Thursday, February 26, 2009
Oklahoma State guard Andrea Riley never stopped looking to score Wednesday night against Kansas. That was expected.
But the Kansas defenders never stopped getting their hands in her face and made her look pedestrian when her statistics so far this year show she is a top-level talent. Riley scored 18 points on 7-of-28 shooting in a 67-52 Kansas victory.
Coach Bonnie Henrickson thought that her entire team did a great job making Riley take “tough twos.”
“We never really let her get really, really loose and in a great rhythm,” Henrickson said.
Forced to take step-back three pointers and contested shots around the paint, Riley, a candidate for the Wooden Award and a potential selection for the All-Big 12 First Team, looked frustrated the entire night. Her 18 points was her second lowest output in Big 12 play.
Junior guard Sade Morris didn’t think one person could take the credit for shutting down Riley.
“That was just teamwork,” Morris said. “She’d pass her defenders, but we’d have three others sitting in the lane waiting for her.”
Henrickson agreed that it was a complete team effort. She credited senior Ivana Catic for taking on the head-to-head matchup for most of the game, but also talked about the post players stepping up and either forcing an extra pass or making Riley hit a tough shot.
“She couldn’t get the shot, she couldn’t get the layup, and then she couldn’t get the pass,” Henrickson said.
Henrickson even decided not to put Morris, her “best defender”, on Riley. She felt that they were asking “too much” of the junior guard to take a huge role on both the offensive and defensive end. Morris was responsible for guarding Riley on a made shot, but because Riley missed often, Catic took the matchup for most of the game.
Morris and Henrickson also said that another key was not to foul Riley when she drove into the paint. Riley took more than 10 free throw attempts in five conference games, and she only stepped to the line three times Wednesday night.
The defense on Riley stepped up in the later parts of the second half. Her last bucket came with 12:56 to go in the game. From that point on, the Jayhawks finished the game on a 29-12 run. Riley took nine shots after her last basket and none of them fell. A few even missed the rim.
Riley’s poor finish spoke volumes about the effectiveness of the entire team playing solid defense.
“That’s good team defense, not one-on-one,” Henrickson said. “Nobody one-on-one is going to stop Riley.”
— — Edited by Carly Halvorson
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