Ualr

[rocjunkie]

Our game against Little Rock went just about like all their previous games, win or lose. All the winning scores were in the 60's, losing scores in the 50's except their loss to LSU, which was like 52-57.

Their aggressive game style forces everyone into their type of game. It was obvious to me that we were prepared for this, as our players were penetrating from the beginning and not trying to just pass it around the perimeter. So it was an ugly game they forced, but we played it about as well as anyone has.

They did a really nice job of taking the 3 point line away from us. I agree with you that the kids did a good job of adjusting and taking what the defense gave us, my biggest angst was all the air balls they shot that they got second chances on because of our lack of blocking out and going to the ball. We did a much better job in the second half.

 

[sybarite]

It was obvious that UALR was not a great shooting team. We were standing around under the boards, and they were active. We were totally dominated until about two minutes before the end of the first half. Suddenly, we controlled the boards, got a few stops, had a 7-0 run, and took a two-point lead into the second half. We were more active on the boards in the second half and ended up winning the board battle, 44-34. Once we won that battle, they really had no options left.

We didn't shoot well in the second half (40% compared to 57% in the first half). But, winning the boards and settling down a bit in turnovers until late in the game got us a good lead. They did nothing other than what we let them do by our inactivity on the boards and some very silly turnovers. When we played, we dominated what was really an inferior team, not as good as last year's.

 

[sybarite]

Let's put some numbers on the turnaround. In the first half, UALR had 14 points off turnovers. OU had six. UALR had 8 second chance points. OU had zero. We were tied 18-18 in rebounds, but they had 12 offensive rebounds to our 4.

In the second half, we outrebounded them 26-16 and had 9 offensive boards to their 5. We led in points off turnovers, 10-3 and tied 2-2 in second chance points. We were being killed by offensive rebounds and points off turnovers in the first half. We turned both around in the second half.

Why did Sherri put in the structure in which Maddie was essentially running the point? Maddie played 33 minutes, handling the ball on most occasions, and had four assists and only one turnover. Earlier in the game, we had too many people trying to do things that resulted in turnovers rather than points. We drove into no-man's land too often, and that even included some attempts by Peyton. Maddie stopped that. We had few turnovers until late when T'Ona began to take over and get involved in no-man's land.

This year, Maddie and T'Ona have been credited with 25 assists each to lead the team. Maddie has eleven turnovers. T'Ona has 22. One of the reasons that Derica is still getting time may be that she only has nine turnovers. T'Ona leads the team. Curiously, Kay Kay has 16 turnovers, but only one assist. She doesn't give it off very often. Of course, she did last night, and T'Ona lost it.

 

[rocjunkie]

When your two post players combine for 27 Points and 22 rebounds I hope they don't give the ball off too often, that's pretty good production right there.

 

[sybarite]

It helps to open up the middle by having a threat elsewhere. Notice that when Maddie drove the lane, she was able to drop it to Vivi or Kay Kay because they came up on her? Wide open layups are nice. It was fun to watch her drive and get T'Ona wide open underneath for a layup. Vivi and Kay Kay don't like going over two people, nor should they.

 

[SoonerNorm]

When their bigs got in foul trouble Kaylon and ViVi really went to work. It was smooth sailing from there on.