ESPN +. This is a nice piece of scheduling. I hope some of you that don’t attend women’s games will make it a point to be there. Students are gone, we need some extra adults to make some noise. Purdue is 5-5 (0-1), Miami is 5-2 and has not started MAC play yet.
To the girls, I would just say Purdue is a big name in basketball, but we are certainly capable of winning this game. All 5 of Purdue’s wins have been home games against Mid - majors. They also lost a neutral court game vs mid major Middle Tennessee. They have not won a road game yet.
They have played 4 very good power conference games, losing all 4. They lost by 44 to Notre Dame and by 47 to South Carolina, two teams with National Championship hopes. They also lost to Kentucky by 30 and Maryland by 9.
They have two very good players, one of whom we have faced the last 3 seasons for Akron
6-2 SR Regan Bass was second team All MAC last year, and averaged 15points and 8 rpg in his first 3 seasons and had 21 double doubles. However, last year in our one meeting Miami beat Akron by10 on the road and Freshman Amber Tretter played her evenly. Amber had 18 points and10 rebounds while Bass had 13 points and 12 rebounds. The other good all around player is 5th year guard Destiny Lombard who averaged 12 ppg. They also have one 6-4 girl and 2 6–3 girls so they are the biggest team we have faced.
There is nothing there that makes me think we can’t compete with them. Play our best and we win.
I stopped in to talk with Glenn and the staff on Thursday. They were game planning, doing the scout etc. .I also talked to a few members of the men’s staff who commented how I had just been on the Field of 68 zoom hours before! I told them right after that I was on the Football Zoom with Martin etc!
Also Emily Bratton does indeed have a broken nose. But will play through it. Glenn is very excited about the continued development of his freshman guards Bratton and Singer. I get the feeling that Bratton is being groomed for the role Chandler is playing this year. And as Glenn said Tamar Singer is going to be thrown into the fire and he will let her work through things in her own for the most part. She is the team’s point guard and in Glenn’s opinion already one of the best PG in the MAC but there will be growing pains. And Purdue is very much a game he expects to win.
Tamar has been an elite defender so far. She gave Ivy Wolf a miserable experience trying to bring the ball up court which contributed to a low scoring game for her. In our one close game which went down to the last minute she scored our last 7 points with 7 straight free throws in the last minute. She has shot well from the perimeter.
She has had many nice assists but is turning the ball over too much, especially when she drives and leaves her feet. She has also missed a bunch of layups. She is still learning the various time and score strategies a point guard needs to know. Still, for a point guard in her freshman season she is doing great. She is going to be on the All Freshman team and may contend for the freshman of the year award ( have to see who her competition is).
Sloppy game. 11-11 after one quarter. Singer is an absolute pest on the defensive end. 3 steals already. Enj Gonzalez with 8 points. Singer with 3. Singer three boards to lead Miami. Miami shooting percentage is low. This is a very winnable game.
Miami shooting horrible. 1/13 from three. 7/31 FG. Not going to win many games shooting 22%. Miami only scored 6 points second quarter. 26-17 Purdue at the half.
I know Glenn wants to play fast but fast is often sloppy. Enj Gonzalez and Tamar Singer play at a different speed then most of the other girls and this is leading to turnovers that don’t need to happen. Not always Enj and Tamar’s fault just that they play at a different speed. And sometimes because both get sloppy as well. Miami has to find scoring the second half. Tretter and Devries really struggling offensively.
Miami cut a 13 point lead to 7. Richason and Enj made threes. Singer benched after her 7th turnover although truthfully the pass was fine, Devries just couldn’t handle it. Purdue has 10 players 6’0” or taller. Purdue is a bottom half B10 team. Miami has slowed their pace down a little. That has helped.
39-35 Purdue as we head to the 4th quarter. Singer and Edward’s came and provided a late spark. Enj with 15. Singer with 6. Tretter, Miami’s leading scorer has two points. 4th quarter opportunity to win the game.