One Down, More to Go

Playoffs have begun! Tuesday night we played Concordia for the second time in five days, third overall. Every coach I’ve ever had has said that it is TOUGH to beat a team three times in a single season. I half expected Coach Greenleaf to say something along those lines; he didn’t. He was confident and excited going into the game (at least it seemed that way).

We put in a new play mid-way through the season, so Concordia hadn’t seen it because we didn’t put it in until after we played them the second time. The plan was to refrain from running it on Friday night, so we could surprise them with it on Tuesday. The plan worked. Amanda Johnston had open looks all night off that play! It’s a good thing she’s a good shooter too, because the shots were a little farther from the basket than the ordinary post would like. She mastered it, ending with a game-high 23 points. In addition to the new play, after we watched film we also determined a few other plays that worked well and ran those.

Despite our “secret” play and enthusiasm for the last home game, Concordia stayed in the game for a majority of the time. We went into halftime with a 13 point lead after Jenna Ball hit a couple threes. That gave us some cushion, and I was happy we pulled away a bit at the end of half. But, going down into the locker room we all reminded each other that SOU had been up 20 on them, and they came backto within five. We had to be careful.

From the way the beginning of the second half was unfolding it looked like we weren’t looking back. We got ahead by almost 20 points, but then something odd happened. I don’t know if it is just me, but it seems like the refs turned on us and started calling some bogus calls, and not calling some obvious ones. Of course from my perspective, it doesn’t make sense to punish a team for doing good, but maybe they wanted a better show…who knows. However, it was VERY frustrating and turned the team in a different direction. We started making mistakes and committing unforced turnovers and Concordia started catching up. They got back to within ten points with a little over five minutes left in the game. I started to get concerned because I knew Concordia would never let down, and I didn’t know what the refs had in store.

We kept it together; hitting our shots, making our free throws and getting defensive rebounds. We kept the game at ‘our pace’ the entire game, which is something we talked about before the game, and something Amanda mentioned in the newspaper. Coach had told us that we needed to play our game, and not slow down to their game pace. We did just that; and I think it tired them out. It also didn’t help that Concordia stayed in Ashland after their Saturday night game against SOU. Before the game I was talking to one of their players and she said they just “hung out in the hotel and slept. In fact, we probably slept too much.” That wasn’t a good move on their part, but we beat them and we’re the ones moving on to the next round of playoffs.

Lastly, I would like to thank all the fans for showing up to our last home game. I love how loud everyone is, and how everyone gets into the game so much. There were a few too many missed calls and I’m glad the crowd let the refs know that. It was fun to be around that kind of atmosphere. Also, the men’s team came and supported us which was good to see, so thank you. Thank you to everyone for your tremendous support at our home court! Go Owls!