Just the Facts, Ma’am: The Rockets took off in the fourth quarter to beat Iona, 74-57. Mikaela Boyd had 14 points and 11 rebounds to lead Toledo. Treyanna Clay had 15 points and 10 rebounds for Iona in the loss.
For transportation issues, a little help from my friends, the final countdown, point guard comparisons, being distracted by shiny objects, and the perils of being a fan, join your intrepid and detoured blogger after the jump.
It’s almost over now, almost over now...
Iona doesn’t seem to like me, but tough. I like them well enough, so it’s off to New Rochelle for their early game against the Toledo Rockets. It helps that I like Toledo, too.
“This is 14th Street-Union Square.” No. No, it is not. It’s 3rd Avenue-138th Street. I think our conductor has had a long morning. Or possibly a very interesting weekend. (Also, it is 10:10 and I am at Brook Avenue. I don’t think I’m going to make the 10:20 bus at Pelham Bay Park, which is... um, a lot of stops away.)
Spoiler alert: I did not make the 10:20. And then the 11:20 broke down about four stops into New Rochelle. The two-kilometer walk was good for my cardiovascular health, and I was able to find a cab to shoot me up North Avenue, but I still missed all the pregame and the first four minutes of game time. Fortunately, the stat board and some statistical anomalies helped me catch up to the stats. But I didn’t get to see the anthem.
I walked in when it was 14-4 Toledo. It’s halftime and the score is 33-30. You’re welcome, Gaels. If we could rebound, we’d really be in this game. Mikaela Boyd is out there for Toledo like she’s Brittany Boyd, with seven points and six rebounds- for a while she was outrebounding our whole team. Alexis Lewis has 12 points for Iona, but it’s on volume.
I do not envy the person whose job it is to take care of the jerseys, especially when bodily fluids are involved. Treyanna Clay got blood on her jersey and spent the rest of the second quarter wearing #11. Poor staffer was scrubbing that jersey like she was Lady Macbeth.
Guys. It’s halftime and this is the third time you’ve played “Jumpman” already. For the love of God, play literally anything else.
Have I mentioned that I love Toledo’s “Embrace Diversity” shirts? Because those shirts are amazing and we have a request out to Toledo to see if we can acquire one. This is another time I want to yell at a school “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY” like I did with the St. John’s skyline socks.
(These kids on the bus have been seriously debating what happens to characters’ hair in Dragonball Z when they go Super Saiyan, and they are so deadly serious about it. What decade am I in?)
I’m starting to think Iona might not be a good team. I love them, but they are so very much a work in progress at best.
Toledo’s fun. They rolled fairly deep in the first half, though I didn’t even realize Michaela Rasmussen played until I looked at the box score. Sara Rokkanen hit a three in the first half just when Iona looked like they might really get back into it. I remember hearing Tatyana Davis’s name when she subbed in, but not anything she did on the floor.
Tanaya Beachem brought size on defense, bouncing Iona players off her and bringing the pain. Jada Woody was an immediate offensive spark when she came in- I think I had just collapsed on my spot in the bleachers when she hit a three, and her buckets in the second half were also right after she came in. Olivia Cunningham had a hot fourth quarter, hitting on a couple of shots, including a nice lay-up on a sweet feed from Mariella Santucci. She started the second half, which does not seem to have been the case for the first half, if Iona’s box score is to be believed.
Once again according to that box score, Santucci got the start. There were some rough patches where it looked like she and her teammates were having some communication issues. (With all the international guards I’ve been seeing recently, I’m starting to recognize the gesture of arms outspread wide and a facial expression of utter WTF.) She had some slick passes out there. Late in the second quarter, it looked like Sarah St-Fort had momentarily forgotten what sport she was playing and was trying to live out some lifelong dream of playing for les Canadiens by body-checking people. Spoiler alert: this does not usually fly in basketball. Mikaela Boyd was fantastic for the Rockets- I made the Brittany Boyd reference in the first half and I’m going to do it again here. She scrapped for offensive rebounds, she hustled into tables (and was polite enough to at least try to put the rolling board back into place on her way back), she drove the lane (though her drives are somewhat less pell-mell than the Liberty’s Boyd), and she was even inconsistent at the line like my favorite Boyd. (Heck, her coach even just calls her by her last name, same as Bill did with the Liberty’s Boyd.)
Kaayla McIntyre hit back to back buckets as I was buying my ticket and racing up the stairs, and set herself up for another bucket on a solid rebound. She’s very strong. That sometimes worked against her, as she picked up a couple of fouls in the second quarter. Jay-Ann Bravo-Harriott is an interesting sort of hybrid player, with the build of a post player but the instincts, or at least desires, of a small forward. In this one, her success at that was mixed at best. But I can imagine her leveraging that size on a good shooting day into becoming a match-up nightmare.
I was impressed with Toledo’s ball movement, especially against the press. Iona tried to rattle them, and it didn’t work all that well. The turnovers were mostly procedural and on fouls- Iona had a few steals, but they were mostly when Toledo was setting up the offense.
