UCLA at Colorado: Tied with 2 seconds left in overtime
Oregon St. at Stanford: Tied with 2:10 in the fourth
Oregon at Cal: 1-point game with 1:28 remaining
Southern Cal at Utah: UU’s 20-point lead reduced to 6 with 3:06 to go
As ever, it’s in how you want to look at it. I think: This is why I do this. Others think: There’s no reason to pay attention to basketball for the first 37 minutes. (There’s an old joke about wanting the last two minutes of your life to be the last two minutes of a basketball game. The last minute of Colorado at Stanford last Sunday went on for six minutes, and Stanford led by a dozen.)
Colorado 73 UCLA 70
Kindyll Wetta — my favorite Buffalo, though I rarely remember how to spell her first name — made her only 3-point attempt of the game with 1.5 seconds left in overtime, and the #25 Buffs “upset” the #8 Bruins in Boulder.
That’s hardly an upset. Colorado also beat Arizona and Utah at home while the Cats and Utes were #14 and #8.
Wetta’s 6-for-7 (2-for-2 in overtime) is her best shooting game I can recall, while Colorado’s designated bomber Formann was 3-for-15 (6-for-35 in three games following 14-for-23 in two — that’s how shooters roll). Otherwise it was a humdrum game for Wetta (one rebound, one steal, game-high six assists, four turnovers).
The most difficult road trip in the nation is to the Rocky Mountains. Colorado and Utah are both undefeated at home, and their homes are a zillion miles high. A zillion, or one. Whatever, it feels the same. (I had a subpar weekend playing chess on the Utah campus, and it was also a subpar weekend walking.)
If UCLA coach Close and Utah coach Roberts want to entertain people Sunday, the matchup to watch is UCLA’s Kiki Rice and Utah’s Ines Vieida.
Stanford 63 Oregon State 60
Basketball interests me primarily in its capacity to be analogized with chess. (To me, basketball is an intellectual pursuit. This sets me apart from the typical American sports fan, who likes basketball for men flying through the air and throwing down dunks, but in those cases, I’d rather be at the movies.) At the heart of both games is the alternation of turns: They get a possesssion, we get a possession. I get a move, you get a move.
The sides that make most efficient use of those turns — by executing threats, while perhaps extending the possession through offensive rebounding (at chess, it’s sustaining an initiative) — stands a good chance of winning. This analogy falls flat in one instance: At basketball, one blown possession usually won’t kill you (unless the game is that close), but at chess, one bad move can ruin a game that might’ve been flawless until then. At chess, you can point the finger at one move or two. At basketball, you can’t — even if one turnover results in the losing basket, that possession was (technically speaking) weighted no more heavily than 50 others.
Nevertheless, sports fans and sportswriters find individual plays easy things to hang a talking point on. If you’re an Oregon State backer last night, you’re looking at two possessions until they haunt you. In the fourth quarter of a tied game, Cardinal Fran Belibi tipped a ball loose into the backcourt, where Beaver Bendu Yeaney gave some chase, but pulled her hands back to let it roll. Belibi sprinted after it, and dove for a save try. That is, both players knew it was off Belibi, and Oregon St. would retain possession, but official Brenda Pantoja ruled it Stanford’s ball (Oregon St. coach Rueck wandered far from allowed coaching space for that one). Then there was a second- and third-chance possession converted by Stanford following two offensive rebounds, and Oregon St. would’ve dearly loved to do that over.
The Cardinal got away with another one, while the Beavers are still my pick as a 3-6 team no one wants to face in an elimination game.
Neither team was very good. For OSU, Talia von Oelhoffen had more fouls than field goals. Nicole Mannen produced a line more appropriate to a player getting 7 minutes instead of 37 (Coach Rueck trusts Mannen that much), Raegan Beers had the least impact in any OSU game I’ve seen. If not for freshman Timea Gardiner shooting 7-for-11 in her fourth game all season, it wouldn’t’ve been that close.
Again, Stanford relied on their three seniors, but Hannah Jump shot 2-for-8, while Brink and Jones shot 13-for-29 with 21 rebounds and 7 blocks. Brink will triple with points, rebounds, and blocks later this season — you read it here first.
Also, I have a hunch that Stanford and Oregon St. will crush Oregon and Cal Sunday.
Oregon 78 Cal 73
Oregon isn’t very good. The Ducks were ranked in the Top 25 for months because sportswriters hate change, and they like Coach Graves.
Since last season, the Ducks lost Nyara Sabally to the New York Liberty, Sydney Parrish to Indiana (#5 NET), Kylee Watson to Notre Dame (#6 NET), Taylor Bigby to USC (#31 NET), Chanaya Pinto to Penn St. (#78 NET), and Maddie Scherr to Kentucky (#91 NET). They kept Endiya Rogers and Te-Hina Paopao — whew — got Taya Hanson from Arizona St., and recruited Grace VanSlooten.
They were fortunate to get out of Haas Pavilion Friday with a W. Had Cal played the full 40 instead of 38, it would’ve been different.
The Golden Bears had their last lead 73-72 with 1:52 left, then a Jayda Curry miss at 1:02 plus turnover at 0:38 let it get away. “I didn’t see a travel, That’s a hard call to make at that time of the game”, said Cal coach Smith. “It’s the Pac-12. There’s so little margin for error.”
Oregon freshman Chance Gray hit 10-of-10 from the line, including two with 0:20 left to make it 77-73. Gray missed two free throws in November, and hasn’t missed since. She’s 39-for-41 now, and if 41 is enough attempts, .951 puts her in Brynna Maxwell territory.
Speaking of Brynna Maxwell: Gonzaga beat Pepperdine 67-49 Saturday. Maxwell recovered from her bad game vs. LMU with a game-high 26 points on 8-14, 6-9, 4-4. Following up my piece yesterday about Brynna, her season percentages rose to .488 + .516 + .967 == 1.971. Times 1000 is 1971.
Utah 83 Southern Cal 73
I didn’t expect USC at Utah to be the least tense of the games I watched Friday, but the Trojans were giving up 51 points per conference game, and the Utes had 49 at halftime.
Even after USC got within 6 in the fourth quarter, it didn’t feel like the Trojans were gaining control with defense.
I said some atypical number emerging from this game would bear hugely on the result. Digging through the boxscore, the Utes’ +16 differential in paint points is their second-best total to +22 at Cal. 8 points off turnovers is a season-low in conference games. 6 free throws attempted in the first three quarters? I dunno; nothing stands out hugely, but you might agree it’s not a typical boxscore for them.
If the over-under for USC at Colorado were 100, I’d think the under might be a reasonable wager.