Last night, the inevitable happened to the EOU women's basketball team in Klamath Falls. And the unfortunate reality happened to the men's basketball team. The women lost their first Cascade Conference game since February 2012, snapping a 29-game conference winning streak. It was the longest win streak in conference history. That's OK. EOU is still the cream of the crop in the CCC. Following that game, and despite some pretty good moments under first year Coach Barrett, the men's team saw their season effectively come to an end. With a 3-7 conference record now, the loss to OIT pushed EOU further back into 8th place. Barring an 8-game win streak to close the season, there will be no place in the conference tournament this year. Seeing the troubles EOU has had with the 7th place OIT Owls, looking ahead to those road games vs. SOU and College of Idaho makes the post season prospect seems quite unlikely. EOU can, however, still salvage a decent season out of things and a win vs. SOU would still be beautiful no matter how many other losses.
So, we should not be discouraged about all of that. I do have two beefs with last night's women's game at OIT.
1. I couldn't watch the live stream online, though I was able to listen (which isn't possible tonight vs. SOU). Those dudes at that other radio station told me that it doesn't cost money to watch these games, though after two years of trying, I now beg to differ. Stretch Internet was charging $9.95 for pay-per-view of last night's game, and the College of Idaho vs. SOU game cost $7.95. Gee, what a deal! I know I promote these games to the end of the earth and I, personally, value the the entertainment level over pro sports or NCAA, but the reality of it is that this is NAIA Div II women's basketball! It only costs me $10 to sit a couple feet behind the EOU bench at home games and I rarely even do that. I typically pay the $6 to sit anywhere else in the arena. So, that necessarily means I won't pay $10 to watch a two-angle video taken from the upper deck with hardly any sound (unless they patch in the radio announcers, which I suppose they would). I don't care about the road games that much! The most I would pay is about $2 and only because of the particular matchup and importance of last night's game. I have only watched EOU games online twice and those are free! Why would I pay to watch the OIT Owls?? (This beef will be revisited when I get to that blog on net neutrality...)
2. OIT radio announcers need to do a little more homework before getting all excited. Not that they are bad announcers. They put EOU's part time announcers to shame. I have all the respect for the way OIT was able to shut down EOU on offense, but the reality is that EOU's offense has had to fight hard most of the month. (It's certainly awful when you're in a slump and still win five out of six games.) At the end of Friday's game, the announcers were all gushy over the fact that OIT was able to shut down the fourth leading scorer in the NAIA. Maybe, they should take into consideration that a couple weeks ago, Brittney Newcomb was the second leading scorer in the NAIA. The last few games, every team has shut Newcomb down and forced her to throw up some of the gaudiest shot selections. Sure, OIT held Newcomb to 3-18 for 11 total points, but a look at her stats from the rest of the month indicate that is not terribly unique.
FG 3P FT Points
Jan 24 vs OIT 3-18 1-8 4-4 11
Jan 18 vs Corban 1-9 0-5 7-7 9
Jan 17 vs Northwest 5-18 2-9 0-0 12
Jan 10 vs C Idaho 9-23 6-15 9-10 33
Jan 04 vs Warner P 8-18 6-13 5-6 27
Jan 03 vs Concordia 7-16 5-9 0-0 19
As is apparent, OIT's biggest advantage was that Newcomb came to town in a slump. Even that game versus College of Idaho where Newcomb blew up for 33 points was a blessing and a curse. The Yotes forced her into some severely ugly three point attempts. Sure, she made six three pointers that helped EOU back into the game, but she also missed nine pretty ill-advised shots that got EOU in a hole to begin with. Plus, the 9-23 field goal rate is still under her season average. Her best games came at the beginning of the month vs. the two teams tied for last place. So, OIT can't get all warm and fuzzy feelings because they shut down EOU's shooting guard when everyone else seems to have figured some things out as well. Especially when considering, yes, Newcomb was neutralized, but then freshman Payton Parrish made OIT pay with three outside money shots and 10 points of her own to pull EOU up. And if Parrish can do that, EOU has a lot of weapons at their disposal that OIT didn't even get a glimpse of on Friday night.
What OIT did have going for them was the home court advantage. They are now 11-0 on the season at Danny Miles Court. While they obviously have some things to be excited about, now is not the time to get all juiced over the fact that EOU finally lost a game. In the last two and a half seasons, EOU has lost a total of six conference games, winning forty. OIT has lost three conference games so far this season and nearly lost to Evergreen. This means that OIT will have to win out the next eight and hope EOU stumbles with tonight's game at SOU and the Feb 7 game at Idaho. Otherwise, OIT will be coming to La Grande for a rematch in the conference tournament. Taking down a 29-game conference winning streak is one thing. Taking down an even longer EOU home winning streak will be much harder, particularly in the post season. If OIT can pull that off, then the announcers have my permission to go ape on the radio.
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