** OFFICIAL**Beavers-Cocks game thread

Good observations - let me add a few more:

- I too was glad to see Taya have a breakout game - we/she needed that! We have a ridiculous winning percentage in games in which Taya makes a 3 - and it showed why tonight.
- Several of our other players who had been a bit erratic to date this season in various aspects got right in this game, and not a second too soon!
- Taya and Jo need to get their communication down on the baseline - SC killed us by dumping it to whomever was along the left baseline, and they got inside of Taya/Jo several times.
- Thropay provided a lot of energy, but she seemed a bit intimidated by the SC interior presence, other than on those wide open set ups. The entry pass would come to her two feet from the basket, and if she had a defender on her, not once did she attempt to go up strong, draw contact for hoop and harm. She consistently passed out of it - though I have seen some good post moves out of her. Have to remember she hasn't been a scoring option till date, hopefully she starts keeping defenders on their toes
- DS did some great things in the first half, and that halfcourt shot really lifted our spirits, but she also had some silly/careless/telegraphed turnovers on bounce passes, and what really irked me is that on a couple of them she gave up on the play and watched the SC player head down the floor for the easy deuce. I would have liked to see her employ some of that quickness to at least stay in the play and maybe affect the layin.......or be in position to rebound on a blown layup. That said, she really set the tone with her early penetration, and those swooping layins after an ankle-breaking crossover at the arc are an object of beauty. 
- On both TC and DS, we need to remember that they are just sophmores, and still finding their way in the college game. Such potential!
- Jo needs to really hang on to the ball when she has it up high after a board - the SC players were able to jump and dislodge a couple of times. And also to pivot her body (that last rebound where all the SC players were desperately collapsing on her, she needed to clear some space, draw some contact, pivot, find a different open player......). Jo has become that 7 pt / 7 reb / 1 blk / 20 min type of player - which is exceeding my expectations....now we just need to find the other half of Marie among Thropay, Maddie, PM and [hopefully] AA :-).
- I too felt like Aleah was the better trigger woman in the second half. I was trying to figure out how SR could get both DS and Aleah into the game at the same time (and I think he did at one point). Speaks volumes for how far Aleah has come, and how valuable she is......
- SC clearly made some good half time adjustments, a lot of what was working for us early didn't work later. Note they were shooting better as well.

It was a really enjoyable game, good pre-season test, helps our SoS, helps get our team battle ready. And the close score means we will stay down to earth about this W. And despite my picking nits above, everyone really came to play and we got valuable contributions from everyone.

- The basketball gods were really smiling on us last night for us to pull that one out!!! But in the past few years we have beat a lot of those teams you see in the top-10 (both rankings and top recruit lists): Baylor, Tennessee, South Carolina, Stanford, ...). Cool to see us climbing into that rare air, and having staying power! We will have the chance to add a couple more names to that list in coming games as well. Great opportunity!

(I am glad I can go do a replay of the game for some amount of time thanks to that streaming service I overpaid for - I will enjoy it more and stress less knowing the outcome, and despite the sloppy shooting (towards the end, at least), is destined to be a classic for the ages)

Go Beavers!

A couple other comments on the game. Kat's shots in 4Q were not falling. When that starts happening, we won't be winning by just 2 points. I really was impressed how well Patricia Morris played defense & rebounded yesterday. Maybe PM wasn't operating in the offense as well, but she played great defensively. Rueck needs to give her many more minutes. Thank goodness Taya was ready to play. She had an awesome game. Beavers have to remember that passing the ball to JG is a crapshoot unless she is wide open. KTMac made a couple of passes to JG that JG was unable to handle, or, JG did not use her body to shield the defender, and turnover. Mikayla Pivec is player of the year for the Beavers thus far in the season. Without a doubt, the best player on the team. Steals, blocks, rebounds, 3-pointers, baseline to baseline scores, she does everything. AG was fantastic again, need to figure out how to get her more 3-point looks. DS has to take better care of the ball. That should be her focus the rest of the season. She is going to achieve greatness.

Hopefully Taya builds off of this game, because the first few games proved she had taken a few steps backward from where she ended last season, so it was good for her to finally get back to where she left off. Taya seems to always come ready to play when she needs to, and she knew we were going to need her tonight. I would like her to work on her handle a lot this coming off-season because I wanted her to be able to push the ball when they double Slocum on the press. I have quite high standards for Taya because I love her as a player, this past off-season was hindered by the shoulder surgery, so it’s great to see her back!

I thought Jo’s play last night was serviceable. I think the 20min/7p/7r/1b player is what we need from Jo, and I thought she played well. Forced some bad shots from SC bigs who were probably told “attack the giant!” Janessa plays hard but too undersized at times, just nothing she can do. Trish did what we wanted to see from her in limited minutes. Played good D, used her frame to make it difficult, and rebounded. She also set a nice backscreen that caused both defenders to go to the cutter, and she pulled up from the elbow. It rattled in and out, but it was good to see. I would’ve liked more minutes from Trish.

Also, Cooper was pretty impressive last night. She sat out the past two years at Tennessee (play freshman year, sat out to injury, then got in a fight with Nared and left - sat out for transfer). She was really highly ranked out of high school. Their guard play is also very good. She was more a 2. Their 1, Tyasha Harris, wasn’t super impressive.

PS As an east coast beav, these games suck! I got to bed at 1:30 yesterday! Can’t miss my beavs.

Nice work last night, ladies. Great to the free throw percentage where it should be.

Excuse me! #20 was what was meant.

This is a team that still trying to find it's place in working together as a squad. When they do finally mold into the team they're going to be by the end of the season this is going to be one of the great years of Beaver Women's basketball.