Entertaining loss

It was possibly the best game the Patriots played this year.

And yet, they lost.

The Patriots went down to Kankakee tonight to take on Trinity. The team they played was mostly their JV, but due to some ineligibilities and sickness, they added some of their varsity players. The Patriots played very well against this very good team and lost 44-35. The game had a flow to it, due to the style of play of the opponents and the fact that they were playing on a regulation court.

Trinity had two girls with height, so a zone was called for. However, they also had a girl who was deadly accurate from the outside. She hit three in the first quarter, and one of the tall girls was nearly unstoppable down low. There was no way for the Patriots to play man-to-man because of the height differential. During the quarter, Coach switched from a 2-3 to a 1-3-1 to try to take away the outside shooting while also trying to keep the tall girls from torching us close to the basket. This was somewhat effective and allowed the Patriots to pull within 21-11 at the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was a continuation of the end of the first, with the Patriots playing better defense. Trinity's lead only increased by one in the quarter, with the score at half, 28-17.

The experience and height showed some in the third, and Trinity outscored the Patriots 12-6, making the score at the end of three, 40-23. There was one remarkable sequence in the quarter. Becca got an offensive rebound and put it back up, missed, rebounded her own miss and put it up again, rebounded strongly one more time and finally got the ball to go down.

The start of the fourth quarter found the the strong tall player for Trinity on the bench, and the Patriots scored the first six points to pull within eleven. The teams played pretty evenly from there on out, resulting in the final deficit of nine points.

Scoring was as follows: Michele had 11, Kara had 10, Becca had 8, Jackie 4 and Mary 2 (Trinity focused on Mary once they figured out she was the primary ball-handler, which opened up opportunities for the other girls). Becca led in rebounding with 11, which I believe is the high-water mark for this category this year. Michele had six, Kara, Jackie and Alyssa each had 4 and Mary had 3. Mary, Jackie, and Michele each had two assists, and Kara and Becca had one apiece.

My vote(s) for players of the game would go to Becca and Michele.

Next week's games: Thursday at Stone Academy at 4:00, and Friday at 3:15 in Gurnee against the Home Run Kids.