Los Angeles Rams

Los Angeles Rams

Sunday, March 4, 2018

NCAA Tournament 1st Round Game - Chapman vs UST 3-2-18


The nightcap on this Friday night at UST's Schoenecker Arena featured another intriguing match-up that pitted SCIAC champ Chapman with a 23-4 record and fresh off its double-OT win over conference arch-rival Claremon-Mudd-Scripps in the SCIAC Championship Game against the home team UST with its 25-2 record and another unblemished MIAC record and a MIAC Championship Game trophy on top of it all.  While the Tommies would be heavy favorites in this one (and deservedly so), I was really interested in this Panther team from watching their SCIAC Championship Game win online last Saturday night and I knew that they had the potential to make this one interesting at least.

UST would strike first in this contest on a rather routine lay-up by junior post Hannah Spaulding at the 9:40 mark and although Chapman senior guard Irma Munoz would tie the score with her lay-up at the 8:36 mark, the Tommies would go on a 7-0 push to get some space.  Another Spaulding lay-up at the 7:48 mark and a lay-up by senior guard/forward Lauren Fischer at the 7:05 mark got UST's lead to 6-2.  Fischer would strike again at the 6:21 mark with her drive and finish that also drew a foul and allowed the Oshkosh, Wisconsin native to sink the obligatory free throw for 9-2 Tommie lead.  The Panthers were able to cut into the cushion a bit when senior guard Jaime Hum-Nishikado drained a "3" from the left wing area at the 5:11 mark and one free throw by sophomore post Lucy Criswell with 4:19 left in the opening quarter had Chapman back in single-possession range down 9-6.  But a 6-0 UST push again widened the gap.  Sophomore reserve post Elsa Anderson connected with a lay-up with 3:55 left and a jumper along the left baseline by Fischer with 3:10 left got the Tommie lead back to seven points at 13-6.  Two free throws by freshman reserve guard Madi Radtke with 2:31 left gave UST its biggest lead thus far at 15-6.  The Panthers momentarily stopped the bleeding on a lay-up with 2:08 left by sophomore reserve guard Paige Endo but UST closed out the opening period with a 6-2 push.  Radtke, the incredibly gifted and athletic former Lester Prairie standout, connected with a lay-up with 1:46 left that also drew a foul and the ensuing "and one" got the Tommie lead to double-digits at 18-8.  Opportunistic junior guard Kaylie Brazil snared a steal and whizzed the other way for a lay-up with 1:15 left to make it 20-8 and Chapman Head Coach Carol Jue; not liking at all what she was seeing, called a thirty-second timeout to try and rectify the situation.  A jumper from the left corner just inside the arc by Hum-Nishikado with :55 left got Chapman back in the ten-point range again down 20-10 but UST's Spaulding ended this first period with a short jumper in the lane with just :06 left that had the Tommies in excellent shape up 22-10 going into the second period.

A 4-0 UST push to start the second period had the Panthers in an even deeper hole.  Brazil uncorked a "3" from the right top area at the 9:08 mark and a score in the paint by the understudy Anderson at the 8:09 mark now had the Tommie lead at seventeen at 27-10.  Chapman was able to make some inroads thanks to Criswell; the Portland, Oregon native.  She first connected with a jumper from the right top area, just inside the arc at the 7:58 mark and then drained a "3" from the top of the key at the 7:29 mark to give the Panthers a bit of hope down by twelve at 27-15.  Criswell would also knock down a short jumper at the 7:02 mark to keep Chapman in that twelve-point range down 29-17 but the Panthers could ill-afford to be satisfied by just trading baskets with their host.  UST set to stretch their lead again junior guard Lucia Renikoff drilled a "3" from the left top area at the 6:38 mark and a score in the paint by Spaulding at the 5:51 mark had the Tommies up 34-19.  Fischer would make a hard drive for a finish at the 5:11 mark then senior point guard Maddie Wolkow unleashed a killer "3" from the left wing area with 4:39 left to make it a 39-21 ballgame.  Chapman would again try to cut into this cushion as a score in the paint by sophomore reserve guard Marissa Dunn with 4:18 left and a Dunn "3" from the right corner with 1:49 left got the deficit down to fifteen points at 41-26.  One free throw by junior guard Jaryn Fajardo with 1:31 left and a pretty reverse lay-up by Criswell with :48 left capped a late 8-2 run down the stretch but Chapman was still on the wrong end of a 41-29 score as both teams headed off to the locker room for the halftime break.  A check of the first half box score reveals just how well was shooting thus far as they were 16-30 from FG range for 53.3% and 3-9 from behind the arc for 33.3%.  Chapman didn't shoot badly either going 12-29 from FG range for 41.4% and they were 3-4 from downtown for 75%.  UST had a slight advantage on the boards at 17-14 and both teams already had scorers in double-figures:  Criswell of the Panthers with 10 points and the Tommies' Spaulding with 10 points. 

The Tommies were all about stretching their lead again in the early moments of the third period as Wolkow unleashed another one of her patented three-point bombs - this one from the left wing area at the 9:40 mark and a Brazil lay-up at the 8:19 mark got the lead to fifteen points at 46-31.  Then it was Wolkow draining yet another "3" - this one from the right wing area at the 7:33 mark - that now had UST up by eighteen points at 49-31.  The Panthers, however, managed to whittle things down as freshman guard/forward Brittany McPherson banged home a "3" from the right wing area at the 7:12 mark and a jumper from the left wing area by Hum-Nishikado at the 6:28 mark had things down to thirteen points at 49-36 and it seemed as if Chapman, if they could just could get things down to the ten-point range again (or even closer) that they may have had a reasonable chance.  As it was, the Tommies weren't interested in giving their opponent any reason to believe that they could hang around.  A "3" from the right top area by junior reserve guard and former Park Center standout McKenna DuBois at the 6:15 mark started a 9-0 UST run that, for all intents and purposes, put this one out of reach.  Freshman reserve guard/forward Kaia Porter made a drive for a finish at the 5:44 mark and a Wolkow jumper in the lane off of the glass at the 5:02 mark had the Tommie lead up to twenty at 56-36.  A Porter drive and finish with 3:45 left got the lead to 58-36 before Chapman could make a few dents into the cushion.  Fajardo knocked down two free throws with 3:19 left and Criswell would add two more with 2:09 left to get the deficit down to twenty again at 60-40 but UST's Renikoff would put an exclamation point on this third period with her "3" from the top of the key with 1:31 left as the Tommies carried a sizable 63-40 advantage going into the fourth period.

