New Haven

We got just what we expected from New Haven last night. They are an experienced bunch and they came in with a 9-3 record. They play an unorthodox style that mixes aggressive attacks on the basket with in-your-face defense that's just physical enough to keep other teams off balance. We really had trouble finding our rhythm (again!) and while it seemed like we should be gradually easing away from them as the first half wore on, the exact opposite happened. We went into halftime behind 30-26 and wondering why we couldn't get anything going.

Despite the fresh start in the second half, we ended up falling further behind. We trailed by as many as nine points a couple different times in the third quarter and some visible frustration began to set in. Just that quickly, we went on a mini-run and had a chance to tie it up. New Haven scored a couple more times and it was back to six. Then we went on another little push and finally caught them. Once that happened, we exploded, rapidly moving our newfound lead into double digits. New Haven was physically spent and we had no trouble managing the lead from that point forward. The final score was 72-60. We scored 46 points in the second half alone, but gave up way too many in doing that.

I was pleased to win two of the three first games back from Christmas. Given the long layoff and the strength of our competition, that seemed like a fair goal. the only real disappointment came in the form of Concordia's win 59-53 over Elmhurst last night. I have trouble understanding why Elmhurst is so inconsistent, but they played awfully well against us! That loss still gnaws at the girls a little bit, but we gained some things from the experience and we'll use those lessons as we move forward through the season.