A Look at the Lynx: Chicago, May 25

#2 posting 5.26.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

CHICAGO sky 82, MINNESOTA lynx 77

Minnesota is still searching for their first win of the year as winless Chicago is no more. Here is the box.

Since I wasn't there again I rely on the reports. Again what I gleaned:
1. Strong start/weak start. Chicago jumped out to a 14-5 lead after their first 10 possessions. MN was 2/10 on their possessions. At the start of the second MN was 1/5. Start of the third 1/6. The fourth was the best start at 3/6. So MN was 7/27 to start off the periods---a icy .259 floor %. They did score 18 points in those 27 possessions or 66.7 pp100. Take away the 4th start with an "&1" from Ohlde and a beyond the arc for Harding and the numbers are 10 points in 21 possessions or 47.6 pp100 and .250. Brrrrr.
2. MN did have a nice 14-8 run in the middle of the second quarter closing to 32-31. MN finished the half with three straight misses and started off the 3rd 1/6. Meanwhile Chicago basically won the contest at the start of the 3rd going 13/14 for their first possessions on a 26-14 tear and leading 61-45. MN outscored Chicago 32-21 the rest of the way.
3. MN narrowed the margin to 79-77 with 46 seconds left. They picked up an offensive foul on Canty for a stop. MN then had three cracks around 17 seconds to tie the game. Ohlde, Stansbury and Harding each had opportunities that missed. Finally Melvin for Chicago got the rebound was fouled and she drained both tosses. That was the deciding factor.

MINNESOTA
STARTERS
Lindsey Harding 16, 17, 94.1, .412
Seimone Augustus 31, 20, 155.0, .700
Kristen Mann 6, 6, 100.0. .500
Noelle Quinn 0, 4, 0.0, .000
Nicole Ohlde 18, 14, 128.6, .643
BENCH
Eshaya Murphy 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Svetlana Abrosimova 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Katherin Ress 0, 2, 0.0, .000
Tiffany Stansbury 6, 7, 83.3, .429
Navonda Moore 0, 2, 0.0, .000
Amber Jacobs 0, 3, 0.0, .000

CHICAGO
STARTERS
Dominique Canty 9, 10, 90.0, .500
Armintie Price 11, 9, 122.2, .667
Stacey Dales 15, 10, 150.0, .600
Candice Dupree 25, 19, 131.6, .632
Kayte Christensen 3, 3, 100.0, .667
BENCH
Chasity Melvin 5, 8, 62.5, .375
Jia Perkins 5, 6, 83.3, .333
Stephanie Raymond 0, 2, 0.0, .000
Liz Moeggenberg 4, 4, 100.0, .500
Brooke Wyckoff 5, 4, 125.0, .750

TRENCH PLAYER
Seimone Augustus

BY THE NUMBERS
Minnesota 77, 77, 100.0, .468
Chicago 82, 75, 109.3, .546
made 3s: Chicago 5, MN 4
made fts: Chicago 17, MN 17
assists: Chicago 18, MN 18
bench: Chicago 19, MN 6
Both teams are pretty even. The main difference came on the bench. Only one MN player managed to find the bottom of the basket while Chicago had four that contributed. Combine that with the zero from Quinn as a starter and the situation was grim for MN.
This was the first game MN got to the gold standard of 100 pp100, but they still haven't been able to hold anyone down defensively. The best d performance was against Sacramento with a 98.7. But three times MN's opponents have been north of 105 pp100.
Seimone Augustus, again delivered solid numbers. At 155 pp100 it was her best performance of the year. What if we take Augustus and Dupree out of the equation. What would the team's #s look like?
MN 46, 57, 80.7, .386
Chicago 57, 56, 101.8, .518
Obviously the rest of MN's line up needs to stand and deliver.

DEFENSIVE WRAPS
MINNESOTA
Tiffany Stansbury 8
Navonda Moore 5
Lindsey Harding 3
Nicole Ohlde 3
Seimone Augustus 2
Noelle Quinn 2
Eshaya Murphy 2
Amber Jacobs 1
totals: 26

CHICAGO
Candice Dupree 6
Chasity Melvin 6
Kayte Christensen 6
Armintie Price 3Stacey Dales 3
Dominique Canty 1
Brooke Wyckoff 1
Totals: 26

Next up: a report on Saturday's tournaments. Check my Gabcast channel later in the day.