Better 2nd half so far, but Fields having a brutal night on offense, and the big just cant' finish inside. Blending the guys coming off injury into the game has led to a lot of communication breakdowns on defense. Team is going to have to learn to mesh all the parts again.
Very frustrating loss. Fields put on his Superman cape in the final 5-6 minutes, but overall the offense was not fluid, as reflected in the 7/11 assist/turnover ratio. If you turn over an opponent 18 times and go the foul line twice as many times you should win that game every time.
While it was necessary for them to be re-integrated into the rotations, I felt the guys returning from injury hurt more than helped tonight.
FF defense just could not stop Niagara especially in the paint where the purple eagles out scored FF by almost 2-1. FF strength is in the guards and tonight the guards had an off night. A night when Caleb Fields simply did not have a consistent outside shot. Maybe Niagara will do the stags a favor and take out QU. MSM up next. Stags up!
Very frustrating loss. Fields put on his Superman cape in the final 5-6 minutes, but overall the offense was not fluid, as reflected in the 7/11 assist/turnover ratio. If you turn over an opponent 18 times and go the foul line twice as many times you should win that game every time.
While it was necessary for them to be re-integrated into the rotations, I felt the guys returning from injury hurt more than helped tonight.
Very true except for Yetna who started to show some of the ability his history suggests he has and hopefully will build upon now that he is getting back into the swing of things. Exciting to think about actually. But since, at least in this game, Smith and Bleechmore plus Seck and Goodine (who didn't get much run) really didn't contribute much at all, you're right that overall the returnees hurt more than helped the cause, an unfortunate thing for sure in a 2 point loss. I've got to believe however that Brycen, while he tried, certainly was hurting. Otherwise he would have been given opportunity to play more minutes by Casey. So in summary it is a puzzle that Chris has to figure out in these last few games. Better to have this problem than all those guys out of action however. I believe he will indeed figure it out pretty quickly, and if he does, the Stags should be in pretty good shape for a tournament run next month.
Last Edit: Feb 17, 2024 1:28:51 GMT -5 by nashvillestag
"We've talked a lot as a team about the grind of this part of the MAAC season and how slim the difference is between winning and losing," said Interim Head Coach Chris Casey. "Last Saturday at Saint Peter's, we were fortunate enough to make a few more plays than them, and tonight Niagara made a few more plays than us. That's what happens when two good teams get together, especially for the second time. The teams that can keep grinding and keep finding ways to win consistently will be the teams that are in a position to be successful in March. There's no secret to how it's done, we'll just keep grinding and keep fighting and turn our attention to a good Mount St. Mary's team on Sunday."
Seriously. the floor girl cost us. Please train her on how to mop up a floor. Those 2 Stag slips and 3 turnovers in a row were momentum-killers.
As much as players on both teams repeatedly lost their footing on cuts, I don’t recall a single instance where the player who slipped pointed to moisture on the court as the reason for their fall. I’ve seen other games where once a player slipped, the player would motion to the refs where the moisture was and the refs would supervise the cleanup. I don’t recall one instance last night of a player who slipped who pointed to moisture on the floor as the reason he fell. Instead of the floor girl, I tend to think it was a combination of our not being in synch offensively due to Goodine and Peyton just getting back from their injuries plus Leach and Fields not being as effective as they usually are in finishing off in close to the basket as to the main reasons we lost last night. Part of that might be due to how Niagara defended Leach and Fields throughout the game.
I thought our defense was excellent in the second half. Obioha had his way in the first half but I think he maybe only had 2 points in the second half. We did a much better job on their shooters. They made a couple circus shots and prayers as the clock was expiring that somehow went down. It is what it is. We had a great chance to win the game, Leach's shot getting blocked was a killer, that was 100% going in!
This is the grind part of the schedule and with this league we all cannibalize each other to a certain extent. I'm curious to see how Niag does against QU tomorrow
