Texas vs Southeastern La.

BabHorn

BabHorn

10,000+ Posts
Horns are coming off a disappointing loss to Stanford while the Lady Lions of Southeastern Louisana started off their season with an 81-53 win over Centenary College.
SLU has Robin Roberts as a famous alumnus. She is the anchor for Good Morning America. It was very good to see Coach Conradt and Clarissa Davis doing commentary and Fran Harris hosting that.

Texas and SLU have a long history (time wise) and a short one playing. They played first in 1977 with SLU winning 83-72 and then in 2002 with Texas rolling over the Lady Lions 106-42. This will be the third contest. A connection to Austin by current SLU coach Lori Davis Jones: her husband is the current coach of the Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League.

Kelli Jenkins (# 10, 5-6 Sr. PG) is the lone returning starter for the Lady Lions. She, Aja Gibson (# 2, 6-1 RS Soph. F), Brandi Simmons (# 51/45, 5-11 Jr. F), Amber Crenshaw (# 3, 5-9 Sr. G), and Latoria Holder (# 33, 5-8 Sr. G) started the game against Centenary. Eight others got into the game with only two playing less than ten minutes: Summer Postell (# 30, 6-0 Fr. F) and Aarika Reyna (# 42/23, 5-5 RS Fr. G). Others seeing actions were: Cierra Morris (# 5/20, 5-9 Jr. G), Jessica Sommers (# 11, 5-5 Sr. G), Elizabeth Styles, (# 12, 5-3 Fr. G); Hillary Shaffer (# 15, 6-0 Fr. F), Kaitlyn Waller (# 22, 6-0 Soph. F), and Symone Miller (# 24, 5-4 Fr. G). Sitting out the game were Taylor Mims, (# 4, 5-6 Jr, G) and Ja’Lessia Davis (# 44, 6-2 Jr. F), both recent junior college transfers. Davis is the tallest member at 6-2. Of the players that got minutes against Centenary, Gibson at 6-1 was the tallest. Three others are at 6-0.

In their first game, the Lady Lions were led in scoring by three players in double figures: Gibson with 13 pts, Miller with 11 pts, and Jenkins with 10 pts. Simmons was the top rebounder with 10 while three others had five each: Gibson, Holder and Shaffer. None of the starters got the FT line more than twice with only Holder making more than one FT (2-2). Crenshaw was the player taking the shots from BTA, attempting 4 and making one. Overall, SLU make 3 of 9 threes.

The team will push the pace as they did against Centenary. They will depend on getting steals to get easy layups. They will start an experienced lineup. Their bench is young but provides them with speed and good talent.

Horns were led against Stanford in scoring by four players in double figures: Chassidy (17 pts), Yvonne (13 pts), Cokie (11 pts) and Anne Marie (10 pts). While no Horn got double digits inrebounding, three posts led the way there: Cokie (8 rebs), Ashley (7 rebs) and Anne Marie (6 rebs). All eight available players got in with only one playing less than ten minutes and she got nine. Of the nine blocks registered by Texas, Ashley got 4, Cokie 2, Nneka, Anne Marie and Cassie one each. Horns got to the FT line 26 times and made 69% of their shots, led by Chassidy’s 6-6. The 3pt shooting was out of this world, in a bad way, as the Horns were only able to convert on one of 11 from BTA. Shot attempts were fairly distributed as no one got less than 3 FGA while our main offensive threats had 14 (Chassidy), 12 (Yvonne), and 12 (Cokie). With only eight players available, Yvonne played 39 minutes while three others played over 30 minutes.

Horns ran when they had the opportunity but were able to work their half court game more effectively with Cokie playing. Anne Marie also supplied a strong inside game to complement Cokie.

Projected starters are based on the last game played:

[pre]
Texas SLU
Ashley (6-4) Gibson (6-1)
Cokie (6-4) Simmons (5-11)
Chassidy (5-10) Crenshaw (5-9)
Yvonne (5-7) Jenkins (5-6)
Ashleigh (5-8) Holder (5-8) [/pre]


Jenkins for SLU is projected to end up as one of their top PGs. She is experienced and an excellent shooter and passer. She’s especially good at pulling up for the mid range jumper. Whoever’s guarding will need to understand that. Gibson is their top inside player but could find it difficult going inside against the Texas posts. SLU will need to guard the perimeter as the Horns do have some players that can knock it down, contrary to what we saw against Stanford. Texas’ inside game should be able to dominate rebounding on both ends. Look for Nneka to have a big day.

