Ashe is off the crutches. Small mercies.

I don't applaud recorded anthems. Especially bad recordings.

At halftime it's 33-21 St. Francis, with a hearty amount of help from some of the worst officiating I've seen in years. Y'all thought Paris Jones fell down by herself? Nah. Meanwhile, we're getting hit at the other end with no call.

I don't know what god Coach put the fear of into the refs, but they weren't as awful in the second half. We had opportunities that we didn't capitalize on, and those are going to be the things that Coach Del Preore is going to hammer home in the next film review.

Destoni Willock got some run, mostly in the second half, and did very little with it. A reasonable chunk of it was spent subbing for players with four fouls. I'd really like to see something more out of her. I had lower expectations when I forgot that she was a junior college transfer. Stylz Sanders was actually switched to the bench for this game, but played a lot of minutes anyway. Her lack of size is becoming a more and more apparent problem, and I hate to say it, but it's a more or less self-correcting problem. She's a senior, after all.

Seneca Richards continues to improve, and that's been the bright spot in these losses. She's got a good head for what she needs to do on the floor at what time and score. Paris Jones, bless her heart, is so tiny and tries so hard, and she did hit a very nice three near the end of the game, but she's more than a step slow on defense. Going to her is desperation time, but these are the things you have to do when your starting point is injured.

DeAngelique Waithe picked up two quick fouls in the first two minutes, and that was it for her for the first half. When she came back in the second half, she looked a step slow and a whole lot confused. She shook it off in the fourth quarter, picking up boards and putbacks. I don't think she likes losing to St. Francis. I don’t think she likes losing, period, but she seemed to be taking this game even more seriously than most. Ella Vaatanen wasn't able to build on her success in the last game I saw the squad in, and she got benched pretty quickly, not to be seen again until it was time to give out fouls.

If Jeydah Johnson could consistently finish on those penetrations in the lane, we'd be in far better shape. She's also got to do a better job of being aware of time and score. If you're down three possessions with less than a minute to go and you have a shooter open in the corner, you don't go for the contested shot in the lane. I don't know if I should be riding her so hard, since her offense was part of how we were in this game, but her freshman tendencies came back to bite us late. I'm also not sure just how much she's listening when it comes to game strategy and how much she'd rather do what she thinks is the right thing to do, whether it actually is or not. Denisha Petty-Evans brought offense and quick steals, but came up hopping on a steal attempt. She shook it off. I'd love to know what the design on her sneakers was. It looked fun. We need someone like her, but a four-year player, someone we can build an offense around while everyone else defends. Tia Montagne shares the freshman affliction of timidity that plagues so many young point guards. She keeps looking for the perfect pass, the perfect shot, and she hasn't yet understood that she's not going to find it. When she drives, I'd like for her to be able to aim for the backboard and get it towards the basket instead of a wild heave.

Free throws win ball games, and we left too many points at the line. Given how few opportunities we had, not taking advantage of those stings quite a lot.

Y'all are undoubtedly tired of hearing me complain about not being able to tell St. Francis players apart (I mean, come on, can one of you at least wear a French braid or something?) so I'm going to keep it to a minimum. At least I'll try. That being said, shoutout to Dana DiRenzo for her headband and bun to differentiate her from the rest of her teammates. She didn't do a lot on the floor, but at least I can refer to her as something other than "the one with the ponytail". St. Francis didn't really go on the perimeter for their subs, for the most part; Mia Ehling was the only other guard to get off the bench, and she didn't play a lot. I think she hit her free throws at the end of the game during the foul derby.

Abby Anderson's not ready for prime time. Gotta hit the free throws, or else the opponent is going to just keep targeting you. Samantha Keltos was able to take advantage of defensive lapses to get close to the basket for easy buckets. She's a big girl and makes herself an easy target. Casey Carangelo played very briefly. She's tall, and she might be useful for them at some point.

The way the PA guy says Maria Palarino's name is so annoying that I was screaming for us to stop her just so I wouldn't have to hear it anymore. She brought a good amount of hustle to the floor. Lorraine Hickman did a good job of cutting to the basket and making herself available for passes and putbacks. Alex Delaney still thinks she has a three-point shot, and admittedly the one shot she did hit was a trey, but she's still at her best throwing her weight around in the lane. I admire her toughness and I'm glad she's managed to get some of the chippiness out of her game in the last couple of years.

Amy O'Neill has an odd hitch in her shot, but it works for her. She sliced through the lane like a hot knife through butter. Very quick. Very annoying. Jade Johnson decided this would be a lovely day to demonstrate that she can in fact hit shots while standing in one of the cabs on the Wonder Wheel. She was unstoppable, not that we seemed to be doing much to try to stop her. Beautiful jumper. It's no wonder she was the game MVP, and no one else really had any business being considered.

Too many three-pointers. Cannot cope. Too much second half rebounding. Cannot cope.

