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.