Games I wish I'd seen: 19 November 2013

Right now, I am so starved for women's basketball of any kind that I've dusted off an old text emulator game I own called Fast Break College Basketball 2010.  Back in the days when I wasn't writing much, I customized the heck-fire out of this game, allowing it to have female players, reweighing the teams to put Connecticut and Tennessee on top instead of Duke and whatever-other-big-team-there-is-in-men's-college-basketball on top, assigning my self a team (South Dakota) and trying to lead the Coyotes to coaching victory.

I might do it again if I can't see any more real games than I'm able to see now.  I'll have to post those after action reports somewhere on the web, for someone's amusement, but this is not the place to do it:  in this thread, we write about real actual games (not imaginary ones) like the four listed below.

Here are yesterday's games I'd wish I'd seen:

Virginia beats Liberty on the road 61-60.  For those who don't know, Liberty women's basketball has been the dominant power in the Big South for years, and despite an 0-3 start it doesn't surprise me that they'd give an in-state power a tussle. 

Here's what the Cavaliers need to be worried about - a 49-26 rebounding advantage in favor of the Flames.  But they won it with defense, 30 turnovers from Liberty and 20 steals from the Cavaliers. Senior guard Ataira Franklin hit a free throw with 11.8 seconds left to take the lead and Virginia kept Liberty from getting off a final shot.

Georgia beat Furman at home 72-48.  Why include this one? Because Furman pretty much led the entire first half, leading 31-22 at halftime.  But Georgia scored the last eight points of that first half and the first 18 points of the second half, a 26-0 run that buried the Lady Paladins and kept them scoreless for 12 minutes.  The Lady Bulldogs smothered Furman defensively and they only got off 25 shot attempts in the second, hitting six.

Utah State beats Utah 77-61.  I'm interested both in in-state rivalry games and games where power conference teams lose, so this one caught my eye right away.  (And Maj Forsberg and Brenda Pantoja were refs!  Just like a WNBA game!)  The Aggies only turned the ball over five times in the entire game.  Utah State senior Jennifer Schlott had an explosive game, with 37 points - a career high - six rebounds, and seven assists.

Washington beats Seattle 82-60.  The Huskies get their first win of the season over the Redhawks and Mike Neighbors got his very first win as a head coach.  A 52-point second half was the difference maker, but Washington doesn't play again until December 4th.