Game can be watched on ESPN+. Last week Miami played two 8-1 teams on the road and got drilled, losing by 44 to Michigan State and by 30 to EKU. In our 2 previous home games we were ahead by 8 at halftime vs WKU and we beat Xavier in OT, so we have played much better at home. UD is 4-5, our RedHawks are 1-5. This our last home game before conference play.
This game marks the return of Ivy Wolf, who was our best player last year. She is leading Dayton in Scoring, assists, and minutes played. They also featureDestiny Bohanon, a 5-10 RS Sr from Huber Heights Wayne and Ariana Smith, a 6 - 2 rs jr. transfer from Indiana State. Dayton has two girls from my immediate area in Wolf from Minster and 6-4 Riley Rismiller from Coldwater.
@DICK didn’t make the game due to his annual trip to Sin City, so I’ll fill in. Turnovers, sloppy ball handling, poor passing and inferior rebounding continue to plague us. It’s hard to win when you have 16 turnovers and are -12 on the boards.
Coach Box is still experimenting with lineup combinations but seems set at PG with Freshman Nuria Jurjo. While our other guards are shaky against the press, she is solid. Jadyn Scott, a grad transfer from UC is playing very well in the post and is our leading scorer.
We are averaging 19.9 turnovers per game and our opponents are averaging 19.3 points per game off our turnovers. See the problem?
Dayton was pretty much in control the entire game. We made a run in the third quarter, cutting a 16 point deficit to 5 but they quickly recovered and it was never in doubt the rest of the way.
Ivy Wolf, Dayton’s transfer PG from Miami and their leading scorer, only had 4 points after three quarters, mostly because they didn’t need her to score. She poured in 10 in the fourth quarter and ended up their leading scorer.
I noticed Kathy Richason did not play. In our previous game she limped off the court in the second quarter and never returned to the bench. Rebounding had been the strength of the team, but since she went out we are losing that battle too. Any information on her?
Also, after listening to the postgame interview, Coach Box indicated displeasure with unnamed players and said he needs to decide who is going to be part of the team’s future. Keep an eye on what if any changes we see in the upcoming games.
In agreement with Grumpy’s recap of the game, I would add that defensively we look pretty good. It was nice to see Jordan Tuff get into the game after a long battle with injury, and her tenaciousness on D was impressive. The lack of more aggressive rebounding I can attribute to the players being anxious to get down court on offense. Poor rebounding on the defensive side led to multiple second chances for the Flyers. When we get behind we tend to slow things down on the offensive end and it creates more turnovers than when we play up-tempo. Coach Box is very unlike his predecessor in that he is quick to show his displeasure when his player makes a mistake and very vocal in doing so. Still he seems to be able to move on quickly after venting. I am seeing lots of improvements in the early season tendencies to foul. If the ladies have thick skin and don’t get discouraged, I am optimistic that the 'Hawks will prove to be much more competitive as the season progresses.