LaThugiere

To think that our Chief Justice, John Roberts, is an alumnus.

Today the Lady Patriots got beat and beat up by LaLumiere, a school in LaPorte, Indiana, in the fifth-place game of the Grace Lady Crusader Tournament. LaLumiere touts itself as "seek[ing] to develop character, scholarship, and faith, while remaining both independently accredited and faithful to its Catholic heritage". I guess, by "Catholic heritage", they mean the Spanish Inquisition. They must define character as whining, complaining, shoving when the ref isn't looking, pressing with a twenty-point lead, believing tackling is an integral part of girls' basketball and laughing when when of their players throws an opponent to the floor. And then denying all of it when confronted. Thankfully none of our girls were injured (nor lost their temper) in the 40-19 loss.

Oh, yes, game details. Lal did play very good defense. They also had a very active point guard, who could handle the ball very well. She wasn't a great shooter, but was so aggressive going to the basket that she was fouled quite a bit. She scored four in the first quarter and while she had four free throw attempts, she missed them all. Her teammates scored six for Lal's quarter total of ten. Meanwhile our girls were either turning the ball over or missing shots. Lal's defense was strong, but our shooting and decision making was lacking. The Patriots ended up shooting one for eight in the quarter with eight turnovers. The girls' defense tightened up in the second a little. They also took care of the ball a little better, but their shooting remained very cold. They were one for thirteen in second, giving them two consecutive quarters of two points scored in each. The score at the half: Lal 18, HSRC 4.

The pace of the game picked up in the third. We also finally scored more than two. The Patriots scored two field goals and picked up three free throws. Ashley W. scored her fifth consecutive field goal without a miss in the quarter, and then broke her streak with a miss later in the quarter. On the other side of the court, Lal was shooting at will. They had twenty-three field goal attempts to go with six free throw tries. Only four of each were successful, as the Patriots played pretty solid defense for the quarter. Lal played the bench a lot in the fourth, but were still able to score ten when they weren't blocking and tackling. HSRC shot a lot in the fourth, with twenty attempts. Alas, only three were successful, but Alyssa did get two free throws. After the final buzzer, some of our parents expressed their sentiments to the Lal coaching staff, who didn't take it well.

Kara led in scoring with twelve, Alyssa had four, Ashley W. had two and Rachel had one. Becca led with ten rebounds and Rachel added nine. Kara had six steals.

So we finished sixth in our first regular-season tournament in our history. If the tournament was seeded accurately, we might have finished fourth or fifth. Still, all-in-all, it was a good experience for the girls and for the program.

I would like anyone who desires to comment here regarding participation by Christians in sports, and more specifically, Christian girls. What is the purpose? How should Christian comport themselves on the court or the field (or in the stands)? Should girls sports be different than boys? You have an idea about my opinions on some of this. What do you think?