stu said:

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Good to play team like Fordham. Their quickness and aggressive play left no room for sloppy passes, lazy moves, and other ills which will show up in the film. When our threes were falling it didn't matter, when they weren't it did.

IMHO our zone could use some work. OK to show it briefly but at this point we need to rely on man.

Also good to see our bench get plenty of minutes. BTW I think saw Marta and Lola on the bench but not in the game. What's up?

One Fordham player got 5 assists, the rest of their team only got 2 more. And we held them to 32% shooting. That says something about our defense.

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Announcers said Suarez and Donez were both injured - didn't sound serious but enough to keep them on the bench tonite.

"Only" 7 TOs in the 2nd half.

Finally figured out how to break the press.

Jayda is Cal's Andre Igoudala. Swiss army knife. Glue player. Defends at a high level.

Michelle was Jekyll and Hyde again - at least 2 of the 4 fouls were bad Michelle. Maybe 3 if you count swipe down when blocking a shot but got called for the foul. But 15/6 (going 3-8 on FTs) is pretty good considering only 22 minutes.

The Bears probably had 8 TOs on long passes that had no chance. Most of those were Krimili and Kayla...but some of that is the fact that no teammate came back to help. So it's not all on them. And it wasn't like there wasn't a pattern. Fordham pressed after makes. Not rocket science.

That said, a win. If Fordham could shoot, they'd be pretty good. Only #3 went off. As soon as Charmin put Jayda on her, the faucet was turned off.

I was happy with Abigor's game and Drousani played pretty well. King also looked like she can play effectively.

Cal covered up some of the sloppiness with their shooting. Their ability to knock down 3s off broken plays was the difference.

7/16 on FTs was horrifying...including an airball. Yikes. Didn't help the NET rating there (insert sarcastic laughter here).

Hoping for a more solid game tomorrow.

As of now, Temple is +14 against Xavier at the half...

Glad that Charmin put this tournament together, highlighting black women coaches.

ncbears said:

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Donaldson heating up.
Oniyah was scoring at will down low including a textbook charge that wasn't called - but then she gets her fourth on a sloppy reach in.

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Ms. Donalson's mother was sitting not far from me on the bleachers in the second half when she scored so many points. Her mother said her daughter had attended a B'ball camp at Cal, and wanted to play here. She didn't hear from Cal, and ended up playing for New Mexico State. They live in Southern Calif. but are from New Jersey, so she was comfortable with playing for Fordham in NYC. It's fun sitting in the bleachers and talking with other attendees.

I watched the first half of the Temple/Xavier game. Number one for Temple attended St. Mary's H.S. locally and is from Richmond. She played for Loyola Marymount in L.A. She is really good, and so is number 22. They can score!
They were ahead at the half, and I am assuming it will be Cal/Temple in the Championship game tomorrow. There were many fans from Richmond on my side of the bleachers. They will be tough on defense for Call to handle. However, even if Marta doesn't play, the Bears should win. It's fun watching the bench getting minutes. I will be there. GO BEARS!!

Too bad Donaldson didn't have another year of eligibility (transfer portal).

The turnovers that bother me the most are the long passes being made that are NOT diagonal. Those are the hardest passes to execute, and even if completed they have a lesser chance of being converted into points. I see teams in both the womens' and mens' games do this, and I always wonder if their coaches even tell them that it's not a good pass in the game of basketball. These need to be eliminated.