Submitted by | Leighway

I don't know what to say about this game.  I walked in very sure they would win and walked out very sure they should have won.

With the Storm up 7 and just a few minutes left in the game I thought we had the momentum.  Sue made a great save right in front of me to stop the ball from going out of bounds with about 3:30 on the clock. I thought, this is it we have it they are going to take control now but it just didn't happen.

I thought the zone killed the Storm at the beginning but they broke it eventually and forced NY to a man to man game, which is how the Storm came back to score.

In the first half I noticed how tentative Betty was playing and I cannot say I blame her but if she is not going to play her game the same then maybe she should have gotten limited minutes; stats aside I really do not think she had a productive game.

I thought Sue played good defense on Becky limiting her to just a couple of shots in the fist half.  The only thing I wish she would do is shot a little more but that might not be in AD's game plan. There were a few times when she had a clear shot and you could see she was thinking about taking it then passed it away. She also had a couple of bad passes trying to get the ball into the paint that were ill advised and ended up being TO's, but really she did not have a bad game overall.

Speaking of passing, that's about all they did in the first half and there seemed to be a lot of confusion on who was supposed to be where, doing what. I know the zone was to blame for some of that but it was just a game of pass to anyone that is open. They were also making a lot of dangerous long passes that really made no sense and did not open anything up.

Burse was off, though she did have a couple of defensive plays that turned into points and one killer block about 2 feet right in front of me.

Tully had some good minutes and probably the best highlight of the game when she took a pass from Sue in transition and made a sweet layup. She got hammered in the second half on what should have been a T and got up a little shaken but I think she is okay.

In the second half the team seemed to wake up a little and put a little more effort into their game and Kamila had some great steals, it's just too bad they couldn't get any points out of them. They were still very pretty.  With the Storm up 7 Richie decided to try the zone again and you would think the Storm would remember how they broke it down in the first half but they didn't and they paid for their memory loss.

They really made some poor choices at the end and at one point they were only down by two, (I think) when Betty got the rebound under the NY basket then threw the ball without really looking only to have it end up in NY's hands.  There was also some very poor shot selections at the end that just left me shaking my head.  And the killer, the nail in the heart was leaving Becky open for a 3 pointer. She is not going to miss those if you give her daylight.  She did not miss.  
 
I wish we could have had more people there and I think this ended up being a very bad idea. I saw where they were going with it because surrounding area was packed with potential ticket buyers.  The problem was I don't think there was enough advertisement about the game; I didn't see anything about it but Mrs. Admin said she saw two posters.  What a waste.  I would think they would be out there handing out those free schedule things and telling people about the game. Heck put up a booth or something.  Of course someone did make a good point when they stated they imagine people would not really want to spend the extra money on a basketball game after coming all that way to Spokane, paying for a hotel, food, and basketball stuff for the 3 on 3 Fest.  After all that paying for a family of 3 or 4 to see a basketball game would get a little pricey.

Hopefully they have learned and they will not shuttle the Storm to another location for a 'home' game.  I think they could have won this one had they been at home at the Key.

Submitted by | JRod

First of all, the Storm should never have scheduled this game without some kind of guarantee.  I felt just terrible that the Liberty saw us with such a low attendance.
 
Second, I can't stand LL - but, I like Tari Phillips even less.  She all but undressed LJ, in the first couple of minutes of the game, right in front of us.  Even worse, the dumb ass, idiot refs never blew their whistles.
 
I've had it, big time, with the refs in this league.  I don't know his name, but the ref wearing #11 is a butt munch.  He stood there, watching LJ and the rest of our players, getting mugged and laughed at the fact that he and the other refs weren't calling the fouls.  No sh*t, he stood there laughing.  I know this because he wasn't more than, say, 5 feet away from me.  
 
Question comes to mind:  Remember David Locke saying that Dee Kantner followed the refs into the locker room at the half of the (very poorly officiated) Houston game, in Houston.  Could we be facing some kind of ref retaliation for them getting their asses chewed out?  The following night vs. SASS, we get another b.s. officiated game and the game last Tuesday was no gem, either.
 
I don't know about anybody else, but I've seen just about enough of this.  I spoke with Karen Bryant, last night, after the game and told her that I was going to be contacting the league office about this.  Anybody care to join me?  I don't mind it when we lose a game, fair and square, but this is bullsh*t.  
 
To make matters worse, at one point the Liberty had 6 players on the floor, during play.  The refs allowed them to call a timeout, real damn quick, instead of calling a T.  Enough already!
 
SF50 has a phone # that we all need to use.  Additionally, the ph. # at the league office is:
212-407-8000.  Also, I'm encouraging everyone to email the league and make yourselves heard.  This kind of bush league (no actual allusion to the idiot in the White House intended) officiating has to stop.  Otherwise, we're going to lose all the gains that the league has made.
 
Let's face it, everything in the league has improved:  the coaching has improved; the caliber of the players and play has improved; everything, except the level of officiating.  Let's make some Key Arena Thunder and direct it towards the league office.

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