Waves

The girls took on the Crossroads top team yesterday, and the word of the game was waves. As in, waves of substitutions. Crossroads took advantange of the Patriots' short bench (Jackie couldn't make the game, so the Patriots only had two subs) by using their deep one, and ran the Patriots to a final of 42-18.

In contrast to many of the Patriots' games this year, they started strongly. They began in a man-to-man defense, which gave energy to the girls and resulted in the score at the end of one, 8-6 Crossroads. However, Coach recognized with such a short bench (pun intended) that he couldn't continue with that the whole game. Crossroad then made a couple of outside shots, worked the ball in for some more, got a couple of fast breaks and outscored the Patriots 14-2 in the quarter. Crossroads also cranked up the pressure defense, which resulted in some turnovers.

The third quarter brought more of the same, as Crossroads began to substitute five at a time, and our girls starting showing signs of tiring. Crossroads outscored our girls 12-2 in the quarter, resulting in a 34-12 score at the end of three. The Patriots got a second wind in the fourth, but were only able to keep the score for the quarter close, resulting in the final of 42-18.

Kara led in scoring (one of the bright spots were a couple of breakaways resulting from steals and good outlet passes) with eight; Mary had six and Michele and Alyssa had two each. Becca led in rebounding with six (Crossroads didn't miss many), Mary and Kara had four and Michele had three. Mary led in assists with four while Michele dished out three, and Kara had two steals and Mary and Becca had one each.

Next and final game is Friday, February 22 at 3:00 up in Gurnee against the Home Run Kids. I don't think I will be there, but I'm sure the stats team will step up again. Also, the team banquet is March 3 at Family of Faith Church in Monee, IL.