Letting this one slip away

Miami now up 5 with half a minute left.

How many missed layups?

Boyd misses and that will be it.

FT shooting and some really questionable calls down the stretch turned the tides on this one.

Too many Rockets cannot shoot the ball. Just that simple.

23-12 Miami outscores Toledo in the fourth quarter

Tough loss

Great game for Santucci. Best I've seen her play this year. Boyd was also good and did an excellent job on Dickerson. Dickerson had 22 points but was 7/25 from the field which is certainly not a good shooting night. And my preferred player Beacham did it again. She gets 5 minutes and scores 7 points. And she made her foul shot! No one else on this team scores more points and plays less than Beacham. Wonder what she could do if she got 15 or 18 minutes in a game. On the negative side Bravo-Harriott and Cunningham with zero points. They only took 5 total shots. How can this team win if these two don't score? And McIntyre had easily her poorest shooting game of the year. And while there were a couple of tough calls and bad bounces late in the game the rockets failed to make a play when they needed it while Miami was able to hit a couple of major 3 point shots.

Its increasingly looking like this team could have a losing record in the MAC this season. They will probably be around an 6-8 seed in the tourney. Only Akron, BGSU and Northern Illinois are certain to be lower seeds. I don't see how anyone can see this anything other than a big disappointment. They continue to have major weaknesses shooting from the perimeter, rebounding, turnovers (better in the second half today) and consistency from the team leaders.

Our first basket of the game was a six-footer by St. Fort. After that, did we have a score that wasn't a lay-up or a free throw? I can't remember one. Bravo-Harriott can't just decide not to show up on certain nights. The amazing thing is that with a couple different calls and different bounces in the last couple minutes, we could have won the game.

Yes, this season has been a huge disappointment. I don't think any Rocket fans expected a .500 MAC performance from this team. Cullop's refusal to play Beacham is becoming more and more mysterious.

Last year's team had three loses by double digits (I think) to Notre Dame, Central Michigan and in the NCAA tourney. This year's team now has the same number of loses (9) and seven have been by double digits. The other two have been to Miami (9 points) and Kent State (7 points). And they are 3-5 against the weaker western division of the MAC. Really hard to see how these two teams could perform so differently with essentially the same roster.

I have great respect for coach Cullop. IMO she is an excellent person and a very good coach. But we all have times when we are not at our best for whatever reason. This team has several weaknesses which are alternately on display from game to game and some of them, such as blocking out, team defense and turnovers, are not a function so much of talent but of focus, discipline and hard work. Yet these issues have continued to be a problem through 24 games. And I continue to be amazed that Beacham plays her 4 or 5 minutes, scores a few points and goes back to the bench while other players continue to flounder. I would guess that Cullop would agree it hasn't been one of her better efforts.

Dickerson Reaches 1,00 Points As Miami Tops Toledo.
http://www.miamiredhawks.com/sports/w-ba...18aaa.html