Women's Basketball 2022-23

Final. 

SIU 81

UNI 94

Can't win too many games when you're outshot 27-11 from the FT line. 

Jones with 22. Fifty-two for the week. Nard with 17. Taylor and Williams 13 each. 3 Panthers with 20+

Halfway through Valley play. We're 4-6. Next up - MO State and our one game with Valpo, Wednesday and Saturday at home. 

While I appreciate the new up tempo style and it is a rebuilding of the program after last year you still have to play some defense and rebound hope the staff addresses these points in recruiting for next year

Yeah, you can't give up 282 points in three straight games. And you can't send the same 3 teams to the line 84 times combined either. 67 total fouls in the last three games. 🤦‍♂️

https://twitter.com/ValleyHoops/status/1620142679710375957?s=20&t=kOQ8rU2OZ4ii3CyLwXcCAA

Congrats Ashley! 

Second time this year!

SIU 7-12 (4-6) vs MISSOURI STATE 12-7 (7-3)

Wednesday Feb 1st^th 6pm Banterra Center

Streaming ESPN+

Over The Air & Saluki Sports Network 95.1 Steve FM

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: MoSt -11

Round Two Versus The Bears:

Back on January the 11^th we had an eight point 38-30 halftime lead in Springfield. The Lady Bears looked bad, and we looked pretty good. Then halftime happened. MoSt outscored us 48-19 in the second half won 78-57, and we’ve gone 1-5 since. The Bears pasted us on the glass 62-34. They were led by Aniya Thomas’ 25 point 10 assist game. Three other Lady Bears scored in double figures, and three had double figure rebounds.

Missouri State currently sits at 102 NET 108 RPI 116 SOS

Tale Of The Tape:

                             MSU        SIU

PPG                      66.9       71.8      

Pts Allowed         64.1       77.1

FG%                      .409       .413

FG% OPP             .414       .437

3pt%                     .307       .341

3pt % OPP           .282       .362

FT%                       .614       .686

Rebounds            42.5       36.2

Reb OPP              31.7       40.1

Assists                  14.5       14.6

Turnovers           16.6       15.5      

T/O Forced          15.6       17.8

Steals                   7.3         10.1

Blocks                  3.3         4.3

Offensive Rtg     138th     144th

                              93.7       93.2

Defensive Rtg    139th     328th

                              89.6       99.6

Pace of Play        154th     13th

                              71.4       77.1

Missouri State’s overall statistics haven’t really changed that much. They are second in The Valley in rebounding and 20^th nationally. First in offensive rebounds and 17^th nationally. They are still last in free throw shooting, which means they will probably not miss a single one of their 30 free throw trips in this game.

Missouri State Dramatis Personae –

Aniya Thomas a 5-7 graduate guard. 14.2 ppg & 4.7 assists per game.

Kennedy Taylor 6-3 sophomore forward that averages 11.1 PPG & 8.2 rebounds per game.

Sydney Wilson a 5-11 senior guard. 11.2 ppg & 6.2 rebounds per game down from over ten rebounds per game the last time we met.

Jade Masogayo a 6-3 freshman forward. 4.2 ppg and leads the team in blocks.

India Green a 5-11 sophomore forward averages 7.7 ppg.

The Lady Bears have only been playing a seven player rotation in the last few games. Last week the Lady Bears swept their two games beating UNI & Drake.

What’s Up With Us?

After losing to both UNI & Drake last week where our offense came to life, (But our defensive rating fell nearly 80 spots nationally due to giving up 175 points last weekend) we’ve fallen into a five-way tie for 6^th place with UIC, Murray, ISU-Blue and Evansville all three games back of fifth place. We own the current tiebreaker against the Racers, Aces and Trees. Unless we have some kind of crazy epiphany we’re going to be locked into a Thursday game in Moline. Saturday’s home game against Valpo is the only time we play them this year.

Ashley Jones is putting together a first team All-Valley resume. After her 52 point week last week she was named Valley Newcomer for the second time. She is sixth in scoring average in the league at 16.4ppg. Don’t understand why she didn’t get named Valley Player of The Week as the POW didn’t even score half of what Ashley did, but Sydney Wilson of MoSt did beat UNI and Drake where we didn’t.

Anywho – onwards and upwards as the saying goes.

Valley standings at the halfway point….

1 ISU-R 9-1 84 NET

2 UNI 8-2 65 NET

T-3 Drake 7-3 54 NET

T-3 Missouri St 7-3 102 NET

T-3 Belmont 7-3 92 NET

T-6 UIC 4-6 215 NET

T-6 Murray 4-6 129 NET

T-6 Evansville 4-6 217 NET

T-6 ISU-B 4-6 212 NET

T-6 SIU 4-6 216 NET

11 Valpo 2-8 282 NET

12 Bradley 0-10 341 NET

GO DAWGS!!!

After 1 at a PACKED Banterra Center

SIU 13

MSU 13

And by packed I mean full of breathable air and not much else. 

Halftime

SIU 27

MSU 29

Things were going well until about the media timeout then it went kinda meh... Jones still shooting well. Worst FT team in The Valley is 5 of 6. 

