Griz 91, ISU 76

[TrueGriz]

Griz Won 91 - 76 over the Idaho State Bengals today despite 21 turnovers, and somewhat poor defense in second half.

The 20 turnovers and poor second half defense were the only negatives of the game.

This game I can tell you there were more positives to tell. So, just had to get the negatives out of the way.

The positives:

Rebounding. Outrebounded Bengals 51 to 30.

Free Throw Shooting: 28 for 36 for 78%.

Field Goal shooting: 29 for 53 for 55%.
Blocked Shots: 10 blocks

Excellent first half defense. Haven't seen better from them possibly the whole season.

Good point guard play by Mansell. 8 assists. Not sure how many turnovers, but I do not think he was the big culprit in the turnover department. Maybe 3 TOs which is still not bad at all.

Big key of the game: Free throw shooting by the Bengals. made only 6 of 25 freethrows for a 24% average. Pitiful if I have to say so.

Individual Performances:

Kamaar Davis had a double-double with 23 points and 12 rebounds. He made 11 for 11 at the Free Throw line. Also, was 6 - 8 from the field.

Kevin Criswell made 19 points off of 5 - 8 from the field and 7 for 9 from the free throw line.

 

[grizgirl317]

Wow...sounds like we played well. I'm glad to see that the guys were able to bounce back from the loss at PSU and have a great game. I just wish I'd been able to be there but alas, I'm still in Portland.

 

[Shakermaker]

Wow...sounds like we played well. I'm glad to see that the guys were able to bounce back from the loss at PSU and have a great game. I just wish I'd been able to be there but alas, I'm still in Portland.

We played well, but ISU isn't exactly hard to have a good game against either.

 

[Grizbeer]

The first 1/2 was the best I have seen the Griz play all year, although they had me worried with about 8 minutes left. Easley also had an awesome game, and I think everyone played. It was nice to see the Griz have a good inside game, and Criswell hitting shots. When that happens teh Griz will be tough to stop.

Shaker I disagree about ISU. They played an agressive defense all game, with a full court press and traps, and we rarely turned the ball over beating the press. That was teh first time this year I have seen us handle the press. They weren't the biggest team, but they were fast and have good shooters. Remember they beat Weber last weekend, so they will probably cause some teams problems during the year, and this was a good win.

Kennedy made an interesting comment on the post game - he said the positions are set, we are 2 deep in each position, and Lynch is teh back-up point gaurd. He didn't say anyhting about Booker coming back, so I take that to be an indication that he doesn't expect him back. Might have been an oversight, but it sounds like Booker is gone.

 

[jagur1]

How was the Crowd last night?

Bozo only had 3,800 I was shocked a winning team playing Weber.

 

[ohyeah]

As far as I've heard Booker is coming back, however he will have to earn his spot as he's missed 3 weeks of practice and playing. But as far as I know he will be back on the team if his grades are good. It will be interesting to see how his playing time is affected once he's back, I think they still really need him, especially to relieve Mansell when he gets tired, although Lynch is doing a good job, but doesn't have the same skills as Booker. It's good that the positions are finally set, now there will be some consistency, I think it was hard for the guys never knowing who was playing and where. Seems like we're starting to develop that team chemistry. Keep up the good work Griz.

 

[GrizWhiz]

A nice win by the GRIZ and an awesome first half! Roy Booker was with the team last night and on the bench (in street clothes). It certainly looks like the plan is to have him back. The GRIZ can use him. Derek Mansell played all but 3 minutes of the game against ISU.

 

[GrizzyGriz]

*GREAT* win! The first half was near perfection. If the team can play as a team (as they did in the first half), they will do very well in conference.

Great game for Easley!

 

[TrueGriz]

How was the Crowd last night?

Bozo only had 3,800 I was shocked a winning team playing Weber.

Griz had just over 3,200 fans. Weber state was without their head coach who was suspended for complaining about refs

 

[Bear Axed]

On the Pre-game radio show - Kennedy said Bookers turn-over to assist rate was like 20-10.

Our rating on turn-over to assist has improved greatly now that Bookers not able to turn it over.

Lynch looked good for the little time he played last night. and being a home town kid won't hurt the attendance

Last saturdays Lady griz game was peged @ 3700 , but it sure seemed like there was way more than 500 more fans than last nights crowd., I'd guess at least 1200 more. Does Hoggy count all the corp. seat as filled? If NOT their must have been at least 700 people in the sky box that watched NONE of the game, and hide from all us lesser fans

 

[Potomac Griz]

Bear Axed, give Booker a break. There are going to be more turnovers when a player learns a new position like point guard in his first year with the team. The Griz as a team in pre-conference play turned the ball over alot. Booker is also our fourth leading scorer, and definitely contributes alot while on the court.

Here's something to think about... only ONE player who plays more than 10 minutes per game is averaging more assists than turnovers per game, and that is Mansell. So dumping the blame for the turnovers on one player, saying that because he's not playing the Griz have a better assist/turnover ratio is not a very fair thing to say when the whole team was having troubles with turnovers and had a fairly bad assist/turnover ratio. I think the turnovers had alot to do with the quality of teams they were playing against, forcing passes to try to make something happen, and probably almost constantly being on the road travelling somewhere to play was a little stressful on the team and caused them to play not as well as they are capable of during non conference season. That all combined with the frustration of being in a bad slump, and having trouble getting the ball to the inside players probably caused them to force alot of passes and not really run the offense the way they were towards the beginning of the season.

The tough schedule did seem to pay off. Their passes were very crisp in the game against ISU in the first half especially. Did you notice how many open looks the Griz were getting? They really passed the ball well I thought, finding the open man and getting it to him quickly. Playing against hight quality and very quick competition that challenges every shot and tips away many passes I think has really helped the Griz refine their passes.

I hope everything goes well for Booker and we get him back soon. The Griz do miss him.

As for the game. Mansell had a great game, I was obviously wrong in a previous post where I thought that Mansell would be guarding Poole. He did however shut down Gardner (0 points for their 13.0pt averaging 3 point bomber), and played for all but 3 minutes of the game. He scored 9 of his 11 points in the first half and had 8 assists in the game.

Criswell did a great job on Poole. At one point when Poole was shooting free throws I could've sworn it said he was 2-9 from the field, and 2-9 in free throws. Most of Poole's points seemed to come later in the 2nd half when ISU made a run and almost caught back up. It seemed like in the first half everytime Poole made a drive to the bucket, Criswell was right on him and he ended up tossing up a off balance shot which was swatted by either Seyfert or Easley. He looked pretty frustrated in the first half.

Of course, Horne, Seyfert and Davis all had good games. Davis was unstoppable once he got the ball inside. He was either fouled, scored, or got his own rebound then got fouled or scored off it. ISU didn't have anyone that could defend him. Venters had a couple nice moves for buckets in the first half too and Easley & Seyfert proved once again that they are great shot blockers.

All together I think all of the Griz played great and as a team. The second half got a little messy, but when you get out to such a huge lead its sometimes hard to hold that lead. The defense in the 2nd half obviously wasn't as good as the first half, but then again, ISU couldn't seem to stop the Griz on defense all game. Not that ISU's defense is bad, it was just that the Griz's offense was really on fire most of the game. One huge surprise was ISU's free throw shooting. I've never seen anything like that before. Those two guys at halftime had better luck from the free throw line than ISU did.