Just the Facts, Ma'am: 28 points from Madison Rowland powered Queens College to a 76-60 win over Immaculata in the opening game of the Maggie Dixon Classic. Rowland added 11 rebounds and six steals. MacKenzie Rowland and Imani Davidson each had 13 for the Knights. Sara Smith led Immaculata with 15 points; the Mighty Macs got 14 bench points from Reilly Larkin and 13 points from Adriana Sciascia.
For nuns, school pride, the awesomeness of history, snazzy passes, bad logistics, and it being entirely too early for this sort of thing, join your intrepid and intrigued blogger after the jump.
Good morning, loyal readers! We're coming to you in Surround Sound from the World's Most Famous Arena, as the Maggie Dixon Classic tips off with a historic rematch of Immaculata and Queens College. Queens leads 25-24 at the half. Immaculata scored first in the second, but Queens answered with six quick points.
Halftime featured a ceremony honoring the players in the original game, most of whom were from Queens. (I assume the Immaculata alumnae were occupied.) Donna Orender looks a lot happier without the stress of being WNBA president. Gail Marquis is rocking the QC colors.
There will never be anything not awesome about dancing nuns in college sweatshirts.
Crowning moment of awesome team pride: Queens College had a little video with Gail Marquis starting the "GO QC!" chant. Cut to real life... where she's leading the QC student section in the continuation.
Good anthem from one of the Queens College cheerleaders.
Scrappy defense from both teams. Queens has more talent, but is more prone to dumb mistakes.
Immaculata fought back in the second half, but every time they made a run, Queens made a longer run.
Emily Bell brought the second half pain as a substitute for Brittany Merkle. Reilly Larkin showed a knack for getting to the line and came up with a couple of big threes when Immaculata was making their runs. Samantha Bonvetti and Jacquelyn McClellan were late entrants, when the game was well past decided. Meghan Gallagher was somewhat more of a factor in the first half than the second, due to some Immaculata foul trouble, but wasn't much of a scorer. I get the feeling I should remember more about Lindsay Cras, but while she played a lot she wasn't much of a factor.
Brittany Merkle set a lot of good picks, but also committed a lot of fouls. I thought Immaculata took too many risks with her in the second half, and she did eventually foul out. I would have been a lot more cautious with her. Alison Zimny mixed it up a little inside and showed a little touch on the outside. Mackie Fitzgerald was tough- pulled down a big board in the first half and started getting more aggressive near the end of the game. Sara Smith took over for the Mighty Macs in the second half, hitting jumpers and driving the lane. Adriana Sciascia impressed early with her shot, but faded later in the game.
Immaculata had a lot of shooters, and a lot of players who were willing to take the deep shot, but for me, the most impressive thing about them was the hustle and all of their willingness and desire to go for a ball on the floor.
Joya McFarland saved her best for the second half, when she dropped two slick dimes pretty much back to back, one to Amber Harrison, one to Kristin Korzevinski. Elisabeth Gully was last off the bench, and her teammates looked like they would have gone nuts if she had gotten the basket, but they were pretty happy when she hit the second free throw. Amber Harrison brought a little offensive punch off the bench, including what might have been the highlight reel shot of the game, a little spinner off a lookaway from McFarland. Joya McFarland is not to be confused with Janeen McFarlane, who gave good minutes on the inside. Raychel Shannon kept a lot of plays alive. Melissa Fumano came in near the end and made no measurable impact.
Madison Rowland is really impressive. She's got good size and she uses it well. Her fundamentals are a little shaky, and I hope the coaching staff works on that with her. But as she is right now, she's already making an impact. She had a big block in the first half, along with an especially strong putback. MacKenzie Rowland was strong in the first half, especially on the inside. Imani Davidson came up with some nice shots, but was clumsy with the ball. Kristin Korzevinski started getting lay-ups in the second half- there was a stretch in the second half where Queens suddenly flashed phenomenal ball movement, with crisp passes leading to easy shots on the inside. It didn't last, but it was beautiful while it did. Taylor Miller made some plays in the second half.
Queens made a lot more stupid mistakes- but they were able to force turnovers from a less skilled Immaculata squad, and used their greater height to their advantage.
I expected nothing from the officiating, and was not disappointed.
Lots of people there for both teams, and I loved it. There's something subconsciously dissonant about nuns wearing college sweatshirts with their coifs, but it's a good kind of dissonance. (After the second game, I saw some of them being taken on a tour of the Garden. Strangely adorable.)
Sunday, January 4, 2015
January 4th, 2015: Immaculata at Queens (Maggie Dixon Classic)
Saturday, January 7, 2012
January 8th, 2012: Bridgeport at Queens
Just the Facts, Ma'am: The Purple Knights of Bridgeport led for most of the way in their 59-50 victory over the Knights of Queens College. Four Bridgeport players put up double figures, led by Tanisha Carter's 18 points and 10 rebounds. Nicole Caggiano led Queens with 19 points, 15 of which came in the first half.
