Game Notes: Colorado College @ North Central College (11/21/17)

Final Score
Colorado 60, NCC 56

Game Summary
This game started well enough as the Cardinals (0-3) got a three on their opening possession, but the Tigers (1-2) would score the game's next seven points and pretty much controlled the contest from there. While the Cardinals only trailed by two points after one quarter, the bottom started to fall out as the Tigers would lead by as many as ten before settling into a 33-27 halftime lead. The third quarter was awful for the Cardinals, as they only managed five points for the frame and the Tigers took their biggest lead of the night at 51-32 with ten minutes to play. Fortunately, the Cardinals woke up, going on a 13-2 run in the first four minutes of the frame to cut the lead to eight. They got it down to six with four and a half minutes to play, but then the Cardinals were called for an iffy foul and Michelle Roof received a horrible technical foul for leaving the coach's box with no formal warning. Despite the setback, the Cardinals would get the lead down to four with under a minute to play, but didn't have enough left in the tank to grab their first win of the season.

Key Stats

• McKenzee Gertz (CC): 4-10 FG (4-7 3PT), 5-8 FT; 17 pts, 14 reb (1 off), 2 stl. Gertz is just a freshman, but played a phenomenal game in this one, hitting some early threes to put the Tigers in control. While she missed a couple free throws late that could have iced the game (hold that thought), she also dominated on the glass with a team high in rebounds.
• Haydn Braun (NCC): 6-15 FG (1-5 3PT), 2-4 FT; 15 pts, 3 reb (1 off), 1 ast, 1 stl. Through two actual games I've seen Haydn play in, she's been fairly impressive so far. She can shoot a little bit (though last night was an off night), but she can also get to the rim. She's quick and seems to be the heir apparent to Mayson Whipple. In the meantime, these two should play off of each other a little bit with the drive/kick opportunities.
• Diamond Calicott (NCC): 3-6 FG, 2-6 FT; 8 pts, 15 reb (9 off), 1 stl. I figured Gertz's 14 boards were a game-high; turns out Calicott's dominance on the offensive glass propelled her to one more. Obviously, she needs to be better at the line (hold that thought as well), but this was a decent game for a player who I wasn't sure would be playing this season.

North Central "System" Watch

• Colorado Turnovers: 23. This was, all told, a pretty sloppy game. Of the 23 turnovers, only eight came off steals, paced by two from Frankie Pettit. The rest were an assortment of mostly travels, though the Cardinals did get a ten second backcourt takeaway, as well as a five second call on a player not advancing towards the basket.
• NCC 3PT: 7-31 (22.6%). After a good outing in the first game (mainly propelled by a hot second half), the team has come back down to earth a bit. They aren't shooting as many threes as they have in years past; some of it is a change of style, some of it is also due to what I fear may be some tentativeness on the part of the Cardinals. They didn't have a ton of "open" looks, and credit Colorado's defense for that, but they also seem to be passing up some looks that they'd probably take in the last five seasons.
• NCC FT: 7-20 (35%). This is getting moved into the "System" Watch feature. It needs to become its own thing outside of the key stats, because this is unacceptable. In a game you lose by four, with 13 missed free throws... you do the math. For the season, the Cardinals are at 52 percent.

Final Thoughts

Hang on, I'm not done complaining about stuff from this game. I want to start with the technical foul. Coach Roof received it for being out of the coach's box. According to the rulebook, this is a violation that is worthy of a tech, but the rulebook also states that a warning is to be issued. I talked to her after the game, and she said she was warned earlier in the game, but the table was never made aware, something that I thought was supposed to happen. I chalk this up to a lack of communication, something that seemed pretty rampant in this game. It also seemed in real time with the tech that the head official talked the official who came to the table to report the tech into making it a tech. I'm just going to leave this link here and let you put two and two together.

Back to actual in-game stuff that isn't official-related, watch the final sequence by North Central. I feel like one disadvantage of The System not often brought up is that sometimes you're not fully prepared for critical end of game situations. Such was the case on the final possession of the game where North Central needed a basket and failed to get a shot off entirely. This was with multiple veterans on the floor. If you get off a bad shot and miss, I wouldn't be crazy about it, but you at least got something off. Not getting off a shot is about as inexcusable as the baker's dozen missed free throws.

This was a game the Cardinals should have won. The Tigers aren't very good (they were 2-23 last year) and given the score with some of the context, even hitting 60 percent of your free throws turns a four point loss into a one point win. This was a team that I thought could start 4-0. Even factoring in an understandable loss to Louisiana, they should have beaten both Lake Forest and Colorado. Instead, they're 0-3 and have a week to prepare for the rivalry game with Benedictine. Hopefully, the Cardinals can get some of the kinks worked out after the holiday and finally get into the win column.