My notes on the WOT loss to ucla at Galen 68-58
This was my first trip back to Galen since before it was shut down to the general public. This happened 3 days after SC was whipped across town in the previous game 66-43 and looked terrible in doing so, shooting a woeful 27.6% FGs and committing a whopping 27 turnovers! This was a terrible game to watch (Pac-12 network) for Trojan fans, but I endured it. I wanted to go to this home game rematch to see what the coaches had done about this humiliating defeat at the hands of their rival, which included ucla Coach Cory Close putting the full court press on in the last minute of the game, when her team was up over 20 pts. I wanted to see if the team had any heart and fight left and ,even if they lost, would be able to know they gave it their all.
Entering the Galen Center before tip-off, I saw a fairly good sized student section, most decked out in their free "Beat the Bruins" t-shirts, given to the first 1000 people attending. At home, upon hearing about this promotion, I guessed EVERYONE would get a free shirt, because their probably weren't going to be 1000 people there. I was pleased to be wrong, as there was an announced crowd of 1892 (probably 50 of them for the bruins). I think the coaches and players got a kick out of the Trojan Knights lined up in the first row center court with body paint that spelled out "J-O-R-D-Y-N" on their chests and jersey #32's on their backs. This was in honor of our leading scorer (13.3 ppg) and second leading rebounder (5.9 rpg) Jordyn Jenkins.
A full basketball band was on hand, as well as the Song Girls and Trojan Dance Force and DJ Malski - this all added to the fun environment. In attendance were AD Mike Bohn and his wife, Brandon Sosna, and members of the men's basketball team: Isaiah Mobley, Isaiah White, Max Agbonkpolo, Kobe Johnson and company.
Starters for the WOT were Jordyn Jenkins, Alissa Pili, Tera Reed, Desiree Caldwell and for the first time 6'6" frosh center Clarice Akunwafo, who would play a season high 26 minutes and score 9 points on 4-5 FGs and 1-4 FTs. She grabbed 3 rebounds, had a block and was pretty automatic when getting the ball close to the basket, she has not exhibited an ability to stretch out to midrange and hasn't taken a 3-pt shot this season. She is a work in progress, but you can't teach tall. She was useful in trying to handle the big bodied bruin center, grad xfer from Cincinnati, Iimar'i Thomas, who was the AAC POY and a 3-time All-AAC First Team honoree. It was a tough task, but Clarice did her best to hold Thomas to 14 pts, 5 rebs and a team high 7 assists for the visitors.
The bruins are basically a 3-headed monster of PG Charisma Osborne, one of the conference's top guards, who had a game-high 27 pts, Thomas who had 14 and Natalie Chou a grad student and Baylor transfer who finished with 10 pts. No other bruins were in double digits. SC had trouble matching up with Osborne and this will continue to be an issue against other top guards, including Endyia Rogers, who the WOT will meet up with Sunday in Eugene.
Unlike the game at Pauley, SC brought some energy to this game from the get-go. You could tell they had taken whatever was said by the coaches to heart and were exerting the kind of effort that you expect from your team on an every game basis. Really, despite the talent gap, SC played the bruins pretty even except for the first quarter, where due to some lax defense on 3-pt shooters, ucla cruised to a 24-16 first quarter lead. Had they not given up so many open looks in the first half, they may have been able to pull the upset. In a nutshell, the 10 point victory for the bruins (68-58) could be attributed to them making 1 more 3 than SC and 7 more FTs.The bruins made 20-23 (87%) FT attempts to the WOT's 13-19 (68.4%)
Bench points were even at 8, SC had the edge in points in the paint 28-20 and fastbreak pts 12-5, but the bruins scored 4 more second chance points 17-13 due to 14 offensive rebounds to 8 for SC.
SC had 3 players in double digits with 13 pts each, Reed, Pili and Jenkins.
Despite the chants for Jordyn, Lindsay still played her only 22 minutes, often rotating her with Pili, who played 26 minutes before fouling out. The Pac-12 refs were their usual whistle happy selves calling SC for 23 fouls in the game (including 4 each on Jenkins, Caldwell and Reed).
I liked Tera's game against the bruins, she played with an attitude and was very efficient, going 5-8 FGs, hitting 2-2 on 3's and adding 2 rebs, 2 steals, 4 assists and only 1 TO. I kept wishing that she would shoot more in this game. She turned down open threes to pass to teammates, even after nailing both of her 3-pt attempts. She needs to shoot when she is open when the shots are falling like they were against the bruins.
I thought Pili finally started to look like the player we expected to see this season. She was aggressive on D, many times guarding Thomas, when Clarice wasn't in the game. She had one made 3 and 3 steals. She drove to the basket without fear with 5-10 FGs and 2-3 FTs, for her 13 pts.
Desi was Desi, a good ball handler and defender, but a non-scorer. She played 35 minutes going 1-6 FGs for 2 pts, that basket coming with 3-1/2 minutes remaining in the game. She is shooting 24.4% on the season, seriously this is pathetic. She averages just 4.5 ppg and despite 5 assists this game, averages 2.9 assists on the season, second to Tera's 3.6 pg.
Rayah Marshall played only 15 minutes and went scoreless (0-4 FGs), not what you expect from your team's third leading scorer at 9.3 ppg. She did grab 4 rebs and blocked a shot to continue her streak of 8 straight games with at least one block.
Miura was off today, scoring 3 pts (1-7 FGs) in 26 minutes. The only other 3-pt threat we have is Bella Perkins who a couple of games back was 5-5 on 3's. She did not leave the bench in the first half for whatever reason and played only 6 minutes in the second half, making her only shot attempt (3-ptr) and both FTs for 5 points. I continue to maintain that she needs to play more as she figures into our future plans. Not sure what Coach Gottlieb is thinking here.
This team really misses having Jordan Sanders and her 11.9 ppg, 4.1 rebs, and despite missing the last 5 games, her team leading 22 steals. I saw her appear to be walking fine, no brace, no limp. I am not sure what her injury is, but I hope she can return soon.
With this loss, SC falls to 9-7 (2-4 Pac12) and next has a roadtrip to Oregon State Friday and Oregon Sunday.
OSU is 9-4 (2-1). Covid issues have forced postponement of 5 Pac-12 games thus far. The three games they did play were a 55-53 loss to Arizona and wins over Colorado (69-66 OT) and UW (47-41). The Beavers are led by 5'11" FR guard Tali von Oelhoffen at 13.3 ppg and 6'4" Soph Taylor Jones at 12.4 ppg, no other players are in double figures. Leading rebounders are 6'6" Soph Kennedy Brown (7.7 rpg), 6'3" RSJR Taya Corosdale (7.2 rpg) and Taylor Jones (6.9 rpg). A scan of their roster found two players that are 6'9" tall (!) RSSoph Andrea Aquino from Paraguay (no stats, so maybe injured?) and RSFR Serbian Jelena Mitrovic (3.2 ppg, 4.6 reb pg). SC will have it's work cut out to win either of the games in Oregon.
The Ducks are 11-5 (3-1). They have had 4 conference games postponed due to Covid. They have beaten #7 Arizona and #9 UConn and lost to #2 Stanford. They play Utah and the bruins before facing us. They have 5 players averaging in double figures: Nyara Sabally (15.8 ppg), Te-Hina Paopao (14.3 ppg), Endyia Rogers (13.7 ppg), Sedona Prince (11.3 ppg), Sydney Parrish (10.6 ppg). I guess we still have to play the game, but this one looks ugly.
Those are my thoughts. Fight on!
