Women's Hoops Blog

Inane commentary on a game that deserves far better


Friday, June 27, 2008

24 hours ago this year's Lib squad had yet to play an overtime period. Now they've played three. Janel McCarville looked as good as she has in her whole pro career as she led the exhausted Liberty past the Fever in 3OT at MSG.

Just watching the game on TV (in HD-- thanks, ESPN!) was pretty exhausting--- by the end most of the players looked worn-out, too. But they wanted the win, and the home team got one at last: NY climbed back out of a big first-half hole, traded one-point leads with Indiana forever, then fell behind by three with seconds to spare; Janel found Kraayeveld in the corner for the trey that forced the initial OT.

In the next 15 minutes of free basketball, McCarville split two free throws with seconds to go (she made the second-- you could hear fans exhale); Christon, Catch and Hoffman all hit timely threes; and Hoffman fouled out.

McCarville (31 points), Hoffman (26), Carson (18), and Sutton-Brown (23) all earned new career highs. Carson's Rutgers-style play-- use up the clock, then drive and get to the line-- looked like a great fit for coach Coyle's don't-rush-things style; McCarville looked, as usual, magnificent in the midst of a crowd in the paint, but vulnerable when isolated on the low block against a far taller TSB.

Since you asked: it was the second-longest game in league history: this one was longest.

And since you didn't ask (lest you be misled by the author tag): Jessie and Steve remain one unit, now as always (she's tired from last night's game too). Steve is simply tired of having to log out of his mail account, then into another, over and over, to post. (If there were two separate Steves here, we would let you know.)