"The difference between the halves was - in the first half we had tremendous ball movement and got wide open threes."
You know, Jeter and Odom had wide open looks in the last few minutes of the game and they simply clanged them off the rim. We shot lights out in the first half, but returned closer to our seasonal average down the stretch and in OT. I honestly think the looks were good almost all game, we just didn't hit the shots during key stretches in the 2nd half.
"However, you simply cannot shoot 10-23 from the free throw line and win in any conference."
Agreed. Not only didn't we shoot FT's very well, we also somehow managed to not box out on THREE different occassions when OM was shooting.
I also thought generally--outside of DJP--the defensive effort--ESPECIALLY in the paint was awful. We hit shots and didn't play any tough D? Weird.