Rebekah Justice was on the floor when I arrived. I figured that was probably a sign of desperation, or of size. I may have to move my seat as long as she’s at Iona; otherwise these are going to be four confusing years wherein I keep thinking Coach is calling my name (even though I know the odds of that are slim).. I figured Kristin Mahoney was the white flag when she came in. She hasn’t played much. Coach seems to have lost some of the faith she had in Adrienne DiGioia earlier in the season, since Adrienne got benched. I think I understand why, though; while she did have the one jumper, she looked out of place on both ends of the floor. I think she’ll settle into a steady point guard, but she’s not there yet.
But I’m impressed with how Amelia Motz has stepped up as a playmaker, or at least a play initiator. She brought the ball up a lot, and while she sometimes ran into trouble, she was able to get the offense started. She did her scoring at the rim, and she played hard on both ends of the floor. I was not expecting such extensive run for Tilasha Okey-Williams. I think this is the longest look I’ve ever gotten at her. I didn’t realize just how much spin there was on her shot- it looks almost like she’s firing a knuckleball when that three goes up from the corner. She brings a different look at forward- one more offensive-minded- and I think we can develop her into a good change of pace player. (Video from this game might help with that. Woody’s offensive surge is a good example to follow.)
I do not know why Jayden Eggleston started, though I can make a couple of guesses: she might have been trying to get more size into the starting lineup, because Treyanna Clay at center is not going to work, or she might have thought she matched up better with Toledo’s front line. I don’t know. Whatever she was trying to do, I don’t think it worked. Jayden didn’t even start the second half. Treyanna Clay is already starting to look worn out, and it’s November. That’s not a good sign. Trey plays a lot of minutes, and we need her to play a lot of minutes, but at the same time, Coach needs to rest her at some point, even if it’s just for a minute here or there. Take her out to end the first or third quarter, the way Laimbeer used to do with Tina Charles. She’s starting to look slow on defense, and it’s not of the good. I do like her leadership on the floor, too. She’s very vocal. Alexis Lewis scored a lot, but her three-ball was all over the place. I like that she’s taking it to the rack when her jumper isn’t going down, but I’d like to see better form on those floaters. If her inside game can be more consistent, and if she can bring the rebounding like I saw earlier in the year, she can be something special.
Toyosi Abiola has to speed up her decision-making. She was scared to shoot today, and that’s a problem when you have open looks. Those moments of hesitation allowed the defense to collapse on her, and caused turnovers, whether they were lost balls,travels, or steals. I get that she’s a freshman and rapid decision-making is not yet a thing, and I think she has the potential to grow, but the early going has been a little bit rough. I like Tori Lesko’s hustle, and I love that she’s vocal on the bench, trying to keep her team’s spirits up. She brought a lot of grit to the floor, but she couldn’t keep up with Toledo’s talent.
While I’m not normally a fan of coaches changing things up without an apparent rhyme or reason, I like that Coach Chambers is willing to experiment with her lineups and try new things. I’ve been hard on her in the past for not adapting, so I should give her credit for trying to.
Officiating was unremarkable, except the fourth quarter was dragged out longer than it had to be because there were issues with both the shot and game clocks- they just wouldn’t stop running.
I’m amused that the blood jersey is #11, but you’ll have to go back into the Iona archives to understand why.
There are pieces, but I’m not sure we know how to make them fit. And meanwhile I think the losing is starting to get to the kids. The energy level on the bench was much lower than it was against Temple. I like them. I don’t want to see any of them leave.
Monday, November 27, 2017
November 27th, 2017: Toledo at Iona
Sunday, November 28, 2010
November 28th, 2010: Toledo at Iona (Iona Thanksgiving Classic)
Just the Facts, Ma'am: Two spirited double-digit comebacks by the Iona Gaels weren't enough for them to win their holiday tournament, as they fell to the Toledo Rockets 68-60. Naama Shafir led the way for Toledo with 16 points and six assists, getting help from the 15 points of Melissa Goodall and the 13 points and 10 rebounds of Lecretia Smith. Kristina Ford led the home team with 16 points and nine boards. Tomica Bacic and Marissa Flagg scored all their points, 12 and 11 respectively, in the second half to help erase a ten-point Toledo lead.
For true confessions, a lack of old awesome, knee-related trauma, and a half dozen free wings, join your intrepid and reliable blogger after the jump.
After that game, it was on to the next one, and to the game that we were really there to see. No disrespect meant to UMBC and Brown, but Iona's a better team than either, and we've been dying to see Naama Shafir since she was a freshman. This was the matchup that we scoreboard-watched all day, hoping would happen. This is the reason why we hiked up to New Rochelle.
Apparently, it was the whole reason that Iona came too. The concessions never did open up, but the fans started to show up during the intermission between games. (Of course, this cut both ways; a bunch of UMBC people left during introductions. This is not a good idea when Iona does their home intros in a darkened arena.)
