Monarchs @ San Antonio (5/27)

[6th]

Koz and Krista are doing the pregame right now. Sounds like Kara Lawson will not play, but will continue to rest her sprained ankle.

Krista interviewed Edna Campbell.....

Edna...Sacramento will always be a great part of me. I love Sacramento. I miss it and all the players. It is good to get to see them here today.

She then talks about the changes taking place with the San Antonio organization. She talked about getting to play in France and enjoying the culture.

 

[6th]

Monarchs start Ticha and Chelsea in the backcourt and DeMya, Nicole, and Yo in the frontcourt.

Yo at 6'4" stole the tip from a 6'8" SilverStar.

Monarchs with a quick lead of 6-0 causes a timeout by SA (Dan Hughes is new head coach).

Sounds like Chelsea is playing some good D...has already given a hard time to PeeWee.

 

[ReinadelosReys]

Demaya is having a lay-up party.

 

[6th]

After letting SA catch up (and actually lead by 2 at one point), the bench came in a really starting heating things up for the Monarchs. It was just the spark they needed. The M's finish out the half with a real flourish and lead at halftime 36-26. Note the 26 by the Silver Stars. I love the defense that the M's are playing.

 

[6th]

Woohoo!! Monarchs start the 2nd half with a 3ball by Ticha....OH YEAH!!

 

[6th]

Koz says the Bigs on the Monarchs have really made a difference with their crisp and accurate passing. Geez! Remind you of anyone?

Everyone has made a contribution again this game. I think having a good bench is really helping the M's. C Whiz is really keeping fresh legs out there and I like that.

The Silver Stars just will not go away. They are currently on a 10-6 run and the M's lead has dropped back to 6.

The biggest difference is the FT disparaty. That is the only thing keeping SA in the game. I have lost track, but SA leads in FT attempts by about 23-8.

 

[6th]

Monarchs lead 63-55 with about 35 sec left in the game. Timeout by SA.

My favorite female player (for those of you who don't already know) is Yolanda Griffith. I was the 1st person to meet her at the "meet the players" event when she moved from the "other" pro league to the WNBA. She had just lost out on the MVP of the league award. I told her that day that she would be an MVP in the WNBA. Well, as many of you know, she was the "Rookie" of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and the League MVP in her inaugural season.

Well, she is leading the Monarchs tonight with 21 pts (on 9 of 12 from the floor) and 10 rebs. (Those stats may not be totally up to date).

 

[6th]

Monarchs WIN!!


The final score was 71-67. This is only the 2nd time the M's have started a season with a 2-0 record...........and starting on the road (without one of the starters) gives me a good feeling about this team. Keep it up ladies.

 

[Still JD]

Only caught part of the game on the radio but just checked the box score and our "Big Three" for the game were:

Yo, the Warrior, had a double-double with 21 pts and 10 boards.

Ticha (yes Ticha) had 11 pts for the second straight game. Also 4 assists and 4 steals.

DeMya with 13 pts. and 5 assists.

Big advantage in points in the paint - 44 to 22 - and fast break points - 16 to 8.

Room to improve: 63.6% free throws and 18 turnovers.

Overall, a great win on the road, especially without Kara.

 

[6th]

DeMya and Yo had a good passing to each other thing going. When one of them was open, the other was getting them the ball for some easy inside scoring.

 

[ReinadelosReys]

Woooohoooo we're undefeated! I listened to most of the 1st half, but only caught bits and pieces of the second half. I brought my walk man with me to my nieces soccer game, but the woman next to me keep bothering me. She kept asking me questions, making other comments, asked what I was doing, telling me about her daughter, asked me about my daughter after I just told her 5 min before that I was there for my niece! Anyhow, looks like the M's bigs played well, nothing changed with Chantel (poor girl, like Koz said she wakes up in the morning with 2 fouls -Scott Pollard syndrome), Ticha with the clutch FT's to end the thing; good win!

 

[HoopMatron]

Now if they could only start getting those foul calls -- what is the disparity for the two games so far? (ok, I've answered my own question. Opponents have taken 67 FTs and M's have taken 47)

Usually the difference is due to a lack of driving the lane or aggressiveness, but that doesn't seem the case with this team. What could account for this?

HoopMatron

 

[MamaBristow]

Don't look now, but we sit atop the west all by our lonesome! Houston lost to Seattle tonight leaving Sac as the only undefeated western conference team left! So what if it's only two games... it's a good start. And all on the road so far. The worst that Sac could do now is a .500 road trip and that's not bad.

Free throws tonight were ugly (except for Ticha and Nicole), and from the sound of the broadcast, fouls were out of control. This foul trend could make for an ugly home opener against LA, when aren't these two teams attacking each other?

Glad that they pulled out the victory without Kara, I hope she doesn't rush her return and do worse damage. But Coach T said he expects her back against Minnesota, so who knows.

 

[6th]

First of all, welcome to the forum, MamaBristow.

Yes, I heard Coach T say that he thought Kara would play Sunday. This is a very deep team. If there is any chance of Kara's ankle still being sore, I too hope she will not play.

Hoopmatron, I don't think the FT disparity is even as close as your figures would indicate. Take out the half a dozen deliberate fouls of the M's at the end of the game tonight (in the last minute and a half or so) and the disparity looms even larger.

 

[MBBPOETRY]

Well they did hit 10 of 12 free-throws down the stretch when it counted.
Thank-you Coaches & owners...we still have our leader & Vet...YO GRIFFITH!!!
She is one huge reason I still sit at courtside.....YES!

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

... My favorite female player (for those of you who don't already know) is Yolanda Griffith. I was the 1st person to meet her at the "meet the players" event when she moved from the "other" pro league to the WNBA. She had just lost out on the MVP of the league award. I told her that day that she would be an MVP in the WNBA. Well, as many of you know, she was the "Rookie" of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and the League MVP in her inaugural season...

I thought that she was "Newcomer" of the year?

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

I was going to be skeptical of Ticha's double figure scoring because she still isn't hitting from the floor with as much regularity as I would like, then I had to give her major props for coming back with much better FT focus than she's had. She had to have been one of the shakier FT shooters on this team that last couple of seasons. I also have to also say she's looking different this year despite the fact that she's still technically not shooting the ball. Weird...but I like it.

I only was able to listen to the first half of the game and the post game interviews and wrap up. As scary as these last two games have been, (again as I reflected) I have to say that these are games they would have lost in the past. Goodness knows this team has found ways to let other teams come in and snatch games away. But they are holding on and controling the game down the stretch....ON THE ROAD!!!! That's another huge mind-shift they had to make as a group. They can only get better from here as they figure out how to not let teams make runs like that late in the game(I hope).

They gotta get better at the FT line though. Period.

I'm not sure what the deal has been with the disparity. Phoenix only hung around last week because of their FT shooting.

I had to chuckle about Chantelle's quote in the paper this morning about how she felt comfortable guarding Yo. I'm not sure if its the fact that Chantelle fouled out or the fact that Yo went off that made me laugh more. Young one, you have much to learn about guarding the other centers and forwards in this conference. Michelle Snow and Christi Thomas are no Lauren Jackson or Lisa Leslie.

I want to see them pass the test against Minnesota tomorrow. That's probably going to be the first "complete" team they've seen thus far. I think Minnesota has everybody and they've seemed to come out the gate with some sort of gel to them AND the all important secondary scorer to keep defenses honest on Katie Smith who seems to be back to her old scoringly unconscious self. If they can own the paint against Minny and their bigs, then we'll know how they should be able to hold their own in the West.

How long has it been since this team has sat in the top spot of the West all by its lonesome? I know its early and all, but I'll savor this nonetheless....

 

[Monty'sBiggestFan]

Newcomer, rookie....it's all the same. I think they made that award up so that Chamique would not get cheated out of the award they had already engraved her name on a year before she was even drafted.

 

[MBBPOETRY]

This may turn out to be Ms.Holdsclaw's finest season yet. Doesn't hurt having Lisa Leslie as a teammate. Just the same I beleive our Monarch's can hold their vs. LA next Sat. Should be one thrillin game!

 

[hoopsfan]

See ya'll there!!

 

[6th]

See ya'll there!!

I certainly hope so.