Lehigh's Defense Looks A Lot Like ThisAlas, Eagles fans, those of us who held out hope we could avenge the cruel men's loss versus the Lehigh Hill Pigeons in Bethlehem with the Patriot League Women's Championship were sadly disappointed. The Lady Eagles fell in a similarly lackluster fashion this evening, with the final tally coming in at 58-42. It was a low-scoring, sluggish affair, highlighted by our roughly 20% shooting from 2-point range and 10% (2-20) from beyond the arc. Frankly, it was a case of "if we had made our shots, it would have been close, and we might just have won."
After CRUSHING our last two opponents in the tournament by an average margin of 26.5 points, these sort of jitters from the Eagles were...unprecedented, to say the least. After going 13-1 in conference play, and 22-8 overall (mind you we were 7-7 going into conference play), and splitting the regular season with Lehigh, I would have expected a much more competitive game. Alas, we never lead, and Lehigh played solidly and consistently and pulled out the W. Frankly, it was like watching much of the early mens season - and a few games where Vlad went cold as well. If the game had been at Bender, I suspect the outcome would have been different, but that's irrelevant now. Fortunately the team loses only two seniors, one of which, Nicole Ryan, was out much of this season with an injury. The Lady Eagles next season are going to be title contenders again, and I plan to be following them much more closely from the start of the season.
That's about as much of a recap as I can do, mostly because I am so uninformed about the women's team (I hate to admit it, but it's true). If any of our awesome readers want to add anything, please feel free to do so in the comments. The Lady Eagles deserve some love too, especially considering the season they had.
...but wait, their season isn't over! As Patriot League co-champions, the women have secured a berth in the WNIT for a third straight season. Yes, I know, the WNIT is on my radar about as much as much as Olympic curling is three out of every four years, but frankly making the postseason for three straight seasons, even amidst a coaching change, is really damn impressive. On this note I'd also like to give major props to coach Matt Corkery for keeping the program so competitive, he's just an all around great guy. If you're on twitter, make sure to follow him - @AUCoachMatt - man I wish Jeff Jones would do that. Don't worry JJ, I like ya even if you're a Luddite. Anyway, bit of a tangent there, but the WNIT field is announced on Monday. I'll be writing up a full preview for our WNIT matchup as soon as it's announced, and just in case anyone loves them as much as I do, we'll be running a liveblog here an AUHoops for the WNIT game and neither rain nor snow nor high water can stop us. See you back here until no AU student dribbles a basketball again...and then for a few months after that.
Pro Deo Et Patria,
Josh
great stuff josh...yes, that game was BRUTAL to watch on tv, but definitely not reflective of how this team played all season. Lehigh is a tremendous ballclub, which is why they are 29-3. This team can certainly bounce back and win a couple of games in the WNIT, which would still be a great accomplishment, especially when you consider this team was 7-7 to start PL play.
ReplyDeleteTo the above anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI believe you are confusing the mens team and the womens team. The women went 13-1 in PL play not 7-7 (as the men did). The men's season is over and the women are playing in the Womens NIT (WNIT).
Jess,
ReplyDeleteThe women were 7-7 prior to Patriot League play, before going 13-1 in Patriot League play and 2-1 in the tournament to end with a 22-9 record, so anonymous was correct there. Good point though that the women's non-conference season and the men's conference season were parallels!
An amazing season so far for the women's team. Let's hope they can make some noise in the WNIT.
ReplyDeleteI dont know if youve noticed, but the team and the athletics department does not refer to them as the Lady Eagles. They are Eagles just as much as any other team in athletics teams, and calling them lady eagles simply belittles them assuming they are less or different than their mens counterparts. how about sticking to referring them as eagles? you don't refer to the mens team as the guy eagles or the men eagles, just eagles. lets do the same for coach corkery's squad.
ReplyDeleteThat's a fair point, Anonymous. As a matter of clarity it is difficult distinguish the MBB Eagles from the WBB Eagles, especially given that this blog predominantly concerns itself with the MBB Eagles. In the future we'll be more careful about omitting the "Lady."
ReplyDeletePS, don't get all in a huff with your "calling them lady eagles simply belittles them assuming they are less or different than their mens counterparts." Simmer down. No disrespect was intended.
I honestly had no clue they weren't the Lady Eagles until one of our best saxophonists corrected me.
ReplyDeleteI had a couple of comments from the game:
1) The Reffing was horrible. I mean really REALLY bad reffing.
2) What I don't get is that when a time out is called our coach and his assistant and associate coaches just went out on the floor and talked for like half of the time out, and then talked with the team. Shouldn't the coach and the coaches know what they're going to say before they call a time out?
3) Why do we have 30 second shot clock for the womyn but a 35 second shot clock for the men?
4) Why doesn't our fan section stand up and cheer? I mean I can understand any regular game being passive and sitting around doing nothing, but our womyn where out there fighting (and with the way that Lehigh was throwing elbows and stuff really fighting) for our school's honor and our fans just sat there doing nothing.
5) Why doe Lehigh have an air gun and we do not?
Also, our cheerleaders? AMAZING! Lehighs? Not so much.
My apologies if I offended anyone, I only meant to better distinguish the mens team from the womens. Using "Lady" to refer to the womens team is a common convention throughout college sports, but I will be more careful in the future.
ReplyDelete