WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

  Good win for Lady Colonels over Rhodes 59-42 according the SCAC website.  Hope this is correct!

[Ron Boerger]

Ugly 57-48 win (but a win nonetheless) for Trinity at Southwestern.  Both Krista Prato-Matthews for Trinity and Natasha Azizi of Southwestern picked up two quick fouls early.  The teams struggled to get anything going offensively as the teams' respective stalwarts sat out two-thirds of the first half.   They both picked up third fouls relatively early in the second half, too.  It was a very choppy game both ways.

Trinity ended up shooting 25% on the night, but had a 52-38 rebounding edge and a 40-16 edge from the line (with some of those being of the foul to try and catch up variety).

Azizi had 15 before fouling out late to lead the Lady Pirates, Danielle Hubenak had 16 for Trinity.  Prato-Matthews, visibly frustrated at times, was held to 11 pts and 10 boards.  Southwestern has some size with several ladies 6-foot plus and that caused problems inside for TU.  Oddly, though, it didn't help the rebounding battle.

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps lost a golden opportunity to go to 4-1 in SCAC play by giving up a 17 point lead over the last 9 minutes of the game and eventually losing in OT to Colorado.  It looked like one of those typical situations where one team relaxes just a little down the home stretch, the other team picks it up just a notch, momentum shifts, and a big lead is lost.  I saw big swings like this in 3 of the 4 games at Millsaps this weekend.

In the men's game against Austin, Millsaps trailed by 15 at the half and was leading by 1 with about 5 minutes to go.  Against the Colorado College team, Millsaps trailed by 4 early in the second half and went on to win by 16.  I can remember games last year where the Millsaps women would be down 20 at the half and maybe they would come back to only lose by 2.  As long as there are more than 5 minutes to go on the clock, a big lead is not a guaranteed victory.

One bright spot about the Millsaps team Sunday was that for 31 minutes they really played great.  They looked like the team I was expecting to see when the season started, maybe too high an expectation on my part as they work to blend the veteran players with the newcomers.  Millsaps shot 40% for the game despite hitting only 4 of 19 over the last 14 minutes.  They played with speed the entire game and only had 18 turnovers, a marked improvement from the start of the season.  They had 25 assists in the game, an indication of far better teamwork than earlier in the season.  Admittedly, the collapse was rather dramatic, but the rise before the fall was something that can be built on in games to come starting with the game against Dallas this Tuesday.

[pbrooks3]

Centre Girls took advantage of the homecourt this weekend to chalk up two more wins.  Of course, with the exception of the games against DPU and OU, the Lady Colonels have not faced the strength of the SCAC schedule.  They'll have return games against both DPU & OU at home, along with a major challenge against Trinity at Alumni.  It would be exciting indeed to see if the ladies can play giant-killer against one of these stellar opponents.  They are gaining confidence as they continue to win games, and the freshmen who are playing regularly are a big reason for the 9-5 start.  Keep up the nice work, ladies.

[Ron Boerger]

Congratulations to Trinity's Krista Prato Matthews who earlier this month set the SCAC all-time rebounding record in a 16-rebound performance against Millsaps. 

ooh, look, my 4000th post. 

[frank_ezelle]

Millsaps bounced back with a 61-48 win tonight over Dallas after falling to the big Colorado comeback on Sunday.  Tiffany Whitmore led Millsaps with a 19 point night and I'll post the box score link so you can see how everyone else did this evening. 

I will say that there is one number that stood out in the box score and it both surprises me and worries me as a Millsaps fan:  Dallas had 50 rebounds (21 offensive) and Millsaps only had 32.  This is the 4th straight game that Millsaps has been outrebounded and I thought that would be a strength of this team.  Tonight it seemed to be a case of waiting to see what was going to happen and then reacting instead of anticipating was was going to happen and moving early.  Maybe it was something else, but I would have never thought a 3-13 team like Dallas would outrebound Millsaps by 18.  If OU and Sewanee do that then it will be a long road trip this weekend.

Link to box score:  http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-w/mcw08-14.htm

[pbrooks3]

Frank, it will be a tough stopover at Oglethorpe this weekend, I agree.  Millsaps has a chance to spring a win at Sewanee.  Millsaps will have to play hard and not quit.  I've seen the Sewanee girls lose 2 tough ones this year, one at home.  The Tigers will come at you for 40 minutes, but they don't have tons of talent or depth.  They may be spilling oil a bit, and this weekend could be a MAJOR opportunity to gain a road win.  That was pretty bad I admit! 

[repete]

Not a regular poster here so apologies if this is already elsewhere about Hunter ...

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/37706929.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUr

[Ron Boerger]

Cool, thanks for the link, repete.  +1

[Ron Boerger]

A surprising 38-31 lead for Austin over Depauw five minutes into the second half.  The DPU women have already turned it over 13 times.

BSC out to an early 12-2 lead over Trinity after about five minutes - ouch.

[frank_ezelle]

For the second time this year, the live stats work great for the men's game and then the SCAC host school apparently doesn't bother to keep the stats for the ladies.  Maybe there's a good explanation at Sewanee like the entire internet froze up because it's something like 0 degrees there, but it sure seems like the women are becoming an afterthought now that they are playing after the men.  By my recollection, the coaches in the league voted 20-4 to have the women play first and the league presidents overruled.  In my opinion, the coaches were thinking in the real world and they had it right.

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity has fought back to trail 35-34 at the half in Birmingham.   BSC is trying to win with the long ball - 18 3FGA (7 3FG) to only 14 2FGA (6 2FG)

Looks like Austin's effort to upset DePauw is going to go for naught as two 'Roo starters have fouled out and DPU has taken their largest lead of the night, 54-50, with under a minute left.  Update:  DPU 56, AC 52, final. 

[pbrooks3]

Good point about the girls feeling slighted. When the boys finished at Rhodes tonight the gym cleared out. The girls have about 1/3 the crowd the boys had earlier.

Rhodes ladies are up at the half 32-23. Coach Dean did a nice job of mixing defenses in the final 10 minutes of the half which helped neutralize the Pirates' big frontcourt. An occasional press helped get some turnovers, too. Rhodes is definitely frustrating Azizi - she's got 1 basket and only 4 points. Rhodes is getting good post play from freshman Jenilee Pate who has 10 points.

[frank_ezelle]

I sent an email at 8:46 to the Sewanee SID asking about the lack of live stats and at about 8:56 the live stats came up just in time for the start of the second half.  Maybe that's just coincidence. 

Over the course of several years I don't remember a single time when the live stats worked for the women's game and then were fouled up when the men took the court for the second game of the night.  I believe it was at Southwestern earlier in the year that the live stats weren't provided for the women after they worked fine for the men, and now this at Sewanee.  Coincidence maybe, but you have to wonder if there's more to the story.

By the way, the Millsaps women beat Sewanee 52-44.

[Ron Boerger]

Behind 17 points and 14 rebounds by Krista Prato-Matthews and 16 points from Ali Marzella, Trinity defeats Birmingham-Southern 76-67.  Danielle Hubenek added 11 points and 8 assists.  

BSC was led by Courtney Gibson's 17 (5-of-8 from beyond the arc).