23-24 Women's Basketball

Awesome. (Read sarcasm) All three of our posts in foul trouble. 8 minutes til half. 

Halftime

Flambe's 28

Southern 32

We were up by 10 at one point. But I'll take a halftime lead with hardly any Randle due to foul trouble.

Still not shooting well. 35% Team is acting like they've never held a basketball. Williams' shot looks just flat-out broken. Only 6 turnovers to thier 12. 

Headed to the 4th

Dawgs 45

Flames 47

Still not shooting well. Playing good D. Flames with 19 turnovers. 

Really trying to bite my tongue about officiating.

UIC was just given a timeout before they established possession. Jesus.

Final.

We lost. 

Can't shoot. 

Correction: We CAN shoot we just can't MAKE anything. Two games in a row we barely shoot over 30%. For parts of the game we looked like a bunch of grade-schoolers shooting the basketball.

We contain their top four scorers, but some kid comes off the bench who only averages 4.7ppg and burns us for 23. The kid, a 6-3 forward who only played 18 minutes, just went to work on us down low because all three of our posts got into early foul trouble. 

Another game and another 20+ forced turnovers and 10+ steals (24/13). That's FIFTY-TWO forced turnovers in our last two games. Great defense, but no offense.

Two of our top scorers were a combined 8-31. Poor Shemera Williams shot looks just broken. No rhythm, no accuracy... no nothing. She finally made a three late that looked good coming off her hand. 

Coach made a comment in her presser about how when she comes in and hears a basketball bouncing out on the floor its not one of her players in working on their game - it's X working on his. Coach isn't happy about that. 

GAME 13 – Saturday 1/6

Banterra Center 4pm

Valparaiso 1-10 (0-2 MVC) vs SIU 5-7 (0-2 MVC)

Media: Streaming Audio - Varsity Sports Network

or Radio WJPF 107.9 (Larry Larson)

Video Streaming: ESPN+ (Dominic Hoscher/Mike Trude)

WarrenNolan.com Prediction:

Line: SIU -17   O/U: 135

NET/RPI/SOS

Valpo: 327/342/237

SIU: 155/204/113

Valpo/SIU Series At A Glance: This will be the 12th meeting in the series. We hold a 7-4 lead, and won our only meeting last year 77-47 in Carbondale. The Beacons are coached by Mary Evans in her 6th year.

The Beacons Dramatis Personae: Valpo is led by 5-10 F Leah Earnest who averages 14.1ppg/6.8 boards per game and shoots at a .500 clip. Second in scoring is 5-8 graduate student Olivia Brown. The guard averages 10.8ppg. Valpo has a set of twins on the team Neveah(7.4ppg) & Saniah(4.8ppg) Jackson they are 6 foot tall G/F freshman.

Tale Of The Tape:

Valpo                    SIU

59.0       PPG        66.9

73.5        PA         68.3

.384       FG%       .401

.459      FG%D     .440

.292      3Pt %      .301

.353     3Pt%D     .273

.628        FT          .656

29.3      REB         35.6

40.1     REB D      36.3

10.7     Assists     13.6

19.9       T/O        17.7

19.1    T/O Fcd    21.2

11.0      Steals     11.3

2.6        Blocks     2.8

The Beacons – well - are bad. Their offensive rating is 288^th nationally, defensively they are 305^th at a whopping 100.2 opponent points per 100 possessions. They are 307^th (-19.2) in offensive/defensive net rating and 130^th in pace of play. In The Valley the Beacons are last in scoring, 9^th in defense, 11^th in points margin, last in FT%, last in rebounding….You get the idea. Oddly enough they are second behind us in steals per game..

What’s Up With Us? We need to shoot better. Period. Shot selection is okay but making them is not. We also need to stay out of foul trouble. At 0-2, we need this win - badly. Valpo is 0-8 on the road. The only loss they have been competitive in was an overtime loss to Western Michigan. Their only DI win was against a hapless Chicago State. Getting back on track here with a blowout win would be nice.

GO DAWGS!!!

Halftime

Dawgs 43

Beacons 27

Could be up more. Randle, Hughes, Williams, Mason - all with 2 fouls. Randle with 16 at the half.

Shooting better. But Valpo doesn't exactly play D like the men's team does. 

Lots of ticky-tack fouls on us. 

Uh-oh. Not good.

We were up 22. Lead is down to 8 with 1:11 left. 

Final

Southern 75

Beacons 66

Final 8 minutes was a disaster. We were up 21 and it nearly fell apart. Mother won't be happy. 

Randle with 24. Mason with 16. Love and Clubb with 11. 

GAME 14 – Wednesday 1/10

CEFCU Center 6:30pm

SIU 6-7(1-2 MVC) at Illinois State 8-5(1-2 MVC)

Media: Streaming Audio - Varsity Sports Network

or Radio WJPF 107.9 (Larry Larson)

Video Streaming: ESPN+

WarrenNolan.com Prediction:

Line: Redbirds -8   O/U: 134

NET/RPI/SOS

ISU-R 113/124/174

SIU: 157/222/169

ISU-R/SIU Series At A Glance: This is the 122^nd meeting. The Redbirds hold a 70-51 advantage after winning both games last year by a combined six points on late threes both times.  

The Redbirds Dramatis Personae: The Redbirds lost several key contributors from last year’s MVC Co-championship squad. Instead of reloading through the portal Coach Gillespie just recruited and only has five upperclassmen on her team. They are led by 6-2 graduate forward DeAnna Wilson who posts 14.5ppg, 6.6 rebounds per game and shoots at a .508 clip. Next is 5-8 redshirt senior G Maya Wong who averages 13.0ppg, shoots .536 overall and .526 from three and dishes out 4.4 assists per game. Next for the Redbirds is an interesting one. 5-4 junior guard Caroline Waite. She transferred in from Bradley! Can’t blame her though, since Bradley is bad. She’s their third leading scorer at 9.9ppg. 6-3 senior forward Kate Bullman is their top rebounder at 8.8rpg and averages 5.8ppg.

Tale Of The Tape:

ISU-R                    SIU

76.3       PPG        67.5

69.0        PA          68.1

.455       FG%       .423

.397      FG%D     .440

.362      3Pt %      .302

.329     3Pt%D     .283

.737        FT          .681

40.1      REB         35.8

34.5     REB D      35.8

13.9     Assists     13.6

15.6       T/O        17.9

13.2       T/O        21.2

            Forced   

14.5     Pts Off     17.2

             T/O

4.3        Steals     11.5

4.0        Blocks     2.8

The Redbirds statistically are kinda okay. In terms of Valley rankings, they’re in the upper third of most rankings. 3^rd in scoring, FG%, 3ptFG%, 5^th in defense and 3pt defense. 9^th in turnovers, 11^th in turnovers forced, and last in steals per game. Nationally the Redbirds are 53^rd in offensive efficiency at 102.5 points per 100 possessions. Defensively they rank pretty low - 259^th (96.3pts/100poss), but their effective FG% is 43^rd at 51.4%. 

What’s Up With Us? Nice to get back in the win column. Albeit kinda clunky against a Valpo team we should have beaten by 30 instead of nine. Coach said in her presser she let the end of her bench play too early and had to bring back most of her starters when the lead fell from 21 to as close as 6. A win is win. We’re gonna get a pissed off Redbird squad after them losing on the road to Murray by 12, and Belmont by THIRTY-FIVE last weekend! As always with Illinois State, this should be an interesting game.

GO DAWGS!!!

• After 1 in Blo-No.

Southern 11

Redbirds 20

Rough shooting start. 20%