Four Points:
First: The defensive effort was good but our guards have GOT to stop switching when it can be avoided. Dumb defense. You don't give the opponent a mismatch unless you absolutely have to. We have opponents with good guards too many mismatches.
Second: our supporting cast is simply not productive.
Suarez: 32 minutes, 6 points on 3 of 10 shots from the floor. Had 9 rebounds--but 0 assists and 4 turnovers.
Walker--20 minutes, 0 points. NO assists.
Darby: 21 minutes, 2 points (missed all 3 of her three-point attempts).
Puckett: 13 minutes, 2 points
Striplin: 11 minutes, 0 points (0-2 from the floor)
Powell: 30 minutes, 9 points (missed 4 of 5 treys; missed 2 of 4 FTs; had 6 assists but also 4 TOs. Not good enough across the board, and to quick to switch on defense, giving the opponent mismatches they could exploit.
By any measure, in toto, that is an absolutely awful performance by the supporting cast.
One reason for the terrible can be attributed to talent--not enough individual talent. BUT two or three of them can shoot when OPEN, yet we don't run sets that get them open shots. Sets featuring lots of picks and QUICK ball movement to pull defenders out of position and get our players open shots. If they take contested shots, they miss more often than not. I didn't see the first half so I don't know how many of the missed shots by this group in the first half were open--but I don't recall seeing any open shots by them in the 2nd half. I'm sure there were a couple that I missed--but on the whole we have the SAME problem we've had for 15 years: Our TEAM offense is poor. Too much standing around, slow ball movment--and then relying heavily on Horston and Jackson to go 1v1 and score. But even with 2 excellent talents like those two, it's probably not enough to beat good teams--because the opponent can focus its defense on those two.
Third: You're not going to beat good teams if you can't make 3s. We were 2-14 from the 3-line. That's a losing stat--14 percent shooting. That is sad for a veteran team like ours. VT didn't shoot the three very well--28 percent--but nevertheless made 9, and took 32 threes. We don't need to shoot that many threes, but good teams can shoot the three. We don't make enough 3s. Eve when Jackson and Horston are playing well, they tend not to don't take many threes, and so even if they are scoring, if our opponent is making 7+ 3s, we're losing ground.
Four: We obviously, as we've seen in many of these games, simply don't make plays down the stretch. Walker missed a three at the 4-minute mark; Suarez made 2 key bad mistakes (one physical and one mental), and while Horston had an excellent game and carried us, she had two open shots to tie in the waning seconds and missed them both. We missed a bunch of shots in the last 4/5 minutes--and that always adds up to an L.