Good half, then not so good

The second trip up to Arlington Heights to play Christian Liberty was not as painful as the first, but the result was the same, as the Patriots fell to the Chargers, 22-13.

Back in December the girls took on Christian Liberty in the third game of the year. Our inexperience and nervousness were very evident in a 31-11 loss. That game could have been worse had not CL's coach played his bench extensively in the second and fourth quarter. This time he had to play his starters their usual time, going to the bench only to give them breathers.

This was not the typical Patriot game. Strangely, the girls were ready and confident right from the start, and kind of surprised their hosts. On the first possession, Kara got the ball down low, kicked it out to Lee who made the basket. Next possession, Kara hit a shot and it was 4-0, Patriots. This seemed to wake up CL, and they played tougher defense from this point. However, our girls were playing a very aggressive man-to-man defense and was making it difficult for them. Our only other score for the rest of the quarter was a put-back by Becca, while CL got a couple of baskets and a free throw - score at the end of one, 6-5 Patriots.

The defenses really tightened up in the second. After starting in a man-to-man, the Patriots switched to a very active 2-3, which was just as effective. CL's defense was very strong as well, as they double teamed at the top quite a bit, and put a lot of pressure on the ball handlers. Rachel got the only basket for us in the quarter, while CL also only got one, but made a free throw to make the score 8-8 at half. We shot 1 for 11 in the quarter and CL shot one for eight. It was more the defense than bad shooting that caused this.

The third quarter was similar to the second, except the teams made some adjustments to deal with the good defenses. The difference in this quarter was the shooting - CL made a much better percentage of theirs. They took less shots, as the Patriots got a lot of turnovers, but they shot 33% in the quarter while the Patriots shot 11%. CL scored six in the quarter to the Patriots two, and the score was 14-10 at the end of three.

The hustling defense of the first three quarters seemed to wear out the girls, as they made poor passes and were not quite as sharp on defense as they were earlier. The lid that seemed to be on the basket for our girls stayed there, and we made a lot of turnovers. The girls got one basket to go down, which was a three by Kara to begin the quarter to pull us within one, but that was the last score we would make. CL scored the last eight points for the final score of 22-13. All in all, a much better game for the girls than the first time we played them. Putting the ball in the basket was the issue for the girls. They shot 6 for 38, and 0 for 6 from the free throw line. Many of the misses were easy ones. If the offense catches up with the defense, look out.

Stats for the game: Kara led in scoring with five, while Becca had four and Lee and Rachel had two each. Becca once again led in rebounding with 11; Rachel had 7. Kara, Rachel and Cassidy each had an assist. Rachel and Becca had a block apiece. Kara had 7 steals. Alyssa, playing the point for a good part of the game, had six turnovers and Kara had four.

Kankakee Trinity Academy is next on the schedule. The game is Monday at six at the community center, address is below in the calendar. Hope to see you there.