Kansas City (Monday Dec 19)

[yote18]

As the old saying goes, good defense wins championships.

[yotenation]

Dec 19, 2022 14:11:48 GMT -6 hoopsmom said:

Dec 19, 2022 10:19:15 GMT -6 yotenation said:

Ha! I plead guilty to being an English major. That one a a pet peeve for me. Another is the mixing up of your and you're.

English major here as well, and I totally agree! Although I have been known to post some mistakes because of my use of talk-to-text…. 😂😂

I always told both of my kids that the best offense is a good defense. Sometimes you can’t help when shots are just not falling, but you can help prevent the other team’s shots from falling as well. Especially if you steal the
ball and go the other direction.

Talk-to-text can be interesting.

I agree that good defense can be the best offense. At the same time, bad offense (sloppy turnovers, poor shot selection) can also lead to challenges on the defensive end with transition points, etc. Hopefully we see the Yotes play some tough defense while playing smart fundamentally sound basketball on the offensive end tonight. I feel like with the experience they are gaining playing together, they are due to start putting together some more complete performances. Maybe that's overly optimistic, but that's the way I like to look at it.

[yote18]

WHAT. A. HALF. Yotes lead 47-19.

[yotenation]

GREAT first half. Larkins is special when she is playing like this, creating not only for herself but for others. 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks.

[gopheryote]

Dec 19, 2022 20:01:21 GMT -6 yotenation said:

GREAT first half. Larkins is special when she is playing like this, creating not only for herself but for others. 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks.

That is quite a stat line for a half.

[sdyotefan]

Very solid game overall! Gave up too many fouls in the 2nd half but even with backups playing a lot very little drop off.

This game definitely showed growth especially with a lot more focus on attacking the paint even though the Roos were good sized!! And the defensive effort was much better!!

[dbyote]

Quite a game and Stat line for Grace. Holy cow

[kiyoat]

When your best player has a career scoring night, we look really good! But beyond that, Grace was just getting better at everything, especially finding her teammates. When she can slash to the basket so fast, the kick out is deadly.

Great great ball movement by the whole team in the first 3 quarters. They finally look like a team that has played together.

Very encouraging step forward!

[hoopsmom]

Dec 19, 2022 21:13:29 GMT -6 dbyote said:

Quite a game and Stat line for Grace. Holy cow

What a great way for her to celebrate her 20th birthday!

[MD]

Grace was special. Interior passing was great. Fun game overall! Bring in the Eagles.

[90yote]

Great game for the ladies. Grace was so clearly the best player on the floor. They either had no ability or no desire to stop her in transition or in the halfcourt. They did a nice job of guarding the ball in the first half and getting stops and pushing the ball in transition. They really cut well in the halfcourt all night. They didn't guard the ball as well in the 2nd half and it led to some easy buckets and a lot of fouls.

That said, IMO Kansas City is the weakest team in the conference and were without their 2nd leading scorer (but did gain a starter back for her first game). If you're a good team that's what you should do to that team. But as I said to my buddy at the game, it's good to see them actually do it.

Shoutout to Macy Guebert. She has consistently guarded the opposing team's best offensive player and she did that tonight as well. Stafford from KC shot 1-10 from the field, even with a size advantage on Macy. It wasn't all her, but she was the primary defender most of the time. Her becoming a good defender wasn't something I thought I'd say three years ago.

One negative...Jeniah is dealing with something physical and spent a lot of time on an exercise bike when not in the game. I had heard she had an injury but since Kayla made it public ("she is not close to 100%"), I thought I'd mention it. Something to monitor.

Onward and upward.

[gopheryote]

The Yotes needed something positive to happen soooo bad. This game was it. They look so different when playing with confidence - including smiles and having some fun. Now they need to string two together, against a team that maybe should have beat SDSU last night in Frost.

[yote18]

I know Graces stat line stole the show, but I just wanna say Demers played a really good game. She fouled out but over time she’ll learn how to play cleaner defense. Bright future ahead for her.