These notes aren't as detailed as I would like them to be because I was being very fannish for much of the game, screaming at the top of my lungs, cheering every possession, riding and dying with my team. Rivalries can do that. It's glorious and cathartic and enraging all at the same time. And I certainly have my reasons for disliking Thurston. (The rest of St. Francis I don't really have an issue with.)

St. Francis has a step team. They're not that good, but they bring good spirit on the sidelines. I miss our spirit squad.

Our dance team kicked their team's butts. Then again, either SFC has a really small team or they were short-handed, so that's not much to crow about.

There was an actual-facts Franciscan brother in the stands, in the brown robe and everything.

I'm sorry we lost, but I think we gave as good an accounting of ourselves as we could. I look forward to next year's Battle.

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February 12th, 2018: St. Francis PA at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Red Flash of St. Francis University got off to a hot start and never looked back in their 85-54 win over LIU. Maya Wynn had 18 points to lead the Red Flash, who shot just over 55% from the field. Denisha Petty-Evans led LIU with 18 points, including five triples.

For moments of playing the wrong sport, loads of expired soda, Mario Karting, timidity, temerity, and crankiness, join your intrepid blogger after the jump.


It's the Red Flash. It's the Blackbirds. It's basketball in Brooklyn. What's not to like?

I'm currently killing a little time before the game in a nearby Starbucks, it being the nearest place with both a place where I can charge my tablet and things I can drink but not eat (husband is buying dinner, it would be tacky to eat right before). Their taste in music is great, but these ladies need another person or two behind the counter. Possibly an octopus.

I guess tonight is BHA? LIU is wearing eye-searingly pink warm-up shirts, and Autumn Ashe has bright pink wraps on her crutches. Ugh, please don't tell me we're going to be watching the Pinkbirds or the Pink Flash.

I should pick up more LIU gear. Don't have nearly enough LIU shirts, so I've had to settle for dressing like a beatnik and wearing a silly hat.

There are way too many people in St. Francis gear here. I mean, I know one of their kids is from Brooklyn, and I know they travel, but c'mon, man. We're going to need Denisha's family in force.

St. Francis has their numbers on their shorts. I'm not sure what to think about this, other than that it's unusual. At least these are their actual uniforms. No one seems to be wearing excessive amounts of pink. Small mercies. Maybe BHA was Saturday?

At halftime, it's 42-23 St. Francis, and quite frankly, things could be worse. Our offense is offensive and we can't hold on to the ball for love nor money. The graduate students are dueling; Denisha Petty-Evans has 14 for LIU, while Ace Harrison has 11 for the Red Flash. Only difference is that Jessica Kovatch and Maya Wynn each have seven in support of Harrison, while only two other Blackbirds have scored, period.

Most teams have players come out one by one for intros and do whatever rituals they've chosen with the team's hype person, for lack of a better word. (It's Shavonte Zellous for the Liberty, for example, and Tamesha Alexander for the Red Storm.) St. Francis walked out with the five starters arm in arm.

One of the refs (Aldrich, I think?) got distracted by a small child before the game. It was cute.

Our halftime entertainment is Girl Scouts playing Knockout. *throws up Scout salute*

Well, I guess it could have been worse. At least we didn't have to play UConn, I guess. And if the defensive game plan was to shut down Jessica Kovatch, then that's the part of the plan that worked. It's just that we didn't manage to shut down anyone else.

Look, PA guy, the answer to my complaints about inconsistent announcing of the opposing subs is not to stop announcing them at all. When the other team doesn't wear names on their jerseys, I need a trained professional to indicate when new people without names on their jerseys have entered the game.

Jenna Mastellone is not ready for prime time. That's about the nicest way I can put it. I realize she's a freshman, and buried so deep on SFU's bench that she might even be a walk-on. But her ballhandling is bad and her defensive positioning is bad, and we're just going to pretend that the free throw that whispered against the very bottom of the net didn't happen. Caitlin Carroll sneaked in a three-pointer near the end of the game, and I can't begrudge her that, though I can certainly question the excessive celebration from her teammates for going up 30+. Karson Swogger has an interesting curve/spin to her three-point shot that got it to curl back towards the basket. (I am also probably a terrible person for thinking her name sounds like a position one plays in Calvinball.) Leah Morrow comes at you like a cannonball, which occasionally meant turnovers and at least one charge. But it also results in steals and fast breaks for the Red Flash, and given how much they like to run, that does a lot for them.

So many tall, skinny people. Cannot cope. Can't shake feelings of mild jealousy. I'm trying to remember who had the nifty turn over her shoulder for a basket. I think that was Courtney Zezza, who did a nice job of finishing near the rim and taking advantage of being overlooked. Jill Falvey made some stops on the defensive end. Haley Thomas was the last post off the bench, and she seems to have embraced the Red Flash's offensive strategy of "shoot ALL the threes", though she hasn't quite mastered the art of where or when.

