ST. JOSEPH, MO — After spending back-to-back late nights in her team’s hotel conference room watching game film, Cal State San Marcos women’s basketball head coach Renee Jimenez finalized the Cougars’ game plan around 2 a.m. for Wednesday’s Final Four matchup with Minnesota State.
Jimenez typically likes to pinpoint three things to “hang our hats on.”
For the No. 13 Mavericks: shot selection, rebounding and turnovers.
“[Minnesota State] plays really fast,” Jimenez told the Coast News on gameday morning. “We want to make them play our game and dictate the pace. They average 93 possessions per game; in women’s basketball, it is typically 70-75. We want to keep them in the 70s.”
“We have to keep it under 20 turnovers,” Jimenez added. “I know that sounds insane, as a coach, you want it around 12 — but they are turning teams over 28 times a game.”
And finally, “we believe defense wins championships, we hang our hat on our defensive rebounding.”
The best-laid plans, as the cliché goes.
CSUSM turned the ball over 27 times in a heartbreaking, down-to-the-wire 70-68 defeat.
The game featured 11 lead changes.
Minnesota State, which forced its 1,000th turnover of the season in the fourth period of Wednesday night’s semifinal, played an end-to-end, trapping shell defense that made the game a marathon-length sprint.
The Cougars came tantalizingly close in the school’s first-ever Final Four appearance, leading by one with 21 seconds left. With a chance at a game-winning look tied at 68, a kickball call against Ava Ranson gave Minnesota State possession with 3.6 seconds remaining.
Mavericks senior guard Emily Herzberg inbounded the ball and then cut to the basket on a high-low action, getting the ball back under the hoop and converting a game-winning layup.
With .03 seconds on the clock, San Marcos tried to get the ball to Division II first-team All-American Jordan Vasquez, but the paint was too crowded, and the inbounds pass was deflected.
Vasquez, ripping off her protective mask late in the final period, risking a possible fourth broken nose of the season, went for her 23rd double-double of the year with 16 points and 20 rebounds, eight of which were offensive.
“Jordan has a knack for scoring,” Jimenez said. “We try to find ways to get her the ball, get out of the way and let her do her thing.”
Undersized but unrelenting point guard Charity Gallegos put in a near-flawless effort, scoring 20 points in 39 minutes. The Cougars depended on having the ball in her hands every possession against Minnesota State’s chaotic press.
“If she was five-foot-seven, she would be DI,” Jimenez said. “Charity draws two-to-three people every possession.”
In typical CSUSM fashion, an unexpected role player stepped up. Cougars junior center Truit Reilly had 12 points and 10 rebounds, keeping the game close in the opening minutes as the Mavericks’ frantic pace briefly looked like it would knock the Cougars out early.
“We’ve had all these kids come off the bench and it isn’t typically their role to score points and they come and step up because Jordan and Charity draw so much attention,” said Jimenez.
San Marcos finishes the season 27-7, ranked No. 24 in the nation.
Natalie Bremer led the Mavericks with 29 points, nine rebounds and two steals, and Herzberg added 13 points, including the game-winning layup. Advancing to the NCAA Division II final, Minnesota State defeated Texas Woman’s University on Friday night to claim the national title.
For Jimenez, as great as this postseason run was, it’s more than just basketball that she wants the program to take away from its first-ever Final Four.
“I have two other assistant coaches with kids,” she said. “You never know when you are going to get back to the Final Four so we are traveling with eight kids under the age of 13. Mine are three and 11. I didn’t want to come into this and take this moment for granted. It’s been a good thing having our kids around because it takes you away from it for a little bit and keeps the perspective right.”
