WBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[pbrooks3]

Centre Ladies defeat Rhodes 67-56. Jenny Jones goes inside and outside for 25. Goodman puts in 20 as well. Centre held Rhodes scoreless for first 6 minutes of the 2nd half. Rhodes score 2 baskets in the 10 minutes coming out of halftime. Centre played a solid road game against a wounded opponent.

[Ralph Turner]

BSC 71, Depauw 58.

BSC is providing a good measuring stick of its D3 opponents.

http://www.d3hoops.com/school/BSC/womens/2008

[FlightofthePetrel]

Looking forward to Feb. 15th when Oglethorpee heads over to Bham for a rematch from a game earlier in the season that OU won 75-72 in Dorough.  I'm not surprised BSU won but to be up by at many as 27 in the second half really did surprise me.  I didn't have a chance to listen to the broadcast but it looks like DPU had 25 turnovers... very uncharacteristic for them.

[jekelish]

Austin College hit 13-of-26 threes in a 69-46 rout of Millsaps that wasn't as close as that score would indicate. 

[spfan22]

Can i get a reasonable explanation for what happened in the BSU/Depauw game?? Thats crazy to think that a team as good as Depauw could trail by 27 in a game.. I know it was a road game but thats still hard to imagine.. OU seemed to control their first game against BSU and led pretty much the whole way.. Im assuming BSU has improved of late and that the home court played  a rather huge role in the game

[Ralph Turner]

Can I get a reasonable explanation for what happened in the BSU/DePauw game?? Thats crazy to think that a team as good as DePauw could trail by 27 in a game.. I know it was a road game but thats still hard to imagine.. OU seemed to control their first game against BSU and led pretty much the whole way.. Im assuming BSU has improved of late and that the home court played  a rather huge role in the game

I am actually assuming that BSC is that good, and DePauw just had a bad road trip.

They (BSC) edged #8 McMurry (63-57) on a "friendly" neutral floor in Maryville TN.  (McMurry traveled 1030 miles; BSC 257 miles, one-quarter of the distance.)

They have losses to D-1 Centenary LA, 60-63, and to D-1 Southern Mississippi, 50-78.

They beat Emory, 80-68.

[DPULefty22]

Can I get a reasonable explanation for what happened in the BSU/DePauw game?? Thats crazy to think that a team as good as DePauw could trail by 27 in a game.. I know it was a road game but thats still hard to imagine.. OU seemed to control their first game against BSU and led pretty much the whole way.. Im assuming BSU has improved of late and that the home court played  a rather huge role in the game

I am actually assuming that BSC is that good, and DePauw just had a bad road trip.

Right you are, Ralph. BSC IS that good. They've got D-I players on their roster, and the difference in athletic ability between those players (especially Ross) and even the best players on DPU's roster was fairly stark. In four years of watching DPU women's basketball, Ross is the best opposing player I've seen, and it isn't close. But, hell, she was one of the five best players in a D-I conference last season. She should be dominating the SCAC the way she has.

You're also correct in assuming DPU just flat out didn't play well. Lot of offensive sloppiness and some uncharacteristically poor shooting. But most of that was forced by excellent BSC defense.

Having seen the Panthers on the football field and the basketball court, I fear it's only a matter of time before they're the big boss of the SCAC. Once they're eligible for postseason play in three/four years (I forget which), look out.

[Ron Boerger]

+1, '22.  The non-scholarship players who played against DPU (all three of them) combined for seven points and one rebound in 22 minutes.   We've seen this in other sports like soccer where BSC's teams are still leavened with D1 players. 

BSC is going to be a player in the SCAC, but keep in mind that their teams WITH D1 athletes are getting beat by some of the true D3 teams in the SCAC already.  The transition over the next couple of years will be interesting to watch.  Football, on the other hand, may be a whole 'nother story. 

[petey.petrel]

It's good to see the girls back to the winning ways.  They rebounded nicely from a couple of losses.  Despite losing to Wilmington, I think the game was great for the girls.  That game prepares them for post-season play much better than an easy 25 point win.  I'd still like to see more of those games on the schedule.  The 12 point DePauw loss at DePauw was much better than last year, which tells me the girls have closed the gap.  I still stand by my prediction that the last game of the year will be for the #1 seed.  I don't see the girls even being challenged except in two games before then, and one of those doesn't count in the standings.  That last game should be fun.

[pbrooks3]

I am going to check out the Hendrix-Sewanee game this weekend.  This will be the first time I've seen either squad this season.  I suspect that Hendrix has sustained some drop-off from last year with the graduation of Huggins and Hicks.  Looking forward to seeing the brand new facilities at Hendrix.

[jekelish]

halftime of Austin College and Centre, AC leads 33-23.  AC opened with a 13-0 run over the first nine minutes of the game, but Centre chipped away and had it down to as little as 6 the rest of the first half.

[jekelish]

66-58 final, AC over Centre.  Katy Williams misses out on a triple double by three assists, finishing with 17 points, 13 boards, and 7 dishes.

[pbrooks3]

Hendrix Women win 55-40. New gym is impressive, 1,100 chair-back seats. Also have a clever little sky box. Lighting in the facility is outstanding.

[frank_ezelle]

I know that most people seeing the Millsaps-OU score of 74-67 would probably think that OU controlled the game most of the night and Millsaps hit a couple of meaningless baskets to make the score closer than it should have been.  That would be a bad assumption.

This game was tight throughout the first half until Millsaps built a lead of 28-19 with 30 seconds in the half.  OU hit a shot at the end and Millsaps missed for a halftime score of 28-22.  The game stayed close for about 10 minutes in the second half and OU did build a lead up to 13 points, but this was a 7 point game with just over 2 minutes to go, hardly what you would expect between teams coming in with 12-2 and 2-11 records.  You can get more details with the box score, play-by-play, etc:
http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/basketball-w/mcw-011808.htm

I've been saying all season that Millsaps has talented players, just not enough players in general.  Their roster is down to 9, not even enough to scrimmage in practice.  Then they have to deal with injuries to those 9, such as Jessica Bowie missing the previous 5 games before coming back last night and having a rare Triple-Double with 15 points, 10 rebounds and 11 blocks.  Earlier in the year is was LaReina Adams missing while recovering from knee surgery and her regular double-doubles from last year have become rarities as she still is building back to 100%--it was good to see her get one last night with 14 points and 10 boards.  Crystal Dickerson miss one of her own with 22 points and 9 rebounds.

At the moment Millsaps is three games back of making the SCAC Tournament.  It is a longshot that they will make up that ground, but this team is going to make some noise next year.  There are no seniors this year and based on the talent brought in by Coach Bolton in her first year of recruiting, I have no doubt that there will be a lot of good players joining this group next season.  Once you get this team up to 12-14 players and address the weakness of inconsistent outside shooting (currently hitting .207 on 3-pointers, last in the SCAC), you'll see an amazing turn around that was started by the foundation this team is laying right now. 

[Rufio]

Frank, I listened to the OU-Millsaps game on the Petrel Sports Network and you were correct it did not sound like the Petrels were playing a 2-11 team.  I think the fact that the Petrels are missing their three post players hurt them and will continue to hurt them.  Millsaps out rebounded the Petrels by 12 boards. 

I swear that I heard Bowe's named called every 30 seconds either blocking someone or grabbing rebounds.  It was a very impressive night from her.   11 blocks is ridiculous.