Since Iona doesn't have a band, we didn't have to worry about a skeleton crew brutalizing the national anthem- the PA announcer did double duty as the DJ, playing and pausing the various tracks on his computer. This was all right when the tracks were traditional arena rock. It was somewhat less all right when he played Miley Cyrus during a timeout, then followed it up with two straight timeouts of Justin Bieber. I had to be reminded that giving someone a swirly in a urinal is considered assault and is therefore a felony. But my ears are still bleeding, and someone needs to pay for that.
Toledo got some very good minutes from Haylie Linn. I like her hustle. She had a good knack for being in the right place at the right time, my favorite sort of player. Yolanda Richardson was also a key reserve in this game. Big girl's got moves. I approve of this message. Andola Dortch, who biked when she wasn't in the game, saw time in the second half when Coach Cullop went for the offense/defense swaps.
For the Rockets, they went to their starters to get darn near everything. Lecretia Smith had a bad habit of getting in her own way on rebounds and loose balls, but she made things happen on the inside. Don't recall much about Courtney Ingersoll. Jessica Williams got into foul trouble late in the game, but I don't recall if she did anything worth mentioning or not. Naama Shafir is a really good point guard who shows flashes of being a great point guard. She doesn't quite have that complete mastery of the floor that the greatest point guards have, not quite that sense that as soon as she walks onto the floor the game is hers, not quite the feeling that the ball will always go exactly where she wants it and exactly when she wants it to. There were times in that game when the feeling was there, but only times. She has got to watch her footwork, because three or four of her turnovers came on travels that could have been avoided with a little more care and forethought. I like her shot and her scrappiness, though. Melissa Goodall was the player who impressed me that I wasn't expecting to impress me. She just found her way to the basket and put the ball in. It seemed that simple.
Iona likes to go deep into their bench. I think everyone who was eligible played. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but if it is, it isn't much of one. I can't shake the feeling that Cat Lutz should go by the full form of her name. A hard C plus the surname Lutz is not going to end well. I miss Milica Paligoric's eyeblack. (At least, I think it was hers. It was awesome, whoever had it, and I miss it.) She brought a very physical presence, sometimes too physical. (Don't elbow your opponent in the face. It's not polite.) Lutz was a common tag team with Kopp. I'm not sure the combination worked. My memory is failing me, and so are my notes- their bench must not have done that much.
Anda Ivkovic went down hard at one point, and let me tell you, there are some serious disadvantages to being in a small, sparsely populated arena. You get to hear every scream of agony and every whimper when a player crumples to the floor, clutching the knee that she's already suffered a torn ACL in. The weird thing was that after a few minutes on the bench, she was standing up and getting all taped up, and she even played a couple of series after that before calling a timeout and getting out of the game. That was the last we saw of her. I wish her all the best. No one deserves to spend even a second of their senior season curled up in pain. Her role as shooter was admirably picked up by Kristina Ford, who I sort of had to root for, because she's from my nabe. It felt like she was shooting more threes than the boxscore suggests, and her presence on the boards was strong as well. I like her. This game would not have been nearly as interesting as it turned out to be if Tomica Bacic and Marissa Flagg hadn't shown up in the second half. I've seen games where one player has a second-half run that beats all. I've never seen a game where two players were silent in the first, then went off in the second half. Bacic decided she was going to take over, and she started going inside with a vengeance. She had a dramatic injury moment as well, when she twisted her ankle a few minutes after Ivkovic went out with her knee injury. She got up faster, and though she was limping for a minute or two, she was fine fast enough for me to be a wee bit skeptical of her. Flagg got a lot more aggressive and assertive in the second. Whether it was because Toledo forgot about her or because she decided to step up, I couldn't say for certain. Suzi Fregosi, despite being the poster girl for today's game (*holds up scorecard poster* See?), didn't produce very much- a couple of shots when Iona was trying to make one of their early comebacks, but nothing after that.
Stat combination of the game: 21 Iona turnovers. 15 Toledo steals. The Rockets were on them like white on rice.
The refs for this game let a lot of contact go, which falls into Iona's game. Iona has a tendency to lose their cool and play very physically. When you're wondering whether Iona has a football team, and if they do, whether they'd be cool with a Serbian center, things might have gotten a bit out of control. Shame; Aliberti and Lonergan usually call a better game than that. If you've been reading previous Game Notes of Doom, you might recall the epic saga of the gender-swapping ref, the linesman Aliberti who was listed as Janice last year but as John in a St. John's boxscore from this year. I'm thinking now that that was the Red Storm's mistake, because Aliberti was once more a Janice in the NCAA boxscore for this game, and she definitely sounded like a Janice. I really like how she handled herself with the coaches (who are both fairly intense and argumentative) and the scorer's table.
Shoutout to the small but very vocal contingent of Toledo fans who sat behind the visitors' bench. We could feel their stomping one section over. They outdid the few Iona fans who were there.
Iona has far too many cheerleaders. They're the old-fashioned kind, so maybe that's why- they're not doing stunts, just trying to impress by choreography. But we saw them coming in, and they just kept coming.
There was no tournament team. There were no post-game honors at all. We had to get out of there before they rolled up the bleachers on us. It was a good trip. I'll be happy to do it again next year, just as long as I remember this time that the trains get you there at 11:30 and 12:30, or thereabouts.