November 19, 2010

Cardinal outlasts Utes

The Cardinal had a new set of starters against Utah — Kayla, Jeanette, Joslyn, Sarah and Chiney — partly due to Tara's quest to find the strongest starting lineup, and partly because Nneka did not play. She warmed up with the team, but then sat out with an undisclosed medical problem — the telecast showed that she had a couple of fingers taped together.

Although Tara doesn't like, "playing Kayla and Jeanette 40 minutes," Kayla did play 40 and Jeanette 38. However, Tara was able to play some of her younger players more — Chiney, Sarah, Mikaela, Toni, Lindy and Sara all got significant minutes.

Neither team was able to get into a flow and both performed poorly. The low score (23-15 at the half, 62-53 final) was due not so much to good defense as to sloppy playing.

Jeanette played much better in the second half. She led all scorers with 19 points and had three rebounds, a block, two steals, and an assist (but, alas, five turnovers).

Kayla was steady throughout with 13 points, four rebounds, a block, a steal and six assists with just one turnover.

Chiney had another strong performance — twelve points, game-high eight rebounds, two blocks and a steal.

Sarah had problems with both offense and defense at first, but improved in the second half — eight points and four rebounds.

The team was much better at free throws tonight, making 15 of 18 (four of them from Lindy) for a respectable 83%.

Michelle Harrison had a great game. She made four of eleven three-pointers and scored the team-high 14 points. She got lots of hugs from her ex-teammates after the final buzzer.

Here are game reports:

The box score and play-by-play,

And photos :

Chiney defends against Janita Bandon Michelle Plouffe defends against Chiney Joslyn shoots over Brittany Knighton Michelle celebrates one of her four three-pointers Chiney snags a rebound Janita Badon drives past Jeanette Jeanette defends against Ciera Dunbar Kayla beats the defense

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