@ St Thomas Thurs 12-29 7PM

[kiyoat]

Just starting the thread early.  Hope the girls all had a good holiday break with lots of injury healing.

Predictions:
Yotes win 68-59 (-9) Warren Nolan
Yotes win 69-53 (-16) Massey

I have no idea what to expect with this team right now.  Over the last couple of games we have proven what we are CAPABLE of, which is a lot on both ends of the floor.  In our wins we have been fouling too much down the stretch, and seem to let off the gas when playing with the lead.  I think we won't always be able to count on consistency from game to game, but I hope I'm wrong.

St Thomas appears to be an improved group.  We will need to bring our A-game.  This is the type of game where you know we have a talent edge but they have a cohesion edge, which can obviously be a big deal.

[kiyoat]

Looking at UST's stats, they are not a good offensive team, but are decent defensively, particularly perimeter defense.  They get a decent amount of assists, despite not scoring a ton, so they share the ball on offense.

I think if we can own the paint on both ends of the floor they will have a very bad day.  If we happen to be hitting well from the arc as well, ... then we might see Grace on the bench in the 2nd half for reasons other than foul count.

[hoopsmom]

St. Thomas is going to be a fun game, more so because we will be there! Ruth Sinn has always been a very good coach, but she’s always been able to get the local girls who are very good but don’t want to go with D1 for academic or other reasons. Now, she is trying to balance the demands of a D1 team with the academics of a school like St. Thomas. But she will start to win a lot of recruiting battles locally for mid-major players, once people get out of their head that St. Thomas is just an academic school. Especially the type of players that have been going to Lehigh - I foresee that pipeline slowing down.

[kiyoat]

I wonder if we might see Mazurek getting a little playing time this weekend? Would be nice to get her back sometime soon.

[kiyoat]

pregame notes:

[kiyoat]

from the pregame article:

The Coyotes

South Dakota put an emphatic end to a six-game skid by blowing out Kansas City and Oral Roberts to run the program's win streak over Summit foes to 11 dating back to last season.



Grace Larkins started the party by scoring a career-high 31 points against Kansas City. The rest of the squad joined in against Oral Roberts when Larkins was saddled with foul trouble. The defense carried throughout, holding those teams to a combined 29 percent shooting from the field.



The Tommies

St. Thomas is seeking a signature win. The Tommies were 7-21 overall and 4-14 in the Summit last year, their first since transitioning from the Division III level. The team's best win in non-conference play was against Purdue Fort Wayne, a team that has two Division I wins this season. A 12-point loss at UNI was an encouraging start to the season and the Tommies lost at Illinois-Chicago in overtime. St. Thomas lost at Wisconsin by eight points.

St. Thomas is the top defensive team in the league statistically and foes are shooting less than 27 percent from the 3 against them, but points on the offensive end have come at a premium. The Tommies were 5-of-32 from downtown in a 70-56 loss at North Dakota and 5-of-17 in a 74-56 loss at North Dakota State.


#4 Jade Hill 5-7 Soph Guard

Jade Hill is the team's top scorer at 11 points per game and like South Dakota St. Thomas asks for scoring from a number of players. Jo Langbehn, Sammy Opichka and Maggie Negaard each average nine points a night.

Also (notes from kiyoat)


#23 Maggie Negaard 5-10 Senior Guard

Although she is only averaging 9.3 PPG, she does appear to be the best shooter on the team, shooting .434 FG, .420 3PT, .889 FT (last two are team highs).  She shot uncharacteristically poorly against NDSU and UND, hitting a combined 2-9 3PT in those two games.  I'll guess they tried to neutralize her a bit, or she was just off.  Either way, she should have our attention.

Also: Both Jade and Maggie appear to be good at drawing fouls and not fouling themselves, so that's something to watch out for.

[kiyoat]

Game Day Links:

[Men's League Waterboy]

I could see Demers having a coming out party in this one if she can stay on the floor. She might be too physical for the Tommies.

[kiyoat]

The big question for me is: will the announcers be able to pronounce both Demers and Guebert correctly? There was a non-con game this year where they did both wrong literally all game long... crickey!

[sdyotefan]

And I'm guessing most D1 schools have a media guide that gives phonetic pronunciations so if I was doing a broadcast I'd probably do a little homework....??

[announcerbob]

You are 100% correct sdyotefan, but unfortunately not all PA Announcers and people doing broadcast do their homework and it shows! Yote Fans are lucky to have good radio/internet announcers doing the games!!!

[yote18]

Not a great start so far, need to settle in and hold on to the ball. We’re struggling to inbound the ball which is frustrating.

[yote18]

Dec 29, 2022 19:15:23 GMT -6 yote18 said:

Not a great start so far, need to settle in and hold on to the ball. We’re struggling to inbound the ball which is frustrating.

Correction: A very bad start. We do not look a D1 team, and we also are playing like we’ve never seen a team play defense.

[88grad]

We sorely need an inside presence.

[Men's League Waterboy]

You need a lot of things at this point but great half for Hempe and you’re up 25-24 after playing a half that would get you beat by half the NSIC. So some positives.