Streak now at three

Last night the Lady Patriots traveled to the site of their only victory of last year, Victory Christian's gym in Valparaiso, IN and continued their winning streak, defeating the Lions 40-24. The winning streak continued as well as the streak of games in which, at times, it looked like a rugby scrum. In this case, however, it wasn't so much the opponent as it was both teams, as the refs called ticky-tack stuff on the perimeter but permitted mayhem underneath. Both teams got pretty aggressive fighting for the ball later in the game, and since nothing was called, it didn't stop.

Victory began the game in a passive 2-3 defense, but the Patriots couldn't take advantage of it as their shooting woes resurfaced. They shot only three of twenty in the quarter, but two of the three made were threes. On the other side of the court, the Patriots opened in a half-court trapping defense, which they didn't execute well. Victory's one skilled player got open drives to the basket regularly in the period, and she took advantage, making two of three from the floor. Twice she was fouled on those drives and she sank all four free throws. Victory scored one other basket in the quarter and led after one, 10-8. HSRC opened the second in the same defense, and the fouls began to mount. The coaches changed the defense part way through the quarter, limiting the pressure to only Victory's one good player and falling back into a 2-3. Victory then got frustrated on offense, as they couldn't solve the zone, and #4 was taken out the game. After an even start to the quarter, HSRC gradually pulled away behind some good inside play by Becca (four points) and Rachel (five) and couple of shots by Kara. Victory was shut down after an early basket and a couple of free throws and only scored four in the quarter, so the Patriots led 21-14 at the half.

Both teams opened with more intense defense in the second half. However, Kara and Alyssa got open for outside shots, Kara making a three and Alyssa a two to increase the lead to twelve. Kara then made a layup off of a steal to make it a 28-14 game before Victory make a free throw to break the string. Kara then was fouled on a breakaway and split the free throws before Victory scored their only basket of the quarter. The quarter ended with the Patriots leading 29-17.  The fourth quarter belonged to Becca, as she make a couple of nice shots on put-backs. Foul counts were starting to add up on the rest of the players (four players finished with four fouls), so the defense was more passive, and v. Kara and Alyssa each made their only attempts in the fourth, while Becca finished with seven in the quarter. The lead got as high as eighteen at 40-22, before Victory scored the final bucket.

Kara led in scoring with seventeen with Becca adding eleven. Rachel led in rebounding with nine; Alyssa was the assist leader with four. Kara had five steals and Lee had four. The team shot 30.9% for the game, which was their third-highest on the season. The most interesting and impressive stat was that the Patriot only had eight turnovers; their previous low on the season was fifteen.

Today we travel to World Overcomers Church in Bartlett, IL to play New Jerusalem at 4:45PM. From what we understand, NJ is a church team, made up of players who do not play for the schools they attend. We have played some common opponents, and from that we figure we will need to play very well to beat them. We shall see.