WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

pbrooks3 · January 16, 2009, 11:36:59 PM

Rhodes got a solid win 68-58 tonight with balanced play. Kristin Lytle led the way with 17. The Lady Lynx played exceptional basketball during the middle 20 minutes of the game.

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 12:50:32 PM

Tough loss for Centre last night to a good Colorado College squad. Centre Ladies are young and exciting to watch; they'll bounce back and play tough tonight against another good team in Austin. If they can somehow neutralize Austin's strong low post play and fluster the guards would superior defensive pressure, I like the Colonels' chances tonight.

frank_ezelle · January 17, 2009, 01:55:17 PM

For those who are interested, here's a link to photos from the 1/9/09 game between Austin and Millsaps:

http://gomajors.smugmug.com/gallery/7116515_BWoAK#456323742_G3xCT

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 09:39:42 PM

Centre bounces back with a 70-55 win over Austin tonight.
Trinity trails Rhodes at the half 27-23. Rhodes could be up more except for a few silly turnovers. Becky Atnips leads Rhodes with 8 and Jennilee Pate chipped in 6. Krista Prato Matthews has 4. Rhodes has gotten good defensive position on Trinity's front-court players. One half doesn't make a game, but I like what Rhodes is doing.

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 10:13:08 PM

This game is long from being over but Rhodes has Trinity on the ropes at 60-51 with 5:15 to play. Rhodes is playing solid defense.

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 10:21:01 PM

Rhodes by 6 with 2:19 to play and TU has the ball.

Ralph Turner · January 17, 2009, 10:21:23 PM

Rhodes 62, TU 56 3:06 left.

Now all we ASC teams need is for Rhodes to hang on!

This game is big for in-region rankings sake.

Who hosts the "Texas Sub-Bracket"?

(Not counting eggs before they hatch, but there has been a women's first round match-up every year this decade in Texas. There are at least five-seven contenders now, TU, UTD, HSU, HPU, McM even UMHB and UTT.)

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 10:28:25 PM

Rhodes upsets Trinity 64-58. TU never looked to be in the flow tonight. Atnip and Pate each scored 18 in the win.

Ralph Turner · January 17, 2009, 10:36:38 PM

Thanks! My Livestats hung on 64-58 with 2:21 remaining!

pbrooks3 · January 17, 2009, 11:11:26 PM

Rhodes wins - this might have been the best game I've seen Matt Dean coach in person. He pushed the right buttons and rotated the perfect combinations of players in the 2nd half. He knew when to crank up ball pressure. Trinity never seemed at all comfortable with what they were facing. They looked dazed and tired. Even though Rhodes never led by more than 9, I never had the sense Trinity would come back & win. The only point tonight when the Tigers looked fresh and ready to attack was the opening 3 minutes of the 2nd half when they took the lead by 3. Prado-Matthews was pretty much a non-factor, though she scored 14 and had her share of rebounds. Rhodes' quickness worked to their advantage in that they forced numerous bad passes and created turnovers. Point guard Becky Atnip put the Lynx on her back to lead this team down the stretch with great ball-handling. Freshman Pate is an SCAC star in the making. She is a smaller version of Prado-Matthews with a fine array of skills and shots around the basket. She constantly took her defender on a complete tour of the offensive paint, hitting big shots when the Lynx needed them. Senior leadership was provided by Lytle as well. Fun game if you were a Rhodes fan tonight.

Ron Boerger · January 18, 2009, 10:31:33 AM

Thanks, pbrooks3. As I've said before, Trinity is a young team and it looks like Coach Dean figured a way to take advantage of that. He manged to do it while keeping Trinity off the line - they average ~20 FTs per game to last night's four. Glad you had a good time and thanks for the in-person report!

frank_ezelle · January 18, 2009, 05:25:26 PM

Being a fan doesn't mean that one is obliged to ignore reality. Here are some numbers that give me reasons to be concerned:

74-67 -- That was the score of OU's win at Millsaps last year. It was a road game for OU and they had some players out and that obviously was a factor in the game.

6 -- Millsaps had 6 players playing today who played at least 17 minutes in last year's game. That includes all 5 starters from last year.

3 -- The number of seniors in the Millsaps starting lineup today.

40-15, 67-29, 86-43, and 94-55 -- Those are running scores and the final score from today's game. The 39 point margin of victory was the largest by OU this year and their starters sat the majority of the second half.

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During the first half the OU announcer said that Millsaps didn't look interested in playing defense. He also said that Millsaps looked like they wanted no part of Oglethorpe. I would like to believe that this was just the overexagerations of a home team announcer, but then you look at the numbers and you have to wonder.

Personally, I didn't expect Millsaps to go to OU and win on the road against one of the best teams in the country. I expected them to go and play well to see how they measured up against the best. Either they didn't take advantage of the opportunity to see how their best measures against an elite national team, or Millsaps is a long way from competing at the top level of the SCAC. I still continue to believe that Millsaps has the talent to be more than what they are showing, but the time left for it all to come together is running short.

pbrooks3 · January 19, 2009, 09:28:12 AM

I was pleased with the way the Centre Ladies bounced back Saturday against Austin after falling to Colorado College at home on Friday night in a close one. I believe the coaches have Centre moving in a positive direction. The Lady Colonels have the advantage the remainder of the season of playing the majority of their league games at home with only 4 more road tilts, 2 this coming weekend at Hendrix and Millsaps. Both will be challenging games for them, but certainly winable. Centre still must play the big three in Danville - Trinity, Oglethorpe and DePauw. I am projecting this Centre squad will pull at least one upset against one of the big three. My best guess is it could be Trinity. I think Centre's quickness and pressure could give Trinity trouble. The weekend loss at Rhodes for Trinity makes me think the Tigers could be vulnerable to a team on the road that plays like the Colonels. I realize this is simply watercooler chit-chat, but I like Centre's chances against a team like Trinity.

TTigersRock · January 19, 2009, 02:09:37 PM

No doubt Rhodes is well coached and they played a good game against Trinity. Trinity did travel over 300 miles game day and only shot 4 FT's for the game. It is hard to believe as "pbrooks3" suggests, that a player that is both high scorer and high rebounder in a game is "non- factor".

pbrooks3 · January 19, 2009, 10:05:47 PM

Perhaps I should rephrase my earlier statement to say that Prado-Matthews was not enough of a factor in the Rhodes game to bring them a victory. This young lady is very good, and I have seen her play some great games in her career. No doubt 2 games with 250 miles between sites wears on a team. Welcome to the SCAC. While there was some disparity between the # of free throws shot in Saturday's game, I don't believe the officials determined the outcome of this one. Actually the officiating to me was pretty good, and they allowed both teams to play.