The Lady Boilers will have their hands full once again against a quality team in Dayton, on Sunday in Mackey Arena. Last year against the Flyers we got schooled by Ally Malott who has gone on to the WNBA. However, Dayton once again is fielding a team loaded with talent. Not sure how they got to this point as a quality NCAA women's basketball team, but one thing is some serious recruiting. Sporting a 6-1 record, the Flyers' only loss came to Stanford, who also beat Purdue in the Gulf Coast Showcase. Dayton also defeated common opponent Louisville in that tournament, but by a much wider margin.
Led by Senior guard Amber Deane, Dayton can definitely score the basketball. Their number two scorer on the season is Kelly Austria who is questionable with a knee injury. They have some other scoring options. In their last game against a hapless Toledo, 6 players ended up in double figures scoring. Freshman Lauren Cannetelli hit 5-8 from long distance. Junior 6-5 center Saicha Grant-Allen added 6 points and 10 rebounds. Dayton has 5 players 6-2 or taller.
On paper this looks like a second straight home loss. Unless we can come up with more production in the post, both on offense and defense, it could be more trouble for Purdue. On the other hand, Purdue did show some true grit in their last second loss to Boston College last Thursday. Expect the Boilers to come out on a mission to bounce back after the heartbreaking loss to the Eagles. It is probably going to be a close, hard fought game. I expect for Ashley Morrissette to bounce back from the last game, as overall she has had an outstanding Junior season. Wilson, Perry, and Keys seem to be solid and productive every game, no matter what else is going on. We will most likely get schooled again in the post, but hopefully our 4 guard combo can shoot better as a group and to help overcome offensive woes in the paint. The problem is, for some of them to get more into the post to try and help defense in the paint, it can leave us more exposed from long range. On the bright side, our Boilers have played for the most part outstanding overall defense the entire season, which I expect to limit Dayton to scoring below their season average of 76 points per game.
I expect Purdue to have a little better shooting performance against Dayton. But until we get our post act playing at a higher level, it is hard to predict a victory against yet another quality opponent. Another defensive battle is likely.
Prediction: Dayton 62 - Purdue 58