Survive and advance.
Certainly not States best effort by any means. I thought early in the game State didn’t have great ball movement, a lot of quick shots that weren’t always easy shots. Madison Hayes I don’t believe got a shot attempt until 6 or 7 minutes into the game. That’s never a good sign for State, Hayes is a player who doesn’t demand the ball and isn’t a strong ISO player, but she is incredibly efficient and the team is worlds better when she’s heavily involved.
Morgan had it going on for Tech. They are also well coached. I thought in the second switching from man to zone back so frequently gave State a little bit of trouble.
It was said after the game that Saniya had practiced all week and it wasn’t known if she’d even play due to the flu. She did play but clearly wasn’t right. 3-10 for 9 points, only 4 rebounds and 3 assists 0 steals and 0 blocks. Thats pretty wild for her. You have to go back all the way to December 3 2023 to find a game where she didn’t record at least 1 steal or 1 block.
Zam and Zoe came up big for State with Rivers out of it and James in first half foul trouble. Good sign for States future there - and Tilda was rock solid.
Hope they bring the intensity on defense more so today against Chapel Hill. Revenge game.
Rivers did look a step slower than her usual but she did get 9 points which is just under her average. I hope she recovers but sometimes playing that long, 34 minutes, doesn't help healing when there's another game less than 24 hours away. She did a great job slowing Morgan down to prevent a final shot.
While the rest of the team picked up most of the slack it ended with a one point win, it could have been worse if Fortner had kept a time out or used the fouls to give. Wes Moore definitely out coached her in this game. Then in the presser Fortner lambasted the refs with a comment, "there were some interesting calls that were, well interesting" rather than focus on her mistakes.
Is there a backup who could cover for her if she gets worse? Probably not because you don't keep 6'1" senior guards of her caliber on the bench.
Hope both sides are healthy for today's game.
www.sports-reference.com
. Can you imagine how distraught and TIRED i was leaving the Coliseum at 10:30pm. 
