Conner 71 St. Henry 68

[HOOPSNUT]

My summary of this thread titled Conner 71 St Henry 68.

 

Crusaders lost the game to Conner. They had many turnovers. Taylor Gamm's injury was a huge blow to the team. But let's look at the score, folks! This was not a blow-out game! 3 points! The Cru had the lead until about the last 5 minutes. On any given day, this game could go either way.

 

St Henry Lady Cru team is doing just fine! There is no "gloom and doom" and "dark cloud" over in Erlanger. No need to doubt their strength as they head into the final stretch. Coach Coburn takes his job seriously and knows what he is doing.

 

One more comment about that game---a couple seconds left....Cru down by 2. The window is still open for the Lady Cru! Jansen brings the ball down the court. She sees a wide open Annie Fugate on the 3-point line, and passes to her. Annie shoots and misses. AFTER Annie shoots, the whistle is blown and Jansen is called for a charge while she was passing to Fugate. REALLY? A charge while she was passing to Fugate?

 

There is no reason for "gloom and doom", but there is certainly room for concern. They blew 14 point leads on back to back nights and wound up losing both games. One of those losses was to a team (Conner) they had beat by 21 points back in December. Their defense is not as proficient as it was the first 6-7 weeks of the season. Much of that can be traced to recurring foul problems. When either Janszen, Gamm or Knaley have to exit because of foul problems, the Cru is definitely a weaker defensive team. I believe that in all but one of their looses, at least one or more of them has been in foul trouble. Fischer had 10-12 points while Gamm was guarding her. When Gamm had to leave in the 2nd quarter with foul problems, Fischer scored 11 points. She scored 13 more points after Gamm went out with her sprained ankle with about 6-1/2 minutes left in the game. Some of that can be attributed to thurnovers St. Henry committed in the 4th quarter. The Lady Cru was a very cohesive defensive unit for a good stretch of games, but in the last 3 weeks it appears to me that there has not been the same commitment to defense. The Lady Cru can play with everyone of the top teams in the 9th region, but they're not going to beat any of them by trying to run up and down the court and try to outscore them. They're going to need to lock down on them and try to keep the score in the 40's or lower. Hopefully, the players can re-discover their intensity on the defensive side of the ball.

 

I did feel the charging foul on Janszen was the right call. I don't remember it being a late call. I think with all of the excitement and noise in the gym, it may have been hard to hear the whistle.