Game Notes: University of Dubuque @ North Central College (12/9/11)

Final Score
Dubuque 63, NCC 60 

Summary
This was probably the most bipolar game I've ever seen. As Mark Albanese said, "It was a tale of two halves." (Another line I debated about, but the bipolar thing seemed to work better.) North Central (5-4)was down 6-2 early from Dubuque (3-4) scoring down low, then the Cardinals went on a 20-3 run. They led by 23 with about a minute to go before halftime, seeing the lead dwindle down to 18, then 16 on a dumb foul with less than a second. The offense stopped working late, letting the Spartans back into the game, ultimately giving up the lead with just seconds left.

Key Stats

• NCC: 40% FG, 47% 3PT, 58% FT. Other than the free throw numbers, not bad. But let's break this down by halves.
• 1st Half: 14-26 FG (54%), 7-10 3PT (70%), 8-12 FT (67%)
• 2nd Half: 3-17 FG (18%), 0-5 3PT (0%), 11-21 FT (52%)
• Bipolar indeed. You can't go 3-17 in a half and miss almost half your free throws and expect to win... especially when your first field goal of the 2nd half comes with less than 6 minutes to go.
• Jenny Swanson (NCC): 5-11 FG (4-7 3PT), 14 pts, 2 reb. Taking the first half out of the equation, she was 5-8, including 4-5 from deep. She hit her first 4 treys, including an "Eff You" three in front of Dubuque's bench in the first half. It was beautiful. NCC got an odd man rush off a press break (5 on 4), the ball handler drove inside, then dished out to Jenny who was wide open and drained it. I thought for sure after she hit that one that it was going to be "that kind of day" for the Cardinals and we'd win easily. Alas.
• Lauren Gabler (UD): 4-10 FG (all 3PT), 1-2 FT, 13 pts, 2 reb. Led the team in scoring, and was lethal from deep in the 2nd half, including the game winning 3 with about 10 seconds left. Dubuque called a timeout with 18 ticks left, and I said to the others at the scorer's table, "Defensive strategy: no threes!" What happens? They give the ball to another girl, have her drive and dish back to Gabler. No one is on Gabler. Open three. Swish. Cardinals face their first deficit since the opening minutes.

Final Thoughts
Par for the course in this one. Great first half ruined by the Clogged Toilet Offense in the 2nd. Bad passes, careless dribbling, though not a lot of travels called either way. Nonetheless, NCC turned it over 25 times.

I want to recap North Central's play after the go-ahead 3 by Gabler. Inbounded, Sophie Newson dribbled up the court, fed inside to Callie Rezin, who dribbled in... and kept dribbling... and kept dribbling... then double-dribbled with about a second to go before she could get off a shot. Poor execution cost the Cardinals a win tonight. Honestly, I couldn't get out of that gym fast enough.

The Cardinals hit the road for a couple weeks, with their next home game (and my next report) coming near the end of 2011. I just hope it's a better result and a more complete game.