Wildcats Roar over DePaul 65-45

[tpenter]

Whoo-Hooo! Happy days appear to be here again.

In their first signature Big East win in more than three years, Nova not only made a statement but punctuated it with a blow out victory. Nova jumped out early and built a 10 point lead that held up all the way until half when DePaul closed to within nine at 34-25. Laura Sweeney and Taylor Holeman got layups and Rachel Roberts had a three ball followed by a beautiful backdoor cut for a layup and Nova was off to a 9-0 start. The second team came in and with some foul shots and a pair of nice drive layups by Devon Kane and the lead ballooned to 21-8 and extended to 27-12 when the first team got back on the court. Just an all around awesome display of offense and tough defense at the other end. Lots of rebounds, even on the offenseive glass, with a couple of putbacks to boot. Only two turnovers, one on a 3 second call.

DePaul managed to cut the lead to 8 at 36-28 after a steal and conventional three point play, but then it was off to the races once again. The next 12 Nova baskets were all layups or short shots as the rotation offense kept finding cutters open or Sweeney or Holeman open in the lane. With a Roberts layup at the 11:37 mark Nova had a commanding 18 point lead. The high water mark occured at the 5:37 mark when Roberts ended any suspense by nailing a three ball to lead 63-40 and Harry cleared the bench shortly after.

Truly a team effort, Sweeney with 8 points, 8 boards and 4 steals, Lauren Burford with 4 points but 7 assists, including several dazzling backdoor efforts, Roberts 19 points on 8-15 shooting, Holeman with a career high14 points on 7-7 shooting with 6 boards and Kane with 10 points and 3 assists and generally made a pest of herself driving the lane almost at will. Team shot 29-64, but only 3-25 on three pointers as the outside shooting remains stagnant through five or six games now. We won the rebound battle by a wide margin including lots of offensive rebounds to keep possessions alive. 19 assists with 11 turnovers, with several of them occuring in garbage time.

Hopefully a breakout game for the Wildcats - 2-0 in the Big East with four more winnable games before the gauntlet of UConn, Notre Dame and Rutgers. Away at Pitt on Saturday with the game broadcast free on the web on the BigEast channel as the game of the week. A win there and we should see more votes in the top 25 poll and keeping a terrific RPI rating going.

Good stuff - see above. A totally dynamic display. Taylor Holeman seemingly coming into her own the last few games. Tough defense, rebounding and now scoring some much need points inside for her. We really need her production in the Big East games to come. She was chosen as the star of the game tonight.

Downers - not much to speak of other than the three point shooting.

Will look to add a link to Mel Greenbergs game story on Thursday when he posts up to PhillaHoopsW. Will check to see if any pics or videos get posted to DePauls website also.

PhilaHoopsW article in attached link. Nice comments about Nova from coach Bruno.




This post was edited on 1/9 10:17 PM by tpenter

This post was edited on 1/10 6:50 AM by tpenter

PhilaHoopsW game summary

 

[TC Romulus]

Great game, but I'm wondering what happened to Emily Suhey. She wasn't on the bench and wasn't even listed on the roster. She was fourth on the team in three point percentage both last season and this season.

 

[It's Just Me]

Emily Suey Update

Emily graduated and left the team to pursue a career after the Dartmouth tournament.

I guess that is why she was here in the first place.

Too bad she wasn't here for senior night.
I wonder if they will have her back for that¿

 

[TC Romulus]

Re: Emily Suhey Update

Thank you for the information. How many players graduate in the middle of the season? Since the Temple game was her last home game, I think it would have been nice if they'd made some announcement.

 

[UncleBill57]

Whitecat has been rooting for Taylor Holeman based on the promising play he saw last year from her. It's really good to have seen her playing so
well last night especially at the offensive end. Coyer handled the ball against the press for a pretty long time, mostly doing well but turning a few over too. Good BE practice for her, a very poised freshman pg. That was a fun game. Those DePaul girls mush have been exhausted after so much pressing with not many substitutions while Villanova could bring in fresh bodies at will.

This post was edited on 1/15 8:19 PM by UncleBill57

 

[tpenter]

Re: Emily Suhey Update


Remember that most Nova players redshirt a year, so by the time they are in their fourth playing season, most have already graduated and are already working on their graduate degrees. I am not sure she knew at that point whether she would be coming back for graduate work. She actually played the weekend after that in the Dartmouth tournament. As I understand it she got a dream job offer that she couldn't refuse. And after all, isn't that what a college degree is supposed to result in? An engineering major with a high GPA.

We all liked Emily a lot, our designated three point shooter with that odd hitch in her shot. She did not get to play a lot and now her minor minutes will be filled by Kavaunna Edwards, who needs the playing time to develop the talent she has but has not shown as yet. More experience for a player who will return next year.

Will always remember Emily as the Temple killer in her sophomore year, lighting up the scoreboard when no one else on either team could seem to find the bottom of the net.

Best wishes Emily - hope to see you at Senior Night and the year end luncheon and awards ceremony.

 

[needatobaby]

This is a nice win. I am a fan of Coach Bruno. saw DePaul beat Louisville on TV last week Did we use the pressure on the threes to open the way for the back door cuts? That will always be there for us, especially against the more athletic teams like Rutgers and St. Johns. To hold DePaul to that score is amazing. Sometimes our deliberate offense frustrates the opposing team to frustration and mistakes. Pitt will be a good away test. They are usually very physical with us.

 

[TC Romulus]

In the Temple game this season, Temple made a comeback in the second half, and were driving the ball right down the middle on every possession, but then Coach Perretta went to the Twin Towers offense (Sweeney and Leer) and Villanova stopped the Temple run. Do you know if Villanova has utilized the Twin Towers offense since then? Villanova didn't use it in the Depaul game, but they didn't need to. Do you know why Depaul was playing with only 7 players?

I thought the best play in the Depaul game was when Villanova called a timeout with 5 seconds on the clock and then they ran a play where they passed it to a player under the basket who touch passed it to another player farther out who hit the jumper. I don't remember who the players were.

This post was edited on 1/10 6:11 PM by TC Romulus

 

[tpenter]

TC - DePaul has had nasty luck with injuries the past two seasons, including losing all-american Kanisha Hairston last year at Christmas break with a career ending injury. The played with only seven most of the rest of the way last year with the freshman and sophomore replacements playing excellent ball. They ran with us for 40 minutes last year and Nova was the more tired team at the game end. More of the same this year for them - their sixth man went down with a broken hand in the last game. She has over 20 three pointers coming off the bench, to go along with four other players with 20 or more threes. Not much of their three point shooting was evident last night however.

Coach Bruno is an outstanding coach and has done some amazing things with his teams, even with all of the injuries. No suprise that he was chosen to be an assistant coach with the olympic team last year.

With regard to the Sweeney-Leer combo - Leer typically comes off the bench to replace Sweeney, so it is relatively rare that they are on the court together, especially in the first half. Both like to move in and out of the lane and work down low or along the baseline, so I am not sure you will see them together too often. They do form a formidable shot blocking tandem, but Taylor Holeman is getting better with each game and was just superb in last nights game.