The Bobcat Nation

The road swing continues with a 6 pm tipoff in Portland tonight on ESPN+. How unfortunate for Lexi Deden and the team to suffer the season ending injury. She was off to a career year start. It will be interesting to see how Binford will manage the lineup without Deden. What will Brumfield, Hein & Janssen roles look like now and which of the true freshman, Boulanger or Johnson, will have their redshirt pulled.

Wish I could be there tonight but have a family obligation. I’ll be watching on my phone.

Looking good so far, up 33-21 near the end of the first half. Lindsey Hein and Ella Johnson have both played off the bench.

Very streaky game so far. Long periods of hot scoring followed by long droughts, by both teams. Really impressed with our fight. Our ladies are not intimidated by the 6-6 shot blocker. Press is causing us some frustration.

16 point lead in the 2nd quarter evaporated. 56-55 at end of three. Turnovers are killing us.

Looking at Portland's schedule...they're 4-4 but beat Oregon by 31. Wow

Have scored 1 point in about 5 minutes now.

25 turnovers! I'm surprised they're in this game at all. A lot of work to be done to get these talented young players up to speed!

Composure gone. Down 8 with less than 4 minutes. Portland has us completely discombobulated.

Collapsed under their press. Darian White made us pretty much unpressable. That's not the case now. Picton is a turnover machine-dribbles right into double-teams, but only when we actually got the inbound pass completed. Unfortunately the other players helping to bring the ball up aren't used to doing that and it showed. Something to work on.

BelgradeBobcat wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 02, 2023 9:04 pm

Collapsed under their press. Darian White made us pretty much unpressable. That's not the case now. Picton is a turnover machine-dribbles right into double-teams, but only when we actually got the inbound pass completed. Unfortunately the other players helping to bring the ball up aren't used to doing that and it showed. Something to work on.

Going to be a difficult season. Losing Lexi was tough, but this team is going to need some grit. I think Binford is in for a down year. We have to do a better job with recruiting bigs.

I think the “bigs” will come along. At least we have 7 players 6-2 or taller. I think the injuries in our ball-handling guard rotation are hurting us more. With Maddie Olson and Dylan Philip both out, the ranks are thin. Natalie Picton has promise but needs seasoning. She’s not getting any help which is contributing to her turnover rate. The coaches were trying to calm her down. Malia Egan is on the bench, but obviously not ready to play. I have the feeling Brooke Berry’s strength is as a defender. We need guards! I was afraid we’d discover how good Darian was. The whole team seems to need a lot of work breaking presses. Too much dribbling. The same mistakes were happening over and over. Lindsey looks to be a decent passer, as well as being six and a half feet tall, which could be useful in getting the ball into the front court. Presses are killing us. We need guards. We need coaching.

It didn’t look like Berry and Brumfield made the trip to Portland. I wonder why?