We headed over to Chapman a little early for our 1pm Pacific time start and the Chapman women's team was just finishing their shoot-around. This is game is the main reason for us to come out to California, as it is a last homecoming for our senior California natives Levi Wenrich and Brandon Rieg. It could also be the last time we get out there for Noah Aguirre's career. All three players had numerous friends and family there. Making it a pseudo home game for us like it was during the Cal Lutheran Tournament a few years back.
The game was back and forth right from the get go. We weren't exactly lighting the world on fire but we made a couple of tough shots. Then it went downhill from there. We started pressing for whatever reason, we looked shell-shocked and didn't come close to playing to our capabilities. We didn't bring the energy that we have had previously and Chapman clearly took advantage of it. They led by as many as 18 in the first and we battled back a little and got it within ten at the half.
The second half started as we missed two layups and pretty good look from a pull-up jumper. Not exactly the way we wanted to start. Chapman's lead built up pretty steadily throughout the half and I believe got up to as many as 20. The last five or six minutes of the game, our guys started to play a little harder, starting making shots, and then also getting stops. We got it within eight with a couple of minutes to play and then missed a layup on the next possession to get it within six. They scored and that was all she wrote.
We ended up losing 79-65. Their four's and five's shot a combined 20-25 from the floor, as we were extremely lazy in defending the post. I really want to say that a few of our guys played really well but I didn't think that was the case. It was a tough loss in my opinion.
People can use many different excuses for us not winning that game but I'm not having any of it. We hadn't practiced in almost two weeks. It was our first game back from the break and Chapman's second. Winning the game isn't the main reason we came out to California. We changed our lineup to get our California guys in the starting lineup. That's what I heard from people regarding our play. In reality, we didn't come to play and they did. Hopefully, it's a learning lesson to our guys that they will have to work harder over the break to stay in reasonable shape in order to come right back and play a quality team.
We do play another quality team on Wednesday at Carleton. The Knights take on Macalester tonight in their first game back from break. Game time is 7:30pm Central Time. I believe they have a live video feed and I'll post that in the near future.
Happy New Year to all and I hope the new year brings an even better year than 2011.
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