Women's March Madness: FGCU and Virginia Tech create an instant classic while Maryland moves on
The first round of games in College Park featured a game that should have been played in the Sweet 16, Maryland's scary potential and the Delaware Blue Hens keeping their chins up.
Ball and Order is a newsletter with my basketball analysis, reporting, takes and anything I can think of/have time to do. My name is Gabe Ibrahim (twitter: @gabe_ibrahim), I make stuff for Her Hoop Stats (@herhoopstats), and I also like to make tik toks about basketball (@ballandorder). Please subscribe!
#5 Virginia Tech 81 #12 FGCU 84
This was one of the most well played games I’ve ever seen live. The teams played at a very high level, both coaches made good adjustments to fix issues, and the stars shone brightly. The teams played so well that the margins that were meant to determine the outcome did. Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks summed it up quite well.
“Their game plan was to take away our 3 and let [Elizabeth Kitley] do her thing, and she did it. Our game plan was to make ‘others’ hit shots and they did,” said Brooks.
Kitley put up 42 points (the most by any player in the first round since at least 2010) and FGCU’s lesser three-point shooters took 21 of the team’s 38 attempts from deep. The difference was that Kitley’s teammates combined for just 39 points and those FGCU “others” hit 9 of those 21 attempts. Virginia Tech is still dancing if those others miss one or two more shots and you could point to a number of things that could have flipped the result.
Despite the extra attention and the 6’6” roaming in the paint, Kierstan Bell still put up 22 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 4 stonks (steals+blocks). She did most of her damage as the roller in the spread pick-and-roll, especially when she slipped (not making contact) the screen. Check out the finish over Kitley at the 1:45 mark of this video.
Bell also picked up her fourth foul just before the end of the 3rd quarter. FGCU coach Karl Smesko stuck with her and it paid off. Bell didn’t foul out and scored 10 points in the 4th. He explained it in terms even I understood.
“We moved her off the kid that kept going to the foul line,” said Smesko. “And then we told her not to foul. That's it.”
As Brooks said, the plan was to focus on Bell and Kendall Spray, not give up penetration and let FGCU’s non-elite shooters take open threes. Those others did just enough to get the W. Karli Seay, a low-volume/good-percentage shooter, and Emma List, a sub-30% three point shooter, went 7 of 16 from deep and both hit crucial threes in the 4th quarter. TK Morehouse may or may not have been in the “others” category. Either way, her ability to drive-and-kick and quick feet on defense made a huge difference for FGCU. The most unexpected contribution came from grad transfer Andrea Cecil. Smesko turned to Cecil, the team’s tallest player, when Bell picked up her second foul in the 1st quarter. She played a season-high 20 minutes, put up 8 points and 5 boards, and guarded the ACC Player of the Year better than any other Eagle did.
For most of the game, Smesko let Kitley work against single coverage or stunts from the weakside slot. She absolutely killed FGCU, but the Eagles successfully cut off the rest of the Hokies. In the 4th quarter, Kitley forced FGCU to adjust with 12 points in the first four minutes of the final frame. Smesko called time and started bringing help from the strongside or the weakside corner. After the timeout, Kayana Traylor missed a three off of a Kitley kick out, Kitley missed a tough turnaround with a lot of Eagles around her, Aisha Sheppard missed a tough three, and Bell intercepted an entry pass. By the end of the sequence, FGCU had a 3-point lead that they would not relinquish.
Virginia Tech deserves a lot more attention than I’m going to give them here. My guys at Tech Sideline have a good recap from the Hokie perspective. Kitley’s performance was extremely impressive, even though she was 5 inches taller than any FGCU player. Her turnaround jumper is deadly and she gets it off fast enough to beat even the tallest defenders. She may have settled for too many mid-range jumpers and she definitely needs to work on her rim protection to take the next step in her career. Still, Kitley’s performance was one of the most dominant scoring displays you’ll ever see in the NCAA tournament.
This VT group also isn’t done yet. Most of the team will return (based on who was honored during Senior Day) and they may be the pre-season favorite to win the ACC. Losing Aisha Sheppard and Emily Lytle definitely leave holes in their rotation, but the team could overcome the on-court loss especially with VT’s record of development.
Sheppard’s departure is a huge blow to the program. She committed to VT in 2016 as a 5-star recruit coming out of St. John’s Catholic in Washington, D.C. At the time, the Hokies had not made the Big Dance in a decade. Now, the team has made the last two NCAA tournaments and look like competitors in the ACC. Sheppard deserves credit for building this program and, hopefully, she gets a chance to be Virginia Tech’s first WNBA mainstay.
#4 Maryland 102 #13 Delaware 71
Not a ton to say about this 30-point blowout that has not already been said. My big takeaway is that Maryland is fully healthy and approaching their full potential. Diamond Miller was absolutely dominant on offense with 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting. She killed Delaware in transition and her length bothered the Blue Hens a ton. Ashley Owusu poured in 24 points and 6 assists after looking hurt in the Big Ten Tournament. Angel Reese (15), Katie Benzan (17), and Chole Bibby (11) all finished with double digit points to round out the starting lineups. The Terps looked sharp defensively and got to work on some pressing, which may be big in their upcoming matchup with FGCU.
There’s a number of great things Maryland did in this game that could have a big effect on their 2nd round matchup. But this team has been inconsistent at times this year, so the Terps we saw on Friday may not be the same Terps we see on Sunday. If Maryland is playing like this, they can beat anyone and win the National Championship.
There was a small moment worth mentioning. With the Terps leading late in the third quarter, Angel Reese got the ball at the top of the key and stared at the basket from the three-point line. She has taken 10 threes all season, all of them ill-advised, and made 1. Yet, the siren song of a three began to ring in Reese’s ear.
This time, Reese swung the ball and Maryland got a basket on the play! The Terps bench, band, media row and, really, the entire stadium let out a giggle. But honestly, the maturity from Reese was nice to see and a sign of her growth this season. I think she’s always going to be more fun than wise, but she has cut out a lot of the harmful silliness as the year has gone on.
Jasmine Dickey poured in 31 points for Delaware. We’ll need to have a longer discussion about her draft potential soon. I want to focus on the Blue Hens at large here because I came away very impressed with the program that coach Natasha Adair is building in Newark.
The Blue Hens won their first Colonial Athletic Conference Championship since Elena Delle Donne was there in 2013. After some lackluster seasons in the last years of coach Tina Martin’s two decades at Delaware, Adair took over and immediately took the team to the WNIT. They won the CAA regular season title last season before finally getting the conference tournament title this year, with plenty of credit going to Dickey.
“I wanted to leave my mark. I know our team wanted to leave our mark, and I think that's what we did,” said Dickey. “We put Delaware on the map.”
One little thing I loved is that Dickey and senior Paris McBride showed up to the press conference with their “CAA Champions” hats on with a piece of the nets still attached. Despite a 30-point loss, Delaware was leaving with their heads held high and thinking about the nets they cut down rather than the ones they didn’t.
“When this dies down and this little sting goes away that we're going to celebrate, and we're going to party because there's so much to be proud of,” said Adair. “So we won't hang our heads. Competitors don't. They don't. They grow. And we will just continue to grow and get better.”
Delaware will have to rebuild with a lot of seniors, including Dickey, leaving. Maybe I’m a little overly sentimental, but I’d bet on Adair bringing the Blue Hens back to the NCAA Tournament very soon.