EOU ladies edge College of Idaho to keep the streaks alive

When a team has won 26 straight conference games and 30 straight home games, records enough to stand for several decades, that makes the target on thier back a little bigger. However, you don’t just win that many games by chance alone. It takes a formidable opponent to hit the bullseye. The EOU ladies have consistently proven to be just that much btter than the rest. At the same time, College of Idaho Lady Yotes have proven they are not that far behind. In the three matchups between the two teams last year, the games were decided by 12 total points, the last being the conference championship in Quinn that EOU pulled out by one point.

As the season has gone this year, EOU has been owning up to their part of again leading the conference from the get go. Idaho stumbled a bit with the two conference losses, but the only thing keeping them from a national ranking was the fact that they had played so many tough out of conference teams. This is to say that Coach Rossi’s team is fearless and daring as well as having acquired some very valuable skills from their experience. There was no doubt that these two teams meeting for the first time this season was bound to be an epic struggle. And a fan like me loves the tough games, this one especially because there can be some pleasure in seeing either team win. More pleasure in Eastern Oregon of course, but if/when the winning streaks fall, I would rather see Idaho be the victor than SOU.

I somehow managed to get in this game for $4, so it was totally worth it. It was the youth/senior ticket, though I am quite obviously neither. Panda says that me being kid yoshida counts for something. Fair enough. The fact that I often pay the full price to only watch the ladies and end up leaving when most people are still coming in is probably worth a few free admissions on its own.

The game was good, but only lived up to the hype in terms the final scenes and EOU's comeback struggle. EOU really got beat bad in the first half. In fact, they beat themselves as bad as Idaho beat them. This was the most fundamentally sloppy game the Mountaineers have played in the last two years. The mistakes were beyond comprehension. The lack of ball handling, the overly aggressive throws, the ugly open shots was part of it. Then, the intimidation factor of a very pesky perimeter Yote defense. Half of every pass EOU attempted in the first half was tipped or picked off.

Only a few things saved EOU in the first half. Defensive rebounding and a fair amount of turnovers by Idaho as well. Malloree Moss and Nicole Redd were steady running the offense as usual, with Redd also hitting some timely shots. The big threes, with the fouls (and never missing free throws) by Brittney Newcomb provided the points EOU needed to close the gap so quickly, though her shooting behavior from outside this night was both a blessing and a curse. But make no mistake, Nikki Osborne was the main player in the first half. She’s always been able to position underneath and has been quite studious in keeping to her assignments. She did that versus Idaho, but so much more. Her hands looked twice as big as usual. She grabbed the ball anytime it was in her neighborhood. Then, her shot at the end of the first half left the deficit at a managable three points.

Second half, EOU came back out on a mission and controlled the pace fairly well, but still struggled on the scorebaord. Idaho started falling apart through the middle of the second half, which helped EOU stay in the game, but the Yotes still got some big scores to keep the pace. Up stepped pretty decent team effort by the Mounties and everyone was playing their part, such as Kelsey Hill and Payton Parrish kept the ball moving around and pulled in some key loose balls and rebounds in short sub assingments.

Kassy Larson became the second half go-to person, and performed with the same blessing/curse results that Newcomb had in the first half. Instead of forcing long shots, EOU forced passes inside, which EOU could get away with because Larson is so big. However, once she got the ball, it was at times disastrous. She didn’t handle the ball particularly well on offense and might have hit under 20% of those close shots with clear looks. Idaho feasted on all her missed shots and that kept them in the game. However, Larson was big money on defense late in the game. She saved EOU when they needed possession to close the deficits. We made up about 8 points in the last five minutes and that was thanks mostly to Larson underneath on defense.

Osborne was still around and back in the game with under two minutes to play. She had the most incredible ending play that EOU has seen this year. With EOU struggling hard to get and hold a lead, the first big play came on yet another foul of Newcomb during a three point shot with the game tied and under half a minute left. The typically automatic free throw shooter missed one, although it appeared intentional. The miss certainly worked out in EOU's favor. Larson rebounded and EOU was able to spend more time to get the last shot or go to overtime. Had Newcomb made the point, the possession would have gone back to Idaho, who figured to have at least a 50% chance to score the last basket for the win. Instead, EOU ran off the clock in a rather frustrating way. Having touble trying to get the ball inside, EOU turned it over and Idaho came back down, but missed two shots. With 15 seconds remaining, Newcomb brought the ball down and straight inside as would have been expected. She forced an off balance shot, which was knocked out of bounds by the Yotes. With only about three seconds left, the inbound pass to Osborne cutting under the basket was put easily in for a two point lead.

Nikki Osborne's game winning shot from www.eousports.com

Idaho inbounded with two seonds left, and brought down a half court attempt which bounced off the rim. It was beautiful. EOU had a party at center court. Idaho was stunned. I don’t blame them. It was a sloppy game, but sweet in the end. It was also packed, thanks in part to the huge fan base Idaho brought with them that basically co-opted the upper deck of the southeast side. Can’t wait for Caldwell. The rematch. February 7.

After the ladies game, everything fell apart. I should have stayed to watch the guys game, but I had other plans to attend a concert. And I could have made the date, had I gone only to the gas station and straight out of town…however, being hungry, I tried to fit in "wins equals wings" at Benchies. Note to self, bad idea. But nevermind. The night was worth it enough for the ladies game. This and more on La GrandeStand, Mondays at noon.