A bit late

Sorry, folks, things are a little busy in the Boss household, so I haven't had much of a chance to do any updates. Well, here you go.

Thursday was the second trip HSRC made to Valparaiso to play Victory Christian. This time we took both teams. The girls started off the evening with a 6:00 tipoff. The first contest against Victory resulted in a 40-24 HSRC win. In that game, Coach Boss was trying some new offenses and defenses, so the girls got off to a slow start, trailing by two after one quarter, but then pulled away for an easy victory. Tonight was quite different. The girls have their offenses and defenses pretty settled, and have been playing quite well lately (see the six-game winning streak). Rachel got it going inside early, Alyssa hit a three and Kara got a break-away layup.Oh yes, the break away layup. Victory started out in a full-court man-to-man press. Which our girls had absolutely no problem breaking. This resulted in a lot of two-on-one and three-on-two situations. This continued throughout the game and Victory was never really effective with it. On the other end of the court, the girls 1-2-2 defense was suffocating. Put it all together and the Patriots led 15-2 at the end of one quarter. Victory was a little better with their press in the second. Rachel continued her effective down low play and Kara knocked down a three. Victory made three baskets in the quarter, but the Patriots still outscored them with eight and it was 23-8 at half. Rachel thirteen of the points herself.

The third quarter was like the first. Becca scored off a rebound, Rachel went to the lines several times and made two to go with another basket and Kara knocked down an outside shot. Because the refs were calling very little, the game got more and more physical. All this did was fire up our girls to play even more intense defense. This resulted in Victory shooting 0-for-8 in the quarter, and the lead going into the fourth was 31-8. I'm not sure anymore, but I think we got the first basket in the quarter, on a nice short jumper by Carolyn. Then Victory started getting things going a little, scoring two baskets, so with the lead at about twenty-one and about three minutes to go when Coach Boss cleared the bench. Victory apparently didn't realize the game was essentially over, and continued their full court press. Of course this was a little more effective against our junior high girls, and Victory scored a few consecutive baskets before Kara and Alyssa went back in to settle down the ball handling. Ashley Wessels was able to score her sixth basket of the season, and time finally ran out with the score HSRC 35, Victory 21. And again, thankfully no one got hurt.

Rachel was player of the game with seventeen points and twelve rebounds. Kara had nine points, four rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block. Becca had a basket to go with six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. Alyssa scored one three and added three rebounds, three assists and a steal. Carolyn and Ashley W. each scored two. Lee, while not scoring, had eight rebounds and three steals.

The boys game started in a promising wasy, with Luke L getting free for a layup off the tip. After a couple of Victory baskets, Justin scored inside to tie it up. The the roof caved in. Victory's two big guys got it going both inside and out. #33 scored on all three shots he took in the quarter. Fifteen straight were scored by Victory to end the quarter. Victory scored one from the free throw line to open the second. Jimi was fouled going to the basket and made one of two, which was followed by another inside basket by Justin. After another Victory basket, Jimi knocked down his second three of the year, and the guys were within twelve. Alas, the good feelings didn't last long. Victory, substituting in waves, scored the last seven point in the half to lead 29-10 going into the break.

Victory had their starters back in to start the third, and quickly stretched the lead. Justin got one basket in the middle of the flurry of Victory points, but Victory had pulled out to a twenty-five point lead before the bench players started coming in. Dustin got a basket and Justin a free throw before the quarter ended, to trim the lead to "only" 22 at the end of three. In the fourth, Victory started out with their top subs, but a short time later the end-of-the-bench players were in. Justin (7 points in the quarter) and Luke L(2) got open underneath for some baskets, and Luke D made his only basket of the game. Our guys "won" the last quarter 11-10, but the final overall was Victory 47, HSRC 26.

Justin led in scoring with fourteen to which he added six rebounds and a steal. Luke L and Jimi each had four points, and Dustin and Luke D each had two. Dustin led the team in rebounding with nine, and he also had two steals. Steve didn't score (he sat out the second half after being run out of bounds in the first half), but he did have three steals and three assists. Jimi had five rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Luke D had four steals.

Last week of regular season games is coming up (unless the girls can get another game with Luther East). Girls are playing Calumet on Thