Rhode Island is in Las Vegas, NV, to play in the Las Vegas Holiday Classic which is taking place in the Orleans Hotel & Casino. Today is the second and final game for Rhody in this round robin style event, vs the Portland Pilots.
Unfortunately it appears the Varsity Network is the only way to follow along for these two. That means: no video, just audio and live stats.
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The Portland Pilots Women's Basketball Team hails from the University of Portland in Portland, Oregon, and plays in the West Coast Conference. The WCC has other teams/schools that you may be familiar with, namely: Gonzaga, St Mary's, Pepperdine, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, Pacific, and San Francisco.
In much the same way URI Women's BB has drawn a lot of their talent from France, a large chunk of Portland's team come from New Zealand and Australia. So that corner of the world is a heavily recruited area for Portland.
Their starting 5 from yesterday's game vs Northern Arizona are as follows:
#5 Emme Shearer 6'0" Jr. G, Auckland, NZ- 30 mins, 7-11, 2-2, 5-7, 3 rebs, 1 assist, 4 to's, 1 stl,................ 21pts
#30 Lucy Cochrane 6'6" Sr. F, Melbourne, AUS- 32 mins, 6-10, 0-1, 3-4, 6 rebs, 1 assist, 5 to's, 4 blks, 1 stl,... 15 pts
#24 Maisie Burnham 6'0" Jr. G, Spangle, Wash- 29 mins, 3-6, 2-3, 2-3, 3 rebs, 1 assist, 2 to's,................... 10 pts
#1 McKelle Meek 5'7" Jr. G, Beaverton, Ore- 24 mins, 2-7, 1-3, 2-2, 2 rebs, 5 assists, 2 to's,........................7 pts
#12 Kennedy Dickie 6'0" Grad, G, Kelowna, B.C.- 23 mins, 2-8, 0-2, 0-0, 4 rebs, 2 assists, 1 to, 1 blk, 2 stl's,...4 pts
bench:
#25 Kianna Hamilton 6'0" RedSr. G, Woodland Hills, Cali- 22 mins, 0-2, 0-1, 0-0, 0 rebs, 3 assists, 1 to, 1 stl,...0 pts
#2 Dyani Anaviev 6'1" Fr. F, St. Andrews, AUS- 18 mins, 0-5, 0-0, 2-2, 2 rebs, 2 assists, 1 to,....................... 2 pts
#22 Rhyan Mogel 5'10" Fr. G, Happy Valley, Ore- 8 mins, 1-2, 0-0, 2-2, 0 rebs, 2 assists, 2 stls,.................... 4 pts
#20 Lainey Spear 6'2" Fr. F, Portland, Ore- 8 mins, 1-1, 0-0, 0-0, 1 reb, 1 assist, 2 to's,............................. 2 pts
Team photo:
So, some conclusions you can draw from this info (for those of us who love to jump to conclusions, practically a requirement for being a Rhody fan):
They have the one space eater in Cochrane, 6'6".
You can see where they get the bulk of their points from.
Their top 6 players in terms of mins are all upper class(wo)men, and then they rely on 3 newbies. So, they lean on their new players perhaps a little harder than Rhody is currently.
I count 11 three point attempts total by their team. Of the 6 players who attempted a three pointer, only 3 players connected.
So, without actually seeing this team play, they don't necessarily rely on the 3 ball like many of our previous opponents did. Disclaimer: cannot rely on that, however.
This looks like a grind it out team. They have a lot of experience in their top 6 players. That might seem to make them one dimensional, but sometimes when you have a lot of talent that just does one style of play really good, that can make up for being one dimensional.
I'm guessing this team relies heavily on defense. 5 players with at least one steal, and the two players with blocked shots.
So, this team has lost it's last two games. They were not expecting to lose to Northern Arizona yesterday, and they probably do not think they should lose again today to Rhody. They lost to NAU by a single point, 65-66, in a game where NAU came charging back in the 2nd half:
By quarter:
Port: 15, 27, 12, 11 ..... 65
NAU: 8 , 22, 16, 20 ...... 66
So, after a 15-8 deficit, NAU managed to try and better keep up with Portland in the second quarter. And stormed out of half time and caught them by the end of the game.
Portland has lost their last 2. Their game after Rhody is against Oregon, which they are expected to get demo'ed in. So, they don't want to lose 4 straight, which is their motivation to try and come out today and take care of Rhody.
Rhody, on the other hand, is looking to not only make this 3 straight wins, but if they do win this game, they could very well win the majority of their remaining non con games, all the way to St Louis. If not all of them, they should very well be in all of them with the chance to beat the likes of Princeton, Harvard, Quinnipiac, PC, and St. John's. That is to say, there are no "NC State" or "Oregon" left between now and St Louis, but there are a couple of "Maines" left, that are capable teams, but fortunately Rhody gets to play most of them in the friendly confines of the Ryan this time around.
So, this is where the Nike high-quality rubber meets the Rhody. These teams do not know each other, but they have their own reasons to want this one. We can only hope that Sophie Phillips has another outstanding game like yesterday, and they up the team rebounding and limit the turnovers for this one.
Go Rhody!!
Edit: added Quinnipiac. Because Quinnipiac beat Maine at home, got blown out by Harvard in Boston, and then lost to Vermont, a perennial tournament team, by 5 at home, so they are in that mix and should not be overlooked. They also happen to be our next home game at the Ryan.
