Thursday, January 29, 2009

More stats


The Two Towers

No, I'm not going to review the second of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I'm just describing a couple of the starters for Grace Baptist Academy, against whom the Patriots played tonight. The Patriots had no answer for Grace's height and dropped their seventh of the year, 44-25.

I will now do my broken record impersonation: the girls started slowly tonight. From now on, I will abbreviate when I describe the girls' first quarter thusly: TGSST. Grace scored the first twelve points of the contest, mostly by lobbing the ball over our girls' heads to one of their two six-footers, who held the ball high above their heads while our girls jumped vainly for the ball like children being teased by a parent. These girls were not very skilled, but could put the ball in the basket from five feet away on occasion. Becca had a nice put-back basket right before the buzzer so the score at the end of one was 12-2.

The second quarter started like the first quarter, with Grace scoring the first eight points. Finally the girls started playing aggressively. Kara had a couple baskets and a free throw for the Patriots' five points in the quarter while Grace scored four more resulting in a halftime score of 24-7.

The girls added to their momentum to open the third. They played much stronger defense and some shots started falling. Becca had another rebound basket, Rachel went hard to the basket a few times resulting in six free throw attempts, of which she hit three, and Kara had a couple of threes. The Patriots outscored Grace 11-4 in the quarter. It was one of their best quarters of the year. Becca played especially well, getting four rebound on just one possession.

The girls had high hopes of continuing the rally in the fourth, but Grace put both of the big girls back in to begin the quarter, and they went back to throwing the ball to the in the post and there was little we could do about it. Our offense was decent, but we could not stop the opponents. Grace had sixteen to our seven in the quarter, resulting in the final nineteen point deficit.

Kara led in scoring with sixteen, while Rachel had five and Becca four. Becca had seventeen rebounds, which is now the team record for rebounds in the game. Alyssa has the lone assist in the game. Kara had four steals and Rachel had four blocks. Kara and Alyssa had three turnovers each. Andrew said that Becca got the game ball today.

The girls will now have a week-plus break until the next game next Friday at Christian Liberty up in Arlington Heights.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Stats

Lacking closure

The girls traveled all of about two miles from their practice gym tonight to take on the Illinois Lutheran girls' jv team at their place in Crete. Alyssa got her release from the doctor today, so the team was full strength for tonight's contest. However it wasn't enough as the Patriots faded late and dropped a close one, 22-17.

It was another typical start for our girls - in other words, very slow. Illinois Lutheran played a 1-2-2 defense which the girls had not seen nor practiced against. IL put a lot of pressure on the ball handler, which confused and flustered our girls. Thankfully, IL was not a strong offensive team. Kara hit a three in the quarter and the girls gave up eight, resulting in a 8-3 score at the end of one.

Andrew did some substituting in the second quarter, but the girls turned it around by playing more intense defense and hitting some outside shots. They still had trouble holding onto the ball as IL played aggressive defense throughout, but they held it long enough to put up some shots. Rachel hit a shot early, Kara hit a couple later and the Patriots scored seven straight and held a short-lived lead at 10-8. IL got a late basket for a tie score at halftime.

IL made some adjustments at halftime and jumped out to a 14-10 lead, but the Patriots, behind a three pointer and two free throws by Kara and a nice basket by Becca, pulled back into a tie at the end of three, 17-17.

Alas, the girls couldn't find the basket in the fourth. IL kept up the pressure, we turned it over a few times, put up some contested shots that weren't close and didn't score the whole quarter. Rachel fouled out and IL got a couple of inside shots and a free throw. Late full-court pressure wasn't effective, and the girls went down to their sixth defeat to go with one win.

Kara led in scoring with 13, while Becca and Rachel each had a basket. Becca had 11 rebounds and Rachel had 8. Kara, Rachel and Alyssa each had two assists. Kara had seven steals, and Alyssa and Becca each had a block. On the minus side, Kara and Alyssa each had seven turnovers.

We'll do it again tomorrow at Grace Baptist Academy in Kankakee at 5:00. Address is at the bottom of the page in the calendar. See you there.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Stats through the Covenant game

Rough outing in Demotte

The Patriots traveled all the way to Demotte Thursday night to play twenty-four minutes of painful basketball. Alyssa's presence was dearly missed, and the girls were beaten 41-9 by Covenant Christian High.

This one started poorly, as usual, but they stayed at that level throughout the game, which was not usual. Covenant's girls were notably bigger and played a very disciplined offense and a smothering man-to-man defense. The Patriots recognized the defense at the outset and tried to run some pick plays, but with our small, young players, it was difficult and didn't work very well. After one quarter it was 12-3.

The seocond quarter matched the first. Rachel picke up a basket, and the girls held Covenant to only eight in the quarter, but at the half it was 20-5.

The beginning of the third quarter was the best stretch for the Patriots. They scored the first two baskets and there was some hope in the stands that the game might become competitive. Alas, it was not to be, as Covenant reestablished their deliberate passing offense, cranked up the defense again, got every rebound and scored the last ten points of the quarter, resulting in 30-9 lead.

It was a variation on a theme in the fourth. Covenant did a little subbing, but the talent level was about the same for the bench girls, the defense did not let up, we got very few rebounds and the result of the quarter was an 11-0 deficit for the quarter and the final of 41-9.

The stats, what there were of them were as follows: Scoring, Rachel with five, and Kara and Becca with two each. Our girls shot 17%, compared to 53% for Covenant. Becca and Rachel each had six rebounds. Kara and Lee had one assist apiece and Rachel had the only block for us in the game. I only recorded five turnovers; I'm sure I missed some. The big stat of the game was steals; Kara had one, but Carolyn had two. Way to go, Carolyn!.

Big week next week. Tuesday against Southside in Oak Lawn, Wednesday against Illinois Lutheran in Crete, and Thursday against Grace in Kankakee. Check the schedule below for times and addresses.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Monday, January 19, 2009

A win!

Here's the scenario: The Patriots traveled to Valparaiso tonight to play Victory Christian. Victory beat the Patriots last year three teams, each by double digits. This year, we don't have Mary Barker. Alyssa DeBoer still can't play because of a broken wrist. Carolyn didn't get to the game until five minutes before it started. All of this should have added up to a loss. That assumption would be wrong. The Patriots got their first win of the year, 33-19.

Victory is not the same team as it was last year, not by a long shot. They had two girls at or near six foot tall last year. Both of those girls are gone. Other girls must have graduated as well. They did not look much like the team of last year.

The Patriots started as they always do, tentatively. This didn't prevent them from taking a lead of 5-4 after one. Ball handling was an issue, with the injury causing some girls who usually don't handle the ball much to handle it, so the result was eight turnovers. But since not many shots went in for either team, the girls grabbed 11 rebounds. Rachel had three blocks in the quarter as well. The points were scored by Cassidy with a basket from the outside, Rachel with a basket on the inside and free throw by Kara.

The second quarter was the big one for the Patriots. They outscored Victory 14-2. Points were scored by Kara on drives and breakaways after steals, another outside shot by Cassidy, another inside one by Rachel and a last second putback by Becca just before the end of the half.

The offense cooled a little in the third, as Victory put a little pressure on the ball. The Patriots still "won" the quarter 7-4, and the score at the end of the quarter was 26-10. Kara got a three and a bunch of steals and Rachel got a basket and a couple more blocks. The highlight of the quarter was a pretty inbounds play that freed up Rachel for her basket.

Kara got a couple of breakaway layups to start the fourth, and the girls were up 30-10. The girls slowed things down a bit, and Coach Boss sat some starters down. This allowed Victory to get a little bit going for themselves in the quarter and outscored the Patriots 9-3 from that point on. But the three was a three pointer from Lee.

Team stats were as follows: Shooting was 14 for 53, or 26% - not great but better. Free throw shooting was 3 for 6 - 50%. Again, not great but an improvement. Kara led in scoring with 18. Rachel had 6, Cassidy had 4, Lee had three and Becca 2. Rachel had 14 rebounds with Becca right behind at 12. Becca had four assists. Kara had eleven steals and Rachel led in blocks with nine.

Still working on stats. I'm still hoping to post them here sometime soon.

Next game is Thursday, 6:00 PM at Covenant Christian in Demotte, IN. See you there.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

One month and no games

It has been a long holiday break - too long. Injuries, illnesses and weather, especially weather, have been the causes of three cancellations since the girls last played, against Luther East on December 16. The first cancellation was a game scheduled for December 19, but that game was called on account of snow. The next game was supposed to be against Schaumburg. That game was cancelled because of too few girls available to play for the patriots. Alyssa broke her wrist at a practice in December and Kara and Rachel were sick. That left four - not quite enough. Then, yesterday, the girls were supposed to play Illinois Lutheran. This time cold got us. So that three cancellations due to snow, sickness, and shivering, to use some alliteration.

Alyssa is looking at a possible return the last week of January, or earlier if everyone promises not to tell her doctor. The rest of the girls will take on Victory on Monday at 7:30. See you there.