Was at the game, here are some of the things that made it a good day for me:
1. Giving almost 3,000 students free tickets to the game. In the upper deck behind the basket on the Syracuse end, having loads of fun, adding to the atmosphere.
2. Our Gabby is better than your Gabby. There was one play, at the beginning of the second half, when she grabbed a rebound, dribbled coast to coast, and fed Napheesa for a layup. Our center, dribbling, beat everyone up the floor. Who does that, really?!!
3. Lou`s toughness. The word must have been out to bump her around. She took a hit to the jaw a few seconds in during a loose ball following the opening tip. Clobbered on a drive to the hoop in the first half. Brianna Day (who is way better than I thought) wacked her a couple of times - once on a drive and layup late in the game, I thought they should have reviewed for flagrant. Lou came up jawing after that one. She hit the deck at least a half dozen times, but also made a ton of free throws.
4. Our offensive flow. I figured this would be a good matchup for us, with their press leading to an open court and a lot of assists and easy hoops. But I wasn`t anticipating 30 assists out of 33 hoops. Movement and passing was team basketball at its best. Syracuse was only 8 on 26 although Peterson is very good and was able to beat us off the dribble and get into the lane as well as anyone we have played against all year (like Mitchell of OSU in the first half of that game).
5. Kia`s corner bank shot. She must have figured that Lou had already taken the Jordan shrug move, so she went with the arm flap instead.