I'm a sexist

Yes, you read that correctly. I'm a sexist. I have this crazy belief that girls' sports should be played differently, and for that matter officiated differently, than boys' sports. As I've watched girls basketball over the last two plus seasons, I fear that I am in a minority. A shrinking minority.
Tonight was Exhibit A. Or I should say H or so. A through G occurred over the last couple of years.

Tonights opponent was Luther East. Many of you are familiar with them from the flag football season. Many of you are also familiar with their point guard, who was their sometime quarterback. Well, she plays basketball like a football player. A lot of blasting through the line, shedding tacklers, gaining the extra yard. Except this is basketball. Anyway, back to the game. We played a good game with them last year, losing 57-45. We knew that we are better, so we hoped for a different outcome this year.

The game started like we remembered from last year. Luther East played a tight zone and we threw up outside shots over it. A lot of shots. Eighteen in the first quarter, to be exact. Four of them went in, and two were threes. On the defensive end, our girls played good defense, only allowing one basket and two free throws. Oh, free throws. I'll get back to that later. We finished the quarter leading 10-4.

Luther East changed up their defense in the second quarter. They pressured the ball and the Patriots were not ready for it. Luther East scored the first six points of the quarter to tie it up. Coach Boss made some adjustments at this point, and the Patriots slowly regained control. Kara made a shot, then followed it up with two threes. After a basket by Luther East to make it 18-12, Alyssa got a basket. Luther East scored the last basket in the quarter to make it 20-14 at the half. One play in the quarter gave us a picture of what the second half would be like: Lee was shoved by one Luther East player into another; foul, Lee Bianchi.

The third quarter saw more pressure from Luther East, especially on Kara bringing the ball up court. Even though the girls were ready for it, Luther East still got six of the first eight points of the quarter to pull within two. Luther East's play got more and more physical, but the fouls were being called on HSRC. Now, the Patriots need work on their defensive positioning, but if their reach-ins were fouls, Luther East's maulings certainly were too. Kara knocked down a three to open it back up to five. By this time HSRC was in the penalty with fouls, so Luther East was shooting free throws. They had six attempts in the quarter; we had two. LE made four of theirs at the the end of the quarter, as well as a basket by their fullback.. er... point guard. The score was 27-26, HSRC at the end of three.

By this time Rachel had fouled out and Lee had four fouls. It looked like the fourth quarter was going to be a test of our depth. And when Lee fouled out, it definitely was. Coach Boss was forced to play at least one inexperienced player for the rest of the game. LE finally caught HSRC at 28 when they scored from, you guessed it, the free throw line. From then on, it was nip and tuck. I didn't mark all the scores from here, but I do remember LE got ahead toward the end of the game by three, 40-37. I believe Becca scored the last basket of the game on a put-back. HSRC made one of two free throws to go up by two. With 2.6 seconds to go, a jump ball was called. LE had the possession arrow. HSRC covered the inbounds play very well, and LE threw it away. HSRC ball, under the basket. LE intercepted the inbounds pass. Kara immediately fouled her with one second to go. LE missed both free throws, and Becca rebounded with the one second remaining. But the girls couldn't throw the ball down the court far enough with accuracy, so the the desperation shot Kara threw up was far short, and the Patriots went down to defeat, 41-39.

The final free throw tallies were 24 attempts for LE, 7 for the Patriots. Luther East played such a physical style that they seemed to mesmerize the officials. Our ticky-tack fouls were called, and their banging went unnoticed. Because we weren't real strong on rebounding positioning, we didn't make it clear to the refs that LE was reaching in. But LE was so over-the-top on some of them that it was a mystery why calls weren't made.

We don't have another game scheduled yet to play LE's girls, but their AD is open to scheduling one, so the girls may have a chance to make the adjustments necessary to even things up. We'll see.

Next games are the boys on Friday at 6:00 [EDIT: 5:15] against Calumet at the Lincoln Center. On Saturday the teams travel to Gurnee for one girls game in between a boys game against HRK's JV and varsity. It's a long trip, but if you can make it, the kids will appreciate the support.