Chapman certainly wasn't willing to give up the fight as they continued with their pressure defense in hopes of forcing some Tommie turnovers and two McPherson freebies at the 9:23 mark and a Hum-Nishikado lay-up at the 8:44 mark of the fourth period had the deficit down to nineteen points at 63-44 but it was a matter of trying to string together a series of scores plus get some stops as well and that just wasn't happening on this night.  UST's Renikoff connected with one lay-up in transition at the 8:18 mark and another one at the 6:54 mark to get the Tommies' safety net at twenty-two points at 67-45.  Porter would drop two free throws at the 6:13 mark and Fischer connected on a pretty back-door lay-up that also drew a foul and her "and one" with 4:46 left got UST's lead to 72-48.  Porter would muscle into the paint for a score with 3:49 left and then the enthusiastic Radtke got into the paint for another score with 3:18 left that also drew a foul and her obligatory free throw got the lead to twenty-nine points at 77-48.  The Panthers were still unwilling to wave the white flag as one free throw by Hum-Nishikado with 3:04 left and a jumper along the left baseline by Criswell with 2:23 left helped cut into the large deficit a bit.  But UST's Radtke put the cherry on top of the cake with her score in the paint with 2:04 left as the Tommies waltzed to an 81-51 victory to advance to Saturday's second-round game against Chicago. 

Chapman's Jue; who brought in seniors Hum-Nishikado and Munoz into the press room afterward didn't waste any time explaining what went down.  "We ran into a very good team.....I think 42 (Spaulding) set the tone for them."  I asked Jue specifically about what I thought was a critical moment of the game; when Hum-Nishikado scored at the 6:28 mark of the third period to get the deficit down to thirteen points at 49-36 and if the Panthers could have perhaps been able to trim the deficit even more, it may have at least changed the complexion of the game.  "I totally agree with you" Jue said.  "I thought if we could get just one more shot but they are very good."  I also asked Jue about the double-overtime win over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps the previous weekend in the SCIAC Championship Game and if that emotionally-exhausting effort may have drained her young squad a bit - both physically and emotionally as well.  "Perhaps" she said but she also noted that this was her squad's first visit to the NCAA Tournament and they had to find out what it was like to go on the road and play one of the best teams in the nation in UST.  "Now they know" she said.  Additionally, I also mentioned to Jue that I admired how her squad was continuing to use pressure defense right up until the very end in hopes of creating turnovers and never giving up.  "That's a testament to this team" she said.  "We are never going to give up.  Even if we're down by 80 we're still going to keep coming after you."  And I think you have to admire that.  UST's Sinn, who brought in both Renikoff and Wolkow into the press room for their session, couldn't help but talk about how much she liked this game.  "It was a really fun game to play....Chapman is so different than the teams we normally play because of pressure, pressure, pressure......We knew coming in that we we're going to have our hands full with the pressure.....The one thing that I was impressed with about us was our 18 assists....It really shows we were doing a good job of when we should attack and when do we not and we really had a good flow of our offense and we had six players in double-figures (scoring-wise) so it was a really good team effort."  I mentioned to Sinn about how incredibly balanced her team was from a scoring standpoint and that it has to be good to see her get contributions from so many different players.  "That's one of the things that we pride ourselves on is our team and our depth and how everybody can step up."  I also asked Sinn the same question I posed to Chapman's Jue about that moment in the third period when the Panthers had whittled the deficit down to thirteen points and how UST embarked on a key run thereafter to put this one out of reach for good.  "Well, that's the beauty about being at this point in the season is that we've gone through these battles.....We've learned how to handle some of those highs and lows and how to stay focused on the task ahead."  Wolkow talked about how she felt that she and her teammates did a very good job of handling Chapman's pressure and Renikoff felt that she and her teammates had excellent preparation coming into this game and handling the pressure defense that Chapman showed. 

Indeed, it is striking when you look at the box score and see how incredibly balanced the Tommie attack was and all the contributions they got on this night from so many different players.  Fischer led the way with 12 points and Wolkow was right behind with her 11 points and then you had four players with 10 points each - Spaulding, Renikoff, Radtke and Porter and Brazil was right behind with nine points.  To me, that's just something when you see such balance like that.  Chapman had two players in double-figures on this night with Criswell's 14 points leading all scorers and Hum-Nishikado tallied 13 points.  As Sinn pointed out in the post-game interview, she was incredibly proud of how well her squad handled that pressure defense as the Tommies were guilty of only eight turnovers on this night.  Strangely enough, rebounds were nearly even on this night with the Panthers holding a 36-35 edge but what did Chapman in on this night was the fact that they shot 18-59 from FG range for 30.5% and 4-13 from behind the arc for 30.8% and that simply won't get the job done against a team that goes 31-60 from FG range for 51.7% and 7-19 from downtown for 36.8%.  Throw in the fact that UST had the edge in points off of turnovers at 15-8 and a whopping 46-14 edge in points in the paint and it's easy to see where the needle is going to point. 

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