ESPN+. Zips are 9-9 ( 3-3). Miami is 10-6 (3-3). Last week the Zips lost at both Ball State and Central Michigan. They have experienced some injuries and added two girls to their roster to get back to 9 healthy players.
Last year Miami snapped an 8 game losing streak to Akron with a double digit road win and lead the all time series 40-24.
5-7 SR Alexis Mobley leads the Zips in scoring with 12.8ppg.
RS SR Shelbee Brown is a transfer this year from Memphis and leads the team with 7.9rpg and averages 10ppg.
6-0 Jr Maddie Vejsicky has 36 threes and transferred from Virginia Tech.
6-5 Jr Lisa Taponen is from Finland and transferred in from Illinois.
Starting guard Tenisha Clark 10.5 has been injured.
Miami is starting a stretch of 4 out of 5 home games and needs to take advantage and get on the right side of .500 in the MAC. We are currently tied with Akron so that makes this an important game.
Enjulina Gonzalez was picked as the MAC POW last week, for the third time this year. In both games last week she dominated in the first half, then the opposition made halftime adjustments and they effectively contained her in the second half. It will be interesting how that plays out tonight.
Holding them to 2 FG’s in the first half was a remarkable stat. Our bench did not play defensively nearly as well in the second half.
Here our the top of the MAC standings after last night’s games.
BS 7-0
KS 5-2
WM 5-2
UB 5-2
UT 4-3
MU 4-3
Our next two games are Kent at home on Saturday and at Toledo on Wednesday. Then we have a couple of home games vs lower MAC teams. This is our chance to move way up in the standings. We had a good start to doing that yesterday.
Last night Freshman Center Ilse de Vries had her best game yet. Coach Box even kept her in the game with the subs in the 4th quarter, helping her build her stats and confidence. She did three things last night that she had not done before. 1. She had 6 steals, which is as difficult getting a 20 point scoring game. 2. On one of those steals she took the ball length of the court and made a contested layup. 3. The third thing is that a weakness she has had all year is scoring off back to the basket post up moves. She scored on three of those. She has started all year based on her potential and she looked very good last night.
Another Freshman, Emily Bratton, has had a rugged freshman year with a broken nose and having to wear a mask because of that plus getting ill and missing a game or two. Last night she got in for the last 6 minutes and showed what she can do. She went 3 for 3 for 8 points. So 2-2 on threes and then one of the best plays a Miami player has made all season. She was driving to the basket from the left side with a big girl standing in her way and she did a jump stop, one handed, left handed jumper, getting it over the bigger player high off the boards and through the hoop. She has skills.
Enjulina Gonzalez is a girl who can score from all 3 levels. Last night Akron tried to pressure her outside and pressure her on her threes and she went 0 for 3. When she would beat her defender and drive they had a couple of girls waiting for her in front of the small arc. She had minimal success in getting to the rim. Several times she recognized this and did a jump stop and pulled up and hit a midrange 10-15 foot jumper. I think she hit 3 or 4 of those and I don’t recall her missing one of those. What I would say to her is that the reason you work to develop scoring skills at all 3 levels is so that you can take advantage of what the defense was giving you. She did that successfully a few times, but it was wide open for her to do that time and again, and if she had done that they would have had to call a TO and change how they were defending her. The more Enjulina recognizes what defenses are doing to stop her the better she can utilize the skills she has developed. This is one of the mental parts of the game that many average players never get to, but the better she can figure out how they are defending her and take what they are giving the more difficult it will be to stop her.