End of 3 

The Prettier Maroon 41

Maroon Bears 45

Bears were gifted a 3 point play at the end of the 3rd. 

Final

Dawgs 68

Lady Bears 70

Jones with her 3rd straight 20+ game - 23. Williams with 14 

Every time we made a run at them Bears either answered or we got called for a foul. MOst missed two FT's with 1.4 left bit got the rebound. 

Outrebounded but not as bad as last time. 44-32

SIU 7-13 (4-7) vs Valparaiso 4-16 (2-9)

Saturday Feb 4^th 2pm Banterra Center

Streaming ESPN3

Over The Air & Saluki Sports Network 95.1 Steve FM

WarrenNolan.com Prediction: SIU -19

The Beacons Of Valparaiso:

This will be the only regular season meeting with the Beacons. Last year we split the season matchup winning easily in Carbondale and then a shocking loss in the regular season finale losing to the Beacons by 13 in a flat performance. In the ten prior meetings – all in MVC play – we lead the series 6-4.

Valpo is coached by Mary Evans in her fifth year. The Beacons had their best Valley finish of sixth place last year at 9-9. Coach Evans came from Ohio University. She, like us, lost six players to graduation including two all-conference players and the Valley Sixth Person of the Year.  

Valpo does have a signature win at home over Missouri State, which was its first win after eleven straight losses and is 1-8 on the road. Valpo lost its last game Wednesday evening to UIC 55-53.

Valpo current sits at 286 NET 299 RPI 152 SOS.

Tale Of The Tape:

                             VAL        SIU

PPG                      59.8       71.7      

Pts Allowed         71.4       76.7

FG%                      .412       .412

FG% OPP             .441       .437

3pt%                     .321       .340

3pt % OPP           .350       .361

FT%                       .710       .690

Rebounds            29.9       36.0

Reb OPP              34.3       40.3

Assists                  11.2       14.3

Turnovers           19.0       15.6      

T/O Forced          14.4       18.0

Steals                   6.7         10.2

Blocks                  1.4         4.6

Offensive Rtg     267        176

                              86.1       93.1

Defensive Rtg    322        280

                              101.8     99.2

Pace of Play        194        9

                              69.0       77.0

Valpo’s Valley statistical rankings are reflective of their record. They are tenth in both points scored and points allowed. Eleventh in field goal defense and last in rebounds, turnovers, assists, assist to turnover ratio and blocks.

The Beacons Dramatis Personae –

After losing six to graduation the Beacons only picked up two through the transfer portal.

Valpo is led by senior 5-8 guard Olivia Brown. She averages 12.3 ppg and shoots 46% from deep.

Leah Ernest a 5-10 junior guard/forward averages 10.8 ppg and leads the team in rebounding at 8 boards per game.

Ilysse Pitts is a 5-7 5^th year senior guard who averages 5.4 ppg and leads the team in steals and assists.

Ali Sanders is a 5-10 freshman guard/forward who averages 9.7 ppg primarily off the bench.

Valpo is not a very big team. They only have one regular player at six feet tall. Valpo would like to keep this game slow in the half court. Their defense can’t deal with a fast-paced team as their -12 points per game margin shows. They’ve been outscored by 172 points in the first half of games and over 100 points in the first quarter alone. I watched their game from Wednesday against UIC and came away with two observations. 1) They are kind of painful to watch. 2) How the hell did we lose to UIC?

What’s Up With Us?

Ashley Jones continues her torrid scoring pace as she has scored 20 or more in her last three games. I see that streak continuing against the Beacons. This is the last of a four game homestand for us as we go on the road to conference leading ISU-Red and winless Bradley next week. With the undersized Beacons, our interior game should excel. Nard and Taylor should eat the Beacons as a mid-afternoon snack. Seairra Hughes returned from injury helping our interior depth.

Promise Taylor had six blocks against Missouri State and we had nine as a team. We rank twenty-fifth nationally in blocks per game and Taylor ranks eleventh nationally in blocks per game. Freshman Jaidynn Mason, even though her offense has sputtered, had 7 steals against the Lady Bears keeping her in the top five in The Valley in that category. Southern ranks 19^th nationally in steals per game at 10.2 thefts. I would like to see us cover the prediction and then in this one after the close call against Missouri State on Wednesday. We need it.

GO DAWGS!!!

Valpo controlling the tempo. No Tamara Nard - She's not even in the building. 

After 1

SIU 13

VALPO 10

Halftime

Southern 33

Valpo 23

Jones with 11. Taylor with 7 and 2 blks. Kinda missing Nard. 

After 3 

SIU 48

VALPO 39

Bad block call at the end of the quarter gifted Valpo a couple of FT's. A little disjointed in the quarter. Cold shooting, but we've been getting offensive boards. Taylor leading the way with 15. 

Jesus. I am getting tired of these freaking refs. When a Valpo player hits the floor thier coach complains and now a call gets upgraded to an intentional for the players getting their legs tangled. What a bunch of shit.