I am starting to take a bit of a dislike to Jessica Kovatch. It's not the one born of reluctant respect, either. It's the one born of a player complaining to the ref at every single call she doesn't like, except for the times when her teammates get to her first and wrap her up before she can say or do anything. The most generous reading would suggest that she was frustrated at the defensive pressure she faced and the shots she couldn't hit. But we lost by 30, so I'm not exactly inclined to be generous. She's got game, but I don't believe the hype. The Red Flash got really good minutes out of Caitlin Kroll, who did a lot of everything. She was at her best taking advantage of LIU's mistakes, hitting the deck for loose balls and disrupting the ballhandler- SFU threw a press at us that we were not equipped to handle with a freshman point guard. But she did everything for the Red Flash. I think we overlooked her a bit.

It's somewhat less explicable how we managed to overlook Ace Harrison, because she's very tall, very strong, and at least in this game was wearing bright green sneakers. She hit back to back threes to open the game, and was a nightmare match-up for us all night because of her perimeter game. We tried to match her with DeAngelique Waithe, but Angel is not at her best as a perimeter defender, to put it lightly. So that didn't go well. Harrison defends like a guard and is built like a forward, and these are not good things for us. Maya Wynn still has one of the best names in women's basketball. Her game is a strange hybrid at times. She took over in the second quarter with seven points, going deep and driving the lane with equal skill. Kyasia Duling got into foul trouble in the first quarter, and I think it says a lot about her and the trust her coach has in her that she played most of the first half, even when she picked up the third foul late in the second quarter. I do think that the foul trouble took away from her ability to defend inside- there were possessions later in the game where LIU was able to get a little leverage close to the basket, and I think she was one of the defenders in those scenarios.

Life comes at you fast, and so does St. Francis. They like to run on offense and press on defense, and it's not easy to prepare for that onslaught, especially since they send in so many players that their squad is usually fresh.

I get the feeling it's going to be an interesting year next year with Destoni Willock as our primary low post player. She's fantastically disruptive to the other team's offense... it's just that she's almost as disruptive to her own team's offense as well. She deflected a lot of passes and chased down a lot of loose balls, but she had trouble holding on to the ball and minding her footwork. Ella Vaatanen's shot is improving, though I don't know if that step forward is legal or not. I'm glad she's worked on her strength in that regard. She showed some good hustle today.

The player who surprised me in a good way in this game was Seneca Richards. I figured she'd be a good match-up against St. Francis, since she's a tall player with perimeter skills, and thus some comfort on the perimeter defensively. She was very aggressive and very disruptive, going after the ballhandler with wild abandon. I think it affected her offense, but I'll take the defense in that situation. Paris Jones needs to not foul the damn shooter- she did that twice, including on a three at the end of the first quarter that really did a number on the game's momentum. She knows how to use her lack of size to her advantage, getting low to steal rebounds and get loose balls, but there are times when I just want to dope slap her.

I don't know why Jeydah Johnson couldn't hold on to the ball, but it was bad. She played like she had turned her hands to stone and then smeared butter all over them. It looked like she was overshooting the ball, too; her shots were way too strong, going over the basket instead of at it or in it. Not her night, to put it mildly. DeAngelique Waithe did what she could on the boards and in the paint, but the St. Francis defense collapsed on her when she started to drive, and there's only so much you can do when two or three tall people are coming at you at once. And while she's a solid defender in the post, she's at a loss on the perimeter, which led to Harrison opening the scoring with two triples. Stylz Sanders chased down rebounds, but as undersized as she is, she was outmatched and outgunned.

Denisha Petty-Evans lit it up from beyond the arc, but sometimes it seemed like she was the only Blackbird on the floor who was actually willing to shoot the ball. If this is going to be as defensive-minded a squad as I think Coach Del Preore wants it to be, it still needs someone who's going to be a shooter. Nish fills that, er, niche, for this year, but what about next year? Near the end of the game, there were moments where she looked like she was super frustrated, and I can't say I blame her. Tia Montagne played like a scared freshman, especially when the Red Flash's defense pressured her. There was a play where she had to inbound the ball, couldn't find anyone, couldn't get a look, and clearly panicked by throwing it at DeAngelique Waithe right before the five-second violation would have kicked in. Attempting to lob a weak pass over Ace Harrison is a terrible plan. Tia spent most of the night looking like she was in over her head. This was not a game we could have afforded to be without Drew Winter for (and I have no idea what's up with her, though to be fair we weren't winning that game even with a full roster).

Someone other than Nish needs to be willing to shoot. And everyone needs to get them to a shooting coach. This, perhaps, cuts to the quick of what LIU's problems are. I love this team, but sometimes they play way too scared.

She was wearing black, not blue, but does it count as a real live Mario Kart moment if a Maryland alumna shoots an offensive player out of the air?

Refs missed at least one out of bounds call and a few fouls, but all things considered, it's hard to get too upset at them. They're not why we lost the game.

If nothing else, this game showed us the difference between the top of the conference and everyone else. In a one-bid conference, sometimes being the most balanced team on the floor is enough to seize the day.

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January 29th, 2018: Fairleigh Dickinson at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: FDU used a strong third quarter to take control of a close game and win 61-49. Madelynn Comly led three Knights in double figures with 13, while Lauren Francillon had 11 rebounds. DeAngelique Waithe had 24 points and 10 rebounds in the losing cause for LIU.

For travel difficulties, awaiting the snow, overpassing, the discourager of hesitancy, cough drops, death glares, and not finding the open shooter, join your intrepid and blurry blogger after the jump.


Good evening, fellow travelers! It's game night in Brooklyn, as the Blackbirds take on the Knights of Fairleigh Dickinson.

I would have sworn FDU was wearing blue earlier in the season. Maybe that was the men. It would be interesting if they actually wore different colors, though perhaps not the greatest sign for intra-departmental solidarity. (See: UConn.)

Stephanie, you really need to work on your communication skills. There's a difference between all set for two games for two people and all set for one game for one person. I think by the end of the season I'm going to have to become an LIU booster to make up for this. And I don't wanna be a booster. NCAA regulations are a headache.

(We got the ticket thing worked out. Also, if Stephanie wants any of my cough drops she's welcome to them.)

At halftime, FDU is up 25-24, in a game that's been closely contested and defensive-minded. DeAngelique Waithe has 10 to lead the Blackbirds. Peniel M'Bikata and her flaming orange hair have seven points for the Knights.

Rousing anthem by the band, and I'm always here for their rendition of "Poison".

As you can imagine, attendance is sparse. Even Denisha's contingent is down to about half strength. But they bring enough noise, and we work together well, or at least I like to think so.

I think of everyone currently active on the roster, Destoni Willock would be my last choice to take the last shot of the half. Our Canadian needs to work on her ballhandling skills.

FDU came out of the locker room super late- they had one player run out of the corridor about thirty seconds before the buzzer, waving her teammates along after her; the Knights' coaching staff didn't actually emerge until after the buzzer, and I'm surprised they didn't get dinged for a delay of game. Whatever they said in there, whatever adjustments they made, whatever change of plans they had- boy howdy, did they ever work.

Once again, our PA guy was slacking on announcing opposing subs coming out of stoppages of play, so I'm not as clear as I'd like to be on rotations. I didn't even know Madison Stanley came into the game until I checked the box score. I'm going to guess that was at the very end of the game, for the final possession or two. Elise Graham gave the Knights an alternate ballhandling option in the open floor- she had a nice transition lay-up amd set up Kamrin Weimer for a three with a nice pass. Weimer didn't leave much of an impression, and most of what I dimly remember from her was more rebounding-related than offense-related.

Natalie Zamora tried to defend people who were bigger than she was. It usually didn't end well for her- she really racked up the fouls in the third quarter. Courtney Blankenship set screens (she had one particularly solid one that impressed me with both its solidity and its legality- you know how hard it is to find a legal screen in the lower echelons of D-I?!), got boards, hit free throws, and had trouble holding on to the ball.

Lauren Francillon gave up her body on the glass, and picked up steam as the game went on- balls she was losing in the first quarter, she was winning the fights for in the fourth quarter. Good interior toughness. Amina Markovic went on a scoring run in the third quarter, hitting from the outside and at the rim. I don't think she was on our original scouting report, because we sagged off her a lot. Then again, we had a lot of trouble hanging with shooters on the wing, so maybe that was the bigger issue. (Also, I think I may have annoyed her when I was questioning a foul call, but it was a bad call and the ref should have felt bad for making it, so there.)

How exactly were we losing track of Peniel M'Bikata? I mean, I don't know if they noticed, but her hair is flaming orange. It's not literally on fire, but it is pretty close to the color of an open flame, and does stand out rather spectacularly. She shook loose for three-point shots and drives in the lane. I like her style. Lucia Serrano-Ranz was a three-point specialist with moments of defensive prowess. Madelynn Comly got to take most of the free throws at the end of the game. Her passing game needs work.

FDU fought for possessions, and collectively boxed out really well- it seemed like there were always three burgundy jerseys going to the ball once it came off the rim, especially if it was LIU putting up the shot. Following your shot is a thing, people. I'm pulling my hair out over here.

I'm not sure who's a stronger indication of "welp, here goes nothing", Paris Jones or Destoni Willock. Paris tries, and she had a nice defensive stand that her teammates helped her finish, but I don't think she's gotten all the rust off yet. She doesn't seem to fit into the current schemes. Destoni tries hard, but if the ball is being passed to her on the inside, disaster is inevitable- either she's going to fumble or the ball's never going to get to her in the first place (probably because she's out of position or hasn't done enough to get into position). I'm really starting to wonder what Daisha Davis has done, or hasn't done, to be so far out of the rotation.

Ella Vaatanen gave not-terrible minutes off the bench in the post. She's still a little more tentative than I'd like, but she's learning, and she seems willing to learn. Tia Montagne carried the bulk of the load for the reserves. While I'm not sure how she's picking up the various code-named defensive schemes, she's got great instincts on the ball defensively, taking advantage of opponents' miscues. Her shot needs work, both when she takes it and when she doesn’t take it, but I like watching her play.

Follow your shot, Denisha. Follow your shot, Drew. This isn't a recording, but I'm starting to think it needs to be one, and broadcast everywhere they go like a somewhat more specific version of the Shame Nun. Denisha Petty-Evans shot three-for-eleventy billion and somehow still looked like she was avoiding shooting the ball. It looked like she was passing up too many good shots to end up taking desperation shots near the end of the shot clock. She had a nice steal, though, and another good attempt at one. Drew Winter does fancy ballhandling tricks, and then she slows down the offense. She looked scared to shoot today, and when she did finally put the ball in the general vicinity of the basket, "general vicinity" was a generous definition of where the ball ended up. It seems fitting that the one shot that went in was the twisting lay-up she practically shot over her own head. She racked up the assists, but I don't know how many of them were actually the best looks for the squad.

At least Seneca Richards had some awareness of time and score in the fourth quarter, putting up quick threes and draining a surprising number of them. I didn't realize she had that much legitimate range. She was looking a little like she had Katie Douglas eyes out there, so I hope she's okay and she hasn't been staying up too late. (Says the woman who's typing Game Notes of Doom at quarter past one in the morning. For reasons.) She's a shooter and not much else, but she tries and she's got height and our options are somewhat limited as long as Jeydah's out, so it is what it is. Stylz Sanders was consistently getting out-sized out there, but she made a lot of smart plays on the baseline and kept loose balls alive. She's making a strong run at trying to be my favorite, but it's too late for that. DeAngelique Waithe played like she was the only one on the floor trying to win the game for LIU. (I looked at my clipboard at one point and realized she was the only Blackbird to score in the third quarter. This is a problem.) She had her moments where she looked like she wasn't sure where to be on defense, and she's got to watch that first step when she gathers for the jumper at the top of the key. But she went hard at the basket, and she hunted down loose balls like there was a bounty of their heads. She was looking for opportunities and she took them. I unabashedly love to watch her work- she has such a nice combination of strength and flexibility that results in her showing up very quickly in very small spaces.

Way too much hesitation on offense. I get trying to find a teammate with a better shot, but sometimes the best shot is the one you have, instead of the one your teammate is forced to take because the shot clock's running down and she's got two defenders in her face. There was one sequence at least, possibly more, where pretty much the only people in the building who didn't realize Denisha Petty-Evans was open were the people who were supposed to be defending her... and Drew Winter with the ball. By the end of the game, we were joking that Drew was clearly a Jets fan, because she seemed to believe in the Herman Edwards school of clock management.

Officiating was the usual NEC trainwreck. No one wanted to call travels or major contact, but minor hand-checks were another story entirely. I think I did most of the gasket-blowing that Stephanie secretly wanted to do. (I consider that part of my responsibilities as a fan. There are things fans can get away with that coaches can't.)

We got pretty dinged up in this one. Stylz took a couple of hits, Tia was slow getting up after a collision, and I thought Angel was going to throw up during some FDU free throws. This might be part of why I'm a little annoyed at the officials.

There's something missing for this team, and I can't put my finger on it. It might be as simple as getting Jeydah and her offense back. It might go deeper. I don't know. But we've got good senior leaders, so there's that in our favor.

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January 27th, 2018: Sacred Heart at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Sacred Heart rode a strong second quarter to a 50-46 win. Candice Leatherwood led the Pioneers with a game-high 21 points, while Abigail Kangudie had 15 rebounds. Denisha Petty-Evans led LIU with 10 points.

For minor injury concerns, youth cheerleaders, terrible passing, and other embarrassments, join your intrepid blogger after the jump, as long as you remembered to bring a bottle of Lethe.


Note to self: always lie to mom about tip-off time. We just barely made it in the door in time.

It's halftime of LIU-Sacred Heart as I type, and the Pioneers are up 30-21. The Blackbirds are taking some of the dumbest shots I've ever seen (and I've seen this team take a lot of dumb shots in their time, believe you me). I think having the two seniors, Stylz Sanders and DeAngelique Waithe, off the floor with foul trouble hasn't helped- they really don't have anyone to bail them out. And Angel took that second foul badly- she got stompy, and then there was a water bottle on the floor and everyone but her cleaning it up. Be an adult. Seneca shouldn't have to literally clean up your mess.

We had two youth groups cheering at half. Unfortunately, I went for soda and missed the Diamonds but saw the younger, less talented group.

Jeydah Johnson hasn't played. I wonder if she's still in concussion protocol. At least she seems to have lost the light/noise sensitivity.

Denisha Petty-Evans's family, or at least the people who cheered loudest when she was introduced, is out in force and making noise. That's good, because I'm still getting over crud and can't sustain my usual noise levels.

That was not good. That was, in fact, very bad. I don't think either team could have been happy with that performance, though I suspect Coach Del Preore was far more vocal and more profane in her opinion than Sacred Heart's coach was. There was no sustained energy, no real desire to fight back against the brief pushes of momentum that Sacred Heart occasionally, somehow, managed to put together. It seemed like we were going through the motions, and that's not really something you can get away with when you're a middling to bad team in a bad conference. The one thing we have going for us is our hustle. When we don't that, hoo boy are we going to have a bad time.

I can't tell you as much as I'd like about Sacred Heart's substitution patterns, because our PA guy was asleep at the wheel and could barely be bothered to announce when people were coming in. Since the Pioneers don't have names on their jerseys, half the time I only noticed someone new was in because she scored or committed a foul. Y'all. This is not acceptable, I don't care if this is "only" the NEC. Either get better PA guys or put names on your jerseys, okay?

In any case, sorry about the disgression. Olivia Dabney was part of Sacred Heart's constant trapping and pressing, a defense that kept LIU on their heelsl and never let them get into a rhythm. Jayla Davis gave the Pioneers a quick spurt of offense when she first came into the game in the first half. Asia McCray got inside a bit to help deflect rebounds.

Erin Storck has a strange looking shot. I'm not surprised that it often took strange angles off the heel of the rim. She wasn't afraid to put it up, even when she was contested. Sacred Heart as a team was prone to travels, but she was especially guilty with shuffling the extra step on the drive to the lane. Tykera Carter was quick, and came up with a couple of baskets late in the game to help the Pioneers put it away. Candice Leatherwood is a little bit scary on defense- she's got a very effective mean mug. We kept fouling her at the end of the game, and she kept hitting free throws. (I may be a tiny bit salty that she took more free throws than my entire team did. But we'll cover that more later.) The Sacred Heart fans behind us kept calling her Candy, and it just doesn't seem to fit her. Maybe she's one of those people who looks tough but she's really a sweetheart.

I'm really trying to get a clear picture of Adrianne Hagood out there, and I'm failing miserably, though part of it is most likely my desire to burn all the tapes of this game, even the ones inside my head. Abigail Kangudie did a really nice job of keeping DeAngelique Waithe off her game. She might not have had much of an impact on the score line, but she killed it on the glass, and she made sure that LIU couldn't get too much going off rebounds.I don't know if defense is usually her role, but she did yeoman's work bodying up on Angel.

If Tia Montagne doesn't figure out what's wrong with her shot, someone's hair is getting torn out, and I don't know if it's going to be mine, Coach's, or hers. She's both too hesitant and too willing to shoot, which is paradoxical and probably indicates just how much is wrong with this team. I do like her heart, but she just didn't have it today. Paris Jones gave spot minutes at point, but she didn't seem to be meshing with the other personnel on the floor. I think she was expecting something from them, and none of them knew what she wanted of them. That's actually pretty close to how everyone was behaving towards everyone, but Paris was especially spanner-in-the-works like there.

Destoni Willock was actually pretty solid on the boards. I'm surprised Coach didn't go back to her more in the second half, given the foul trouble on everyone whose number ended in 0 and happened to be sort of tall. She scrambled for balls on the baseline and came up with a lay-up off a steal. Ella Vaatanen looked a little lost, and still seems to be ranging her shot, but for the first time I saw this season seemed more confident in her height and her body, using them both to her advantage defensively on the perimeter.

I don't normally ask this about my favorite, but I found myself wondering by the end of the game exactly how DeAngelique Waithe had gotten that stick wedged in such an uncomfortable position, and just how long it was going to take her to dislodge it. She spent most of the day looking like she had run out of damns to give. There were flashes of her usual self, especially in the third quarter, when she flashed into the lane for boards or shots, and she kept her shot-blocking game on point. But her usual energy was missing, and that makes me sad. Stylz Sanders picked up the slack in the first half, which is a refreshing sort of look, but couldn't keep up the energy level through the fouls. Y'all know Stylz can't defend everyone at once, right? I still maintain she's going to end up a coach one of these days. She just seems to have that awareness of all the things. Seneca Richards got the start for Jeydah Johnson, and while she's still much more perimeter-oriented than I usually like my players, she's at least trying to be more of a forward inside on defense. Her teammates need to understand what her angles are, though. She's usually better from the corner than from the middle of the floor.

Drew Winter does fancy tricks with the ball, but breaking the opponent's ankles does no good if you can't hit the shot. And I love her offensive rebounding, but it doesn't help if no one can hit the shot. She's got to be smarter with the ball. If Denisha Petty-Evans doesn't stop launching threes from somewhere in the vicinity of Bridgewater Commons, and if she doesn’t start following those shots in the event of her taking them, someone's going to lose their mind and it might not even be me. As it turns out, her family has opinions about as strong as mine regarding the importance of offensive rebounding, especially on long shots. I like them.

Coach Del Preore spent most of the game looking like she was in desperate need of a strong drink. I don't really blame her. I don't know if the team just didn't care, or if they were engaged in the fine art of Not Running The Expletive Deleted Play (a well-known St. John's Strategy) or what. But there were a lot of teaching moments called for. That being said, Coach, if one of your players goes down in front of you, can't get back on defense, and is visibly limping when she does get up? It may be time to call for the deliberate foul or call a time out. Just saying.

(By the way, Sacred Heart did not score 5-on-4.)

The officiating was a terrible hot mess. Lots of contact that went uncalled, with bodies sprawled all around. I'm pretty sure one ref actually mistook the ball for someone's head. Pretty much no part of the NEC covered itself in glory in this game.

They must have been expecting quite the crowd for the double-header- LIU actually set up a souvenir stand and an orderly queue for the concession stand.

We didn't stay for the men's game. I was unprepared (I thought they were playing Sacred Heart as well) and wanted to get the taste of failure out of my mouth. (As it turned out, the men beat Central Connecticut in OT.)

Besides, a tall, handsome gentleman wants to take me on a date to Iona tomorrow! How can I possibly resist?

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January 15th, 2018: Mount St. Mary's at LIU

Just the Facts, Ma'am: Strong defense in the clutch helped LIU hold off Mount St. Mary's, 53-48. DeAngelique Waithe had 17 points, 10 rebounds, and four blocks to spearhead the Blackbirds' attack. Juliette Lawless had 13 points and nine rebounds to lead the Mountaineers in the loss.

For totally being a responsible adult, returning basketball to sender, post players breaking ankles, mean mugging the opponent to sleep, RedBullRedBullRedBull, and signs, join your intrepid and introspective blogger after the jump.

I have already adulted responsibly today. My mom had cataract surgery and I escorted her there and back again, carried her stuff, dropped off her laundry, and picked up her dry cleaning. So I feel no guilt in taking the R train back towards Manhattan three stops and going to LIU's game against Mount St. Mary's.

That is one big Mount on the Mountaineers' jerseys. I mean, dang.

Band anthems are almost always the best anthems.

At halftime, LIU is up 27-20. My most favorite DeAngelique Waithe is playing like she wants to get real paid, with 11 points and some monster blocks. Scoring is rather more scattered for the Mount, with Daly Sullivan's two long threes leading the way.

Bad news is that Jeydah Johnson is almost certainly concussed. She was on the bench with a towel over her head and her hands over her ears for the longest time, and she had to leave the bench for a while, though she's emerged about two minutes before the start of the third quarter. If she can't go- and from here I'd be very surprised if she even tried to give it a go- I don't know if we have the depth to hold anyone off, even a team as sloppy as Mount St. Mary's has been.

Well, so much for that theory. No, this is a good thing. Jeydah stayed on the bench the whole time (which is actually comforting, given the light/sound sensitivity it looked like she was showing in the immediate aftermath of the scrum) and we immediately got into major foul trouble, so Coach Del Preore had to go rather deeper into her bench for longer than I think she wanted to, and the reserves answered the bell.

Hunter Rowson entered the game for the Mountaineers in the first half, after a timeout, so it took a moment to recognize that she was in in the first place. I think we got into her head during the free throws she took. I'm okay with that. That's part of my job. Bridget Birkhead was mostly set up outside, but with her lack of scoring, she didn't leave much of an impression.

Rebecca Lee is a fairly big center for the NEC. She grabbed a couple of nice boards early. I felt really bad about trying to disconcert a fellow member of the sisterhood when she went to the line in the first half, but it's about the name on the front, not the name on the back, as it were. (I'm protective of my fellow Rebeccas. It comes from not having met another one in the flesh for the first nine years of my life. I thought we were all fictional!) Jatarrikah Settle played the bulk of the minutes off the bench for the Mount. She's got a nice jump shot and some good moves in the lane. I think she'll be good for them in a couple of years, and I think that's why she's coming off the bench now- she still seems to have a lot to learn.

Juliette Lawless did not make herself popular with the swinging elbows, but I have to admire her coast-to-coast drives. Shaky ballhandling along the edges of the court got her in a lot of trouble and caused LIU to strip her of the ball. She forces a lot of contact, and I guess I should respect that. (It just annoys me when officials go on long stretches of calls one way or another. But we'll get to that later.) Caroline Hummell has a surprisingly nice outside shot for a big center, but her hands were a hot hard mess. Lots of passes and deflections bouncing off them, which meant that loose balls occurred, which meant that LIU came out of a lot of scrums with the ball. I'd have to look at the play-by-play to see if it was her shots or Lawless's shots that Angel was sending back to Maryland the hard way.

Katrice Dickson needs to work on her footwork. Refs didn't catch it often, but she was walking all over the place- there was one drive where she scored after two fairly blatant travels. There's something about her I like, but I can't put my finger on it. I'd have to watch them again to see if she was doing the leadership type stuff that's usually why a player catches my eye for non-statistical reasons. Daly Sullivan's shot is aesthetically pleasing, with a high, high arc. When it goes down, it's nothing but net, but from where I was sitting, I don't know how anyone can read the arc to see where it's going to bounce when she misses. Those were some tough rebounds. She was a bit physical on defense, and I was surprised the Mount's coach left her to defend the ballhandler late in the game after her fourth foul, in what seemed to be an intentional foul situation. I guess they'd already conceded at that point. Kayla Agentowicz has an awesome last name that gives rise to all kinds of "ex-spy who has no idea how to live in the real world" story ideas. She also has no fear of shooting the three. She hit one late that put the game close, but was mostly ineffective.

Paris Jones is back in action, and not a moment too soon! I think this is the first time I've seen her play in over a year, and she definitely looks like she's still trying to figure out where she belongs on the floor at times. But it was good to see her be assertive on offense, and she hustled hardcore in the fourth quarter to hold off Mount St. Mary's when they went on a run to close within one possession in the final minutes. Seneca Richards canned back to back corner threes to extend the lead in the third, and was called on for a lot of defensive work that I don't think she's used to. We needed her height and her reach, and she did what we needed her to do. Tia Montagne's shot continues to be highly unpredictable, and she needs to be more assertive as a point guard- she spent a lot of time looking for someone to give the ball to to make decisions instead of initiating herself. I mean, I'm a Libra, I get being indecisive and wanting someone else to make choices, but if part of your job description is to make choices, do it.

Destoni Willock didn't play much- her seconds were super brief at the end of the third quarter, just to give the starters a little bit of a rest at a meaningless stop. Ella Vaatanen looked a little overmatched, especially on defense. She was very much not ready for this. That happens with freshmen.

I think DeAngelique Waithe wants to get real paid in Europe, because she's been playing the best ball I've seen out of her in a long time, and it is glorious. I hope if she ever hears me use the phrase "demented spider" that she understands it's a compliment. Those long arms of hers are up in everyone's business, everywhere, every time. Her read on rebounds, always strong, has been fantastic the last few times I've seen her. She's scoring at the rim. She's rejecting shots with authority. She's also getting called for a lot of travels, but if she's in Europe that might not be a problem. She's been fantastic and I just love her to pieces, and I have no qualms about being biased about her. Stylz Sanders does not match up well against really big centers. We had her defending all over the court today, both inside and out, and I think we were asking more of her than she was able to give. That all being said, watching her on the floor, communicating on offense and bringing the team in during stoppages, I'm starting to think she'll make a really good coach if that's the direction she wants to take her life. I guess when you're a 5-9 power forward, you have to learn a lot more about reads, angles, and positioning than the average power forward.

I swear to the sweet suffering hypothetical nine-pound twelve-ounce reason-for-the-season baby Jesus, if Denisha Petty-Evans doesn't figure out how to follow her shot I'm going to end up popping a blood vessel before the end of the season. Her shot's not that great. Her percentages aren't that great. It's great when the shot goes in, but if it doesn't, you've pretty much either given up a fast break to the opposing team or Angel has to put in double work to keep the ball. She's taken a step back from the start of the season, and that makes me sad. Jeydah Johnson hustled after loose balls, which was what led to her being in the scrum that got her hit in the head. I didn't actually see what happened, only what she looked like after she was subbed out of the game, and it didn't look good. Poor Jeydah. :( Drew Winter started the game like she'd chugged three Red Bulls and an energy shot- fast-moving, jittery, and fired up. She had a lot of trouble getting the ball inbounds today, though I couldn't tell you if it was because she couldn't see through the Mountaineer defense or because her teammates weren't coming to the ball. It's distinctly possible it was a combination of both. Her concentration started to slip in the second half, to the point where Coach was putting in Paris or Seneca for her.

There were a lot of great connective plays, for lack of my brain actually creating coherent words today. LIU's box scores don't have a place for team rebounds, but I think there were quite a few rebounds one would characterize as "team", where one player (usually DeAngelique) deflected it over to another Blackbird (usually Drew, though Jeydah and Paris both got in on the action). There were multi-player defensive sequences that were a joy to behold. They look like they're starting to gel (or is it jell in this context?) and I am inordinately proud of them.

Officiating was the usual NEC hot mess. A lot of things went uncalled on both teams. I couldn't tell you why the Mount's coach got her tech, though I'm going to guess she used strong language, given how thoroughly Stephanie was haranguing the refs about the non-calls on the baseline. (Seriously. Y'all have got to stop knocking Stylz out of bounds like that. It's not fair and it's not nice.) I think it's nervy of a coach to complain about calls when there was a stretch where the fouls were 6-0 LIU, but I'm just a fan in the stands.

Trying to beat the line at the concession stand doesn't work when the concessionaire has neither the food you want to buy nor enough change to take the money you have. Had to wait until halftime, but worth it. I needed the caffeine and I needed the liquid.

I really hope this team really is hitting its stride. They seem like really nice kids and I want all kinds of wonderful things for them.

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