Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Cedar, post: 3411290, member: 1309"] Maya Moore was the key to UConn’s 53-47 win in the 2010 National Championship game. She scored 23 points, and she was the only UConn player to score in double digits. There were two additional factors that had a significant impact on the outcome of the game, however. The first factor was the officiating. The referees’ foul calls were very lopsided in favor of UConn. The Huskies had 22 free throw attempts, versus just 4 for Stanford. If the refs had called the game more evenly, Stanford probably would have won the game. The second factor was Jayne Appel. Tara VanDerveer has said that Appel was one of the best centers she ever coached. Appel was a smart player and was the Cardinal’s third-best scorer and rebounder in the 2009-2010 season (13.2 PPG average, 8.7 rebounds-per-game average), after Nneka Ogwumike and Kayla Pedersen. She also was an excellent passer and a great screener. Appel entered the national championship game with an injured, heavily taped ankle. Despite the injury, she helped Stanford hold UConn to just 12 points in the first half. She struggled on offense, however, because she was not able to effectively push off of her injured ankle. In the first five minutes of the second half, Appel rolled her ankle, further reducing her effectiveness. Although she played injured for 30 minutes during the game, she was forced to sit on the bench for more than 7 minutes in the second half. Her replacement, Joslyn Tinkle, had a scoring average of just 4.6 PPG that season, and she was not nearly as good a passer as Appel. Meanwhile, with Appel injured and Tinkle in the game, UConn’s offense became more effective, Maya and Tina in particular. Appel finished the game with zero points scored. Zippo. This was largely due to her ankle injury. This performance stands in sharp contrast to her performance against the Huskies in Hartford earlier in the season, when she scored 12 points. The bottom line is that if Appel had not had an injured ankle, Stanford might very well have won the game, which is, in fact, what Stanford did when the teams had a rematch at Maples later that year. Stanford crushed UConn, 71-59; Jeanette Pohlen lit up UConn for 31 points in that game. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach