I was probably the only person outside of Ames, Iowa, and Columbia, Mo., who watched the Iowa State-Missouri women’s basketball game this afternoon instead, and am damn proud of it. It was a great game; the Cyclones ended up winning 76-68, but the game was back and forth for the most part and both sides shot nearly 50 percent from 3-point range.
Before that game they showed Stanford-Cal. The boys game before went long, so we missed the beginning of the game, so I missed seeing Cardinal point guard JJ Hones go down with a knee injury 45 seconds into the game. Stanford were the ones who missed her after that. Candice Wiggins was cold, Jayne Appel was ineffective, Brooke Smith was out of rhythm, Jillian Harmon was quiet. Cal won going away, 72-57. Even the Tree couldn’t help the Cardinal today.
Every time I hear “Jayne Appel” I think they’re saying “Jade Abele.”
Speaking of the Wahine, they won consecutive ball games for just the second time this season, beating Nevada, 74-72, last night. The Wahine shot 63 percent from the floor. Sixty-three percent! Highest field goal percentage for the ‘Bows since 1998. Tanya Smith and Brittany Grice were a combined 11-of-12 from the floor! The ‘Bows almost gave it away at the end though, as Tanya Smith was just 5-of-10 from the free throw line, including two key missed foul shots down the stretch. With the ‘Bows up by three, Nevada’s Dellena Criner made a transition layup and drew a foul on Amber Lee with 11.5 seconds left. Criner, who I swear was something like 8-of-8 from the line in the second half of the second half, went to the line and … missed! Tan grabbed the rebound, made 1-of-2, and Nevada’s Bre’Anna Henry missed a 3 attempt at the buzzer (thank goodness!).
Watching the Texas-K State game yesterday, I decided to make an executive decision and add another member to our all-sports name team:
- Tara Hittle, Hawaii (volleyball)
- Amy Swisher, Northern Iowa (basketball)
- Krystal Keepers, Austin Peay (volleyball, but we’re converting her to soccer)
- Cassandra Shotwell, Mississippi Valley State (basketball)
- Betsy Boardman, Arizona State (basketball)
- Danielle Hitzeman, Alaska-Fairbanks (volleyball)
- Tamara Jo Guardipee, Montana (basketball)
- Jenna Diggs, Bowdoin (volleyball)
- Christina Fish, Bowdoin (swimming)
- Hilary Disch, Olivet Nazarene (basketball)
- Ashley Sweat, Kansas State (basketball)
Yeah, it’s not an action or a position or anything, but you can’t argue that athletes don’t sweat!
