Women's Billikens Basketball

[billiken bball]

I thought the ladies had an impressive exhibition win. The freshmen looked legit, and the rest of team was very solid. I am looking forward to seeing how they do as the competition improves.

 

[RUBillsFan]

Link to the box score: https://admin.xosn.com/fls/27200//pdfs/Box Score SLU vs UIS 02 November.pdf

Obviously exhibition , take the stats with a grain of salt, etc.  Senior Jordyn Frantz (who I'd expect to sort of be the team leader) didn't really have a great game (2-7 shooting), so it is nice they still dominated the exhibition.  It is encouraging that the freshman showed well in their first taste of college competition.  Harbison lead the way with 16 points which isn't too unexpected.  Evan Zars and especially Brooke Flowers (double-double) had very nice games.  Would be nice to see those freshman bigs really outperform the older players and claim more PT as the year goes on.  This year is going to be all about growth for the freshmen that will hopefully pay dividends in future years.  

[Box and Won]

SLU beats Eastern Kentucky by 27.

16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists for the freshman Harbison.

[billikenfan05]

10 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

SLU beats Eastern Kentucky by 27.

16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists for the freshman Harbison.

The replay should be available on ESPN+

[Cowboy]

32 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

SLU beats Eastern Kentucky by 27.

16 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists for the freshman Harbison.

-I have no idea if E KY is any good but for the Ladies to go on the road and beat anyone by 27 I'll take as a positive, good work Ladies, hope a trend for the day

[gobillsgo]

Watched a little bit of the game. Harbison has a lot of Jackie Kemph in her game. Very impressive. 

[billiken_roy]

1 hour ago, gobillsgo said:

Watched a little bit of the game. Harbison has a lot of Jackie Kemph in her game. Very impressive. 

as great as jackie was, i think harbison is even faster/quicker.   what remains to be seen is if she is cold blooded executioner jackie was.   jackie could make and finish plays.  

 

[billikenfan05]

I've only watched 4 minutes of this game on replay and Harbison is SICCCKKKKK

[TheChosenOne]

That is good to hear. I assumed there would be a huge drop-off for the women's program after graduating all-time program greats the past few seasons, but it sounds like we may have the next one.

[thetorch]

EKU is really really bad but this is still a great road victory.  Kendra Wilken led all scorers with18, including a couple runs of 6 and 8 consecutive points.  She's been benchbound stuck behind upperclassmen her whole career in the post.  She was a top STL area recruit out of HS.  Maybe she is ready for the spotlight now.  

[billikenfan05]

Tuesday is a double header with the ladies playing at 4:30

[RUBillsFan]

On 11/9/2018 at 7:25 PM, thetorch said:

EKU is really really bad but this is still a great road victory.  Kendra Wilken led all scorers with18, including a couple runs of 6 and 8 consecutive points.  She's been benchbound stuck behind upperclassmen her whole career in the post.  She was a top STL area recruit out of HS.  Maybe she is ready for the spotlight now.  

Glad to see the WBB team blow out an inferior opponent.  Prior to Stone, the WBB program was probably about EKU level, so this victory in what is expected to be a rebuilding year shows how far Stone has elevated the program.

My one criticism is why would Harbison play 36 minutes in a game that we win by 27 (or Frantz play 33, etc.).  I feel like Stone did a similar thing with Kemph and other good players win the past here she would give them a ton of minutes and not spread the playing time around even in blowout games.  You're risking injury to key players by unnecessarily running them out there in blowout games and you're inhibiting the growth of other young players who might be contributors down the road.

[billiken bball]

I think Stone is just trying to build some chemistry with a very young team, McMahan would have played a bit more had she not cramped up in the fourth.  The freshmen certainly appear to be talented, but as you would expect a bit erratic at times. Frantz and especially McMahan really keep things steady.

 

[Cowboy]

-Harbison is A10 Rookie of the Week, I hope first of many, Congrats!!! keep it going

[RUBillsFan]

Digging this thread back up for an update on the Lady Bills.