[pre]
TEAM STATISTICS Texas SLU
--------------------------------------------------
SCORING................. 59 83
Points per game....... 59.0 83.0
Scoring margin........ -13.0 +29.0
FIELD GOALS-ATT......... 20-59 32-71
Field goal pct........ .339 .451
FG made per game...... 20.0 32.0
2POINT FG-ATT........... 19-48 29-62
2-point FG pct........ .396 .468
2-pt FG made per game. 19.0 29.0
3 POINT FG-ATT.......... 1-11 3-9
3-point FG pct........ .091 .333
3-pt FG made per game. 1.0 3.0
FREE THROWS-ATT......... 18-26 16-24
Free throw pct........ .692 .667
F-Throws made per game 18.0 16.0
REBOUNDS................ 37 42
Rebounds per game..... 37.0 42.0
Rebounding margin..... -8.0 +1.0
ASSISTS................. 12 14
Assists per game...... 12.0 14.0
TURNOVERS............... 15 17
Turnovers per game.... 15.0 17.0
Turnover margin....... +0.0 +14.0
Assist/turnover ratio. 0.8 0.8
STEALS.................. 10 18
Steals per game....... 10.0 18.0
BLOCKS.................. 9 3
Blocks per game....... 9.0 3.0
ATTENDANCE.............. 4697 418
Home games-Avg/Game... 1-4697 1-418

SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT Total
------------------------- ---- ---- ---- ----
Texas.................... 30 29 - 59
Opponents................ 39 44 - 83 [/pre]


Right now for Texas, the question is how many healthy bodies will be in uniform. Hopefully, Chelsea Bass will be able to play as this game is the one tentatively penciled in for her return. And I hope to see Cassie out on the floor as well after she tweaked her knee in the Stanford game. Brady, Tiff and Ronisha are presumably game to game. Horns will be looking to rack up win one for the season. Both teams will run and both are balanced in scoring. However, Texas should be a big challenge for the Lady Lions. I look for the Texas posts to dominate inside, both rebounding and scoring. Which could lead to a lot of fastbreak points, one area where SLU was a bit deficient against Centenary.

Bevo Bargains for this game include a buy one, get one free ticket coupon.

The game is a bit later than usual as it is an 8 pm game. It will be televised on the LHN with Carter Blackburn (pxp) and Fran Harris (analyst) working the game for tv. On KVET 1300 AM, it will be Craig Way and Carol Ross on the broadcast. Too bad the free LHN stops at midnight Sunday. I’m going to miss this game but will be able to listen to Craig and Carol.

Texassports. com pregame release.

okay, just read that Cassie has a sprained ankle. That's good news. She may still be held out due to the short turnaround for this game.
 
Well, the Statesman release tells us why the four players were out vs. the Cardinal, but doesn't say anything about when they're expected back. Hopefully we're going to see at least one or two in the lineup tonight, esp with Cassie potentially out with her sprained ankle. Certainly don't want anyone playing until they're 100%, but I sure am anxious to see the full team in action!
 
With 1:12 remaining, we were only up 68-65.
eek.gif
"Watching" the game on gametracker was rather nerve wracking at that point.

Not a good shooting night by Chassidy or Cokie, although Anderson had another good game. Hopefully, the overall team malaise was a hangover from the Stanford game and not a portent of things to come. We shall see when mighty Alcorn State rolls into Austin on Sunday.
 
What a strange game……Kind of a Twilight Zone evening….

Very good effort by SE LA. They are better than I expected, and probably played as well as they possibly could. Unfortunately they also appeared to be better than our players expected. Clearly not our best effort. My impression was that in the first half we seemed to be running in molasses. I never saw the energy that was apparent against Stanford. I thought we looked much better to start the second half and finally built a fairly comfortable lead only to watch it disappear toward the end of the game. I could almost hear Rod Serling saying “You have just stepped into the Twilight Zone.”

Many missed layups, some mysterious officiating, plenty of…ummm….questionable decisions by our players, lack of energy….or focus maybe, and more shots than I could count that were half way down only to come back out again. Strange, strange game. A lot of what I expected after Stanford, just more than I expected.

Long before I heard Rod Serling whispering in my ear I heard Coach Conradt saying “speed beats size.” SE LA almost made that happen. We had surprising difficulty making the most of our huge size advantage inside on the offensive end.

But, the game was not nearly as close as the score would indicate. Watching you really never had the feeling that Texas might lose. Yvonne was very good again. AT had a much better game. Although Chassidy couldn’t get the 3’s to fall she still played well otherwise on both ends. I don’t know if she is any faster than last season, but her feet look much quicker. AG blocked 5 shots. Ronisha got on the floor for the first time and looked good.

Nneka had some things go very, very wrong. But, watching I was thinking about the first time I saw Hakeem Olajuwon play. He was a freshman playing for UH in a game at Hofheinz Pavillion against a bad aggy team. He missed four dunks in that game, and missed them really every way possible. But, you could see the player he could become if he was willing to put in the work. I also see great talent in Nneka. She is going to have a lot more great games than ones like last night.

We really need to get some more guards healthy. I expect Cassie to be back by Sunday. I’m hoping for Chelsea by then, but don’t really have anything to base that on.

Not a pretty game. But, nothing to panic about. My biggest concern is health.
 
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