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Women's Rd 21 preview
Orli Klinger
,02/25/2006 |
Pretty much every team on Monday will be anxiously waiting for news from other games while focusing on their own as the battle for the top four heats up.
Raanana Hertzelia will host Anda in the main event, and Ramat Hen will host Hapoel Tel Aviv. In another game, Motzkin will play Bnei Yehuda.
Bnot Raanana Hertzelia – Anda Ramat Hasharon, 20:00, Live on channel 5
Forgive us, but in this preview we'll focus on Raanana Hertzelia. Other than the fact they have to hope and pray Hapoel Tel Aviv lose at Ramat Hen cause otherwise the chance for 4th would be really slim, Raanana Hertzelia need to go where no team has gone before and beat Anda. If they don't, they'd still have a chance if Hapoel lose. They'd have to win at Motzkin in a game that matters big time to both teams, which is not the case tonight.
Anda Ramat Hasharon locked up 1st place long ago. It'll be a tough sale for Orna Ostfeld to convince her team that they need to make a statement incase they meet Raanana Hertzelia in the Cup finals. If Anda comes with the same intensity and fire that Raanana Hertzelia is supposed to play with, they might just really be perfect.
Raanana Hertzelia is very disappointed from their loss at Hapoel Tel Aviv, and they had a full week to cook in their own juices from back in 5th place. So tonight they must forget who they're playing, how many WNBA Championship rings are in that visitors' locker room, and that zero in the loss column. Raanana Hertzelia must focus on themselves, and believe.
We didn't have any losses to analyze so we looked at the eight games Ramat Hasharon won by single digits and compared them to the 10 blowouts they won by an average of 20.8 points per game. We found that there's not much difference in their defense or rebounding, and the difference is in the offensive production. Anda drops from 90.8 points per game on 43.7% from downtown and 22.2 assists per game in the 10 blowouts to just 76.5 points on 33.0% from downtown and 15.5 assists per game in the eight games they sweated in. Defense people, defense.
So let's spread a few reasons for optimism around the Tal Natan camp. Raanana Hertzelia is the only team this year that managed to hold Ramat Hasharon to 70 or less points in a game, and they did it twice and were in position to win twice. Anda scored just 67.0 points on 20.0% from downtown with 8.0 assists pet game in the two games against Raanana Hertzelia, and won by an average of just 4.0 points per game.
But, four points is a lot considering that Raanana Hertzelia's offense was much worse than Ramat Hasharon's in these two games. They scored 63.0 points per game on an awful 34.1% shooting from 2-point range, and you can't beat anybody like that.
We could go on and on about match-ups, about how Shameka Christon must be aggressive and get Anda's posts in foul trouble, about how Anda needs to take a page out of Hapoel's book and play zone, and 1,001 more stuff that'll mean nothing once the first ball is tossed up. So we'll just finish with a few interesting facts we pulled from our professional stats system.
Raanana Hertzelia is 2 – 5 when getting out-rebounded.
Raanana Hertzelia is 7 – 1 when their Israelis score at least 15 points in a game.
Tamar Maoz made 7 of her last 9 threes, and Bess Greenberg made 5 of 9.
Liron Cohen's 3point percentage in the eight single digit wins is 25.8%, and in the 10 blowouts it's 41.7%.
Maccabi Ramat Hen – Hapoel Tel Aviv, 19:00
Andrea Gardner & Michal Epstein return to Hapoel's lineup, and a win will move them up to 3rd place. In the last round Hapoel got an heroic win over Raanana Hertzelia and got back in the final four mix, while Ramat Hen had to comeback from 13 down in the 4th to get a win at Bnei Yehuda.
Ramat Hen has been looking great lately with 88.5 points per game in the last four games, mainly thanks to the two posts – Amber Hall & Deanna Jackson who have been racking up double doubles. Even Monika Veseloski has been hitting with 15.0 ppg in the last four games. Defensively Ramat Hen has been very consistent, last week not included, and they know a loss tonight would end their 2nd place hopes.
Hapoel on the other end made the final four hunt a five horse race even though everyone wrote them off, and tonight with two major parts back they can pretty much wrap up a semi final berth if Raanana Hertzelia losses. Last week we saw a lot of heart and hustle from Hapoel and their injured lion syndrome, but remember that they only played one game with both Gardner and Epstein in uniform. Both of them are coming off long breaks and you can't know if their impact would be 100% positive. Dominique Canty, Taly Noy and Ayana Walker who stepped up in the last few weeks will have to continue leading the team.
Hapoel Haifa Motzkin – Bnei Yehuda, 19:00
Bnei Yehuda comes in without the injured DeTrina White & Steffanie Blackmon, and isn't supposed to bother Motzkin much as they strengthen their grip on 2nd place.
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