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Based on the ocean of empty seats at Kirby last night I'm betting that most of you got this score for the first time in this morning's newspaper and thought "blowout;" "impressive win." This was my first wire to wire women's game for this season (albeit on TV), and, until some of you seasoned observers convince me otherwise, I'm throwing it into the "even a blind squirrel finds an acorn" category.
Kathy Fedorjaka, the Bucknell coach, started the game in a zone, since her scouting reports told her that the Pards cannot shoot from outside, and she was determined to force them out there. The home team nailed 7 of their first 8 threes, and Fedorjaka took way too long to pull the trigger on a defensive change. There were many contributors here, including subs Amanda Leone and Melissa Downey. By the way, Downey had a very impressive 18 minutes, subbing for Jessica Spicer who was in foul trouble. She was effective moving the ball against full court pressure and in running the offense. She deserves/needs more playing time.
Down by almost 20, Bucknell switched to a man defense. This is where I just sat in my cushy chair and scratched my head. The Lafayette offense seemed to be a non-stop Globetrotter-like weave at the arc that produced no penetration and few decent looks. Finally, when the shot clock got under 10, someone would feed the ball to LaKeisha Wright moving left to right (always left to right) across the high post. Wright was the designated shooter whether she had a shot or not. Is this the Lafayette offense? Is this what we have to look forward to?
As I said, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while. Convince me that I'm wrong. Please.
Xboreturns
I thought we did two things well last night. First, and most importantly, we took better care of the ball. Just 12 TOs instead of usual 20+. Secondly, we shot well. 52% for the game, 68% from the arc, and 81% from the line. If we did that every game, we'd win a lot of games.
I thought there were two things we need to work on. We got beat down the floor a number of times, especially by their big people. But most importantly, our interior defense was not very good. Novacek and Higham were a combined 10-16 in the paint. Fortunately, they missed a number of shots down low in the first half or the game would have been a lot tighter.
Bottom line is, it was a must win and we won. We definitely have our work cut out for us with the next four games: @ LU, Army, AU, & @ HC.
