I was waiting for the box score to post after getting back from the game to see how the stats fit with my impressions. The rough shooting for everyone be Johnson and Carter is an understatement. The offense was bad but once A&M had the lead it seemed like Blair's priority was to work on things for other players. Johnson and Carter were 10-15 and 8-15 from the field, respectively, and I didn't feel like they were forcing anything. By contrast, Kayla Wells struggled. 2-7 with 4 turnovers, mostly on penetrating and not passing back out before getting trapped.
N'dea Jones has been nursing a hamstring injury, which is why most of the minutes at the 4 went to Cheah Real-Whitsett, who grabbed 11 boards and forced a bunch of turnovers. Cheah is shy about shooting so while she was a perfect 2-2 from the floor, she passed up lots of opportunities. Jones still ended up with 8 rebounds but her offense was wild in the first half.
An example of the bad shooting reflecting Blair's priorities is in how new backup post Anna Dreimane was used. Anna hadn't played in two years as the NCAA didn't grant a waiver last year even though she hadn't played during her soph year at Colorado State. Anna played 13 minutes and when she was in, it seemed like the game plan was to feed her in the paint where she would get an open look and shoot a brick. Only a layup on a perfect feed got her to 1-8 from the field. In most games that count.
Everyone on the roster played double digit minutes. Defense led to a 30 point win; OCU had 6 and 8 points in the 3rd and 4th quarters. But the fans left thinking that the Ags will need to step up a lot to justify the preseason hype.
The game will be against Team USA at 7 pm Pacific time (10 pm Eastern) on the Pac-12 Network!
