Midcon Women's tournament Day 1

Game 1, Centenary Ladies vs Oakland Lady Grizzlies

Amazingly, a few handful of Centenary fans made the trek up, along with their cheerleaders who gamely cheered on the Ladies as they were being pummelled (31-7 with 7:42 to go). Their shots were not falling and the OU defense was too stifling. The tallest Lady on the roster - a freshman, Leslie Forest - is played in this game (6' 3"). Everybody else is 6-1 or smaller. They have 6 freshmen, 3 seniors, 4 juniors, 2 sophomores. Forest can be a presence inside -- when she wants to be.

Spied Keith Freeman chatting with Leslie Crane during the first game. Greg Kirby eavesdropped.

Cierra Bush seems to be the star, hitting 3's and driving the lane.

It would be interesting to look back at the Ladies' history in Div I prior to the Mid-Con. Have they always been this bad? They looked very un-athletic out there.

2nd half was more even. Bethany Joseph, Fr, 5-5 also looks promising, also doing well driving and dishing and even hitting 3s.

Game 2, Southern Utah Lady T-Birds vs. Valparaiso Lady Crusaders

Carrie Myers on fire from 3 - hit 3 so far.

Tamra and Betsy getting oodles of offensive rebounds but having trouble putting the ball back in the hole. Meanwhile, "Cash" Connors of SUU was "money" in the early going, scoring almost all of the T-Bird points.

Whitney Farris providing a good spark off the bench as usual.

T-Birds getting a few too many back door baskets. We;re not guarding the baseline very well. If not for Carrie, the game would be tight. Her 2-pt basket from the FT line was left-handed. Betsy pulled a "Charles Barkley" hit an 8 footer at the buzzer. Valpo leads 32-18.

More of the same in the 2nd half, except a LOT of working the whole shot clock by Valpo (a couple of SCVs). Issue never really in doubt. SUU cut to 16 on a mini-run, but Valpo pushed it back up to 19 as time wound down.

Everything went according to form today, #1 and #2 both advanced.