They've now lost 3 heart breakers in a row:

11/13 vs Indiana State L 56-60 - SLU led by 11 with 9 minutes to go.  Blew the lead within 3 minutes in the 4th qtr, went down 8 with just over 3 to go (19 point swing in less than 6 minutes), cut it to 2 with a minute to go, but couldn't make it all the way back.  Frantz missed a potential go a head 3 pointer with 44 seconds left and Harbison turned the ball over down 4 with 13 seconds left.

11/18 vs Cincinnati L 50-51 - I can't find the play by play, but the recap shows that SLU lead by 3 with just under 3 minutes remaining.  Frantz missed a potential go ahead FT (would have given SLU 51 points) with about 1 minute left.  Multiple empty possessions with under 1 minute.  Cincy drew a foul with 4 seconds left to go and made 1 of 2 to go ahead.  Frantz missed a potential game winner at the buzzer.  Frantz finished with 23 points, so hard to fault her for the L, but she didn't come through in the clutch.

11/20 at Tulsa L 75-86 (OT) -  SLU led by 4 with just over 3 minutes remaining (72 - 68).  They didn't score the rest of the way and allowed Tulsa to tie it.  Again I can't find the play by play, but I was following the game and I recall that Harbison missed at least 4 shots down the stretch in regulation.  SLU continued to lay an egg in OT and never really had a chance to win in the extra period.

Bad news - these are brutal losses that SLU absolutely had a good chance of winning and largely blew it down the stretch.  Good news - I'm not sure I would have expected SLU to win any of these games going into the season.  I don't really know the quality of any of the opponents (don't follow WBB enough), but I expected SLU to take a step back from previous years.  Hopefully they can use these games as a learning experience and finish better in the future.

Note on Harbison - she's just a freshman, so its hard to be too critical, but she's shooting less than 30% from the floor and leads the team in FG attemps.  She also leads in assists (and turnovers), so she is distributing a decent amount.  I'm thinking that until she finds her shot, she should try to create for her teammates a bit more.  The missed shots and turnovers are freshman mistakes and she's the most talented player on the team, so you live with the growing pains.

[Pistol]

Can we change the thread title? They haven't been the Lady Bills for like 15 years...

[Cowboy]

11 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Can we change the thread title? They haven't been the Lady Bills for like 15 years...

-can we then include Baby Blues in the title?

[billikenfan05]

Now it's grammatically terrible. "Billiken Women's Basketball"

[billikenfan05]

Up by 11 at the half against UVA. 40-29

[Delboy]

Billikens win 67-65 with a 9-0 run to end the game.

[Billikenbooster]

How good is UVA?

[Cowboy]

5 hours ago, Delboy said:

Billikens win 67-65 with a 9-0 run to end the game.

-that's the way to end a game, well done Ladies!

[Cowboy]

-Bills have won the Rookie of the Week 7 times this season, Harbison 5 times and Flowers twice, seeing Flowers at Billiken Madness to winning this award twice I would guess she has made a very nice progression to her game, well done Ladies!

[Pistol]

23 minutes ago, Cowboy said:

-Bills have won the Rookie of the Week 7 times this season, Harbison 5 times and Flowers twice, seeing Flowers at Billiken Madness to winning this award twice I would guess she has made a very nice progression to her game, well done Ladies!

Harbison is their leading scorer as a freshman and Flowers is third. The only seniors, Frantz and McMahan, are second and sixth in scoring.

Harbison is also leading the team in minutes, FGM, FTM, FT%, assists, steals, and total points. She doesn't take a ton of 3-pointers but has hit 10-23 (.435) on the season.

If this freshman class sticks together, this team will be good in a couple years.

[billikenfan05]

Speaking of Women's Basketball, I've noticed that they play a lot of their games on mid day during the week. Does anyone know why the A-10 schedules like this?