For adventures, nerdish references, insanely thick Noo Yawk accents, dissection, and blatant lies, join your intrepid and flushed blogger after the jump.
Ranked teams on CBS, wild card football on NBC, laundry piled up and needing to be done- of course this was a perfect day to walk down Kissena Boulevard and check out a game at Queens College like we've been saying we would do all season. There's a St. John's connection, you see- alumna Sky Lindsay is the new assistant there, and we promised we'd go out and support her.
I don't know if we're going to do it again. Security was obstructively helpful and ended up leading us through the back door. I'd really rather not be shepherded, if it's all the same to you. I don't mean any harm, and it's not like I was carrying a large bag that could be used to blow something up, and the guy sent us up the wrong way anyway.
Queens's gym is on the second floor of FitzGerald Gym, and you'll find yourself transported to another time when you go there. It's not necessarily a good thing. I'm pretty sure that's literally the same floor that Donna Geils and Gail Marquis played on and the same bleachers that people watched them from. The scorer's table is pretty nifty, with a clear arrow and what looked like a lot of nice gadgets. Everything else smacked of improvisation, though.
I have no idea what was up with the dance team's lime green leotards and black tops in the first half. They were pretty ugly, and in no way related to team colors. At least in the second half they put on Queens College shirts and looked slightly less like they were earning their tuition on Eighth Avenue. I do not appreciate signs blocking my view of the game, people. Just because it's bad basketball, that doesn't mean we don't want to see what we came to see.
I've never heard anyone with as thick a New York accent as the PA announcer at Queens. Mind you, I'm born and raised in Queens, and I do have a slight accent. But this guy sounded like an extra on any New York-based show you can name. I was almost embarrassed, but then, many stereotypes about my city embarrass me. (That goddamn Nanny...)
Bridgeport's uniforms are very purple, and I'm not sure what was up with the stuffed animal on the bench, only that they held it up like a trophy after the game. It's hard to tell, since not all of the substitutions were announced, but it looked like Bridgeport wasn't going very deep into their bench. The box score confirms this assessment, though the bench player I did notice, Casey Bray, wasn't the one who logged most of the minutes. This is why announcing substitutions consistently is important.
I like the way Edna Marant got to the basket- she was about the only player who was consistently drawing foul calls. Aziza Patterson scored a bit in the first half, but wasn't as effective in the second. Julia Colley demonstrated her English background with several dives worthy of EPL. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't. She mostly looked for outside jumpers of questionable accuracy. Elinor Avny showed off her three-point shot in the first half, but didn't get going again until late in the second. I was most impressed with forward Tanisha Carter, though she's going to have to learn to handle double teams if she's going to be the first option for this team. She was hot for the first ten minutes, then faded as Queens's defense keyed on her in the second quarter (for lack of a better description), then came roaring back in the second half to hit her average. She's got nice presence in the paint, and could conceivably be a good fourth option for a D-I team.
Megan White came in long enough for me to notice her as she committed a foul and got good position in the lane. Cadie Chu played a lot of point guard in the second half, mostly because she was bigger than the starter, but I wasn't impressed with her vision. (Because she wears #1, and because she has a high-arcing shot with little spin, I'm assuming she's going to be Sky's pet project this year.) Caitlin Hopkins came in for a bit to give them some minutes in the post, but they mostly went with the starters, rotating Chu in as necessary.
If Marissa Resnick were about five inches taller and had a better handle, she'd be a D-I point guard. I like the way she saw the floor, though she and her teammates couldn't make the plays, especially on the break, that they were trying to make. Nicole Caggiano was the focus of most of the offense, which wasn't necessarily a good thing but wasn't necessarily a bad thing either. She got them going early. Samantha Gillman got them going late; if you could average her and Megan Lonergan out, you'd have two pretty good basketball players, because Gillman is way too aggressive and Lonergan backs away from too many balls. I like Gillman's physicality, though. If she had better hands... but that's part of being a D-II player, isn't it? Setting aside the “I chose Division II” slogan, most D-II players are going to have flaws; otherwise I'm pretty sure they would have chosen the free ride and the increased notoriety. Alexandra Marshall committed stupid fouls, but otherwise made no impression on me.
I understand why Queens brought in a former point guard as an assistant- the entire team is in dire need of lessons in ballhandling and catching passes. Bridgeport was able to start running clock with four minutes left in a six-point game because Queens could not get their offense going with anything that remotely approached speed. Whether it was on rebounds, on passes, or even inbounding the ball, they couldn't maintain possession long enough to get anything going. It was exceedingly frustrating as a basketball fan to watch this.
Officiating was a good bit more consistent than I've seen in a while, though Alexandra Marshall might disagree with me.
It was an interesting experience, but one I'm not sure I want to repeat. I know I'll end up doing so sometime in the near future. Maybe the next time, the heat won't be cranked up to max and the team will have figured out a little more about this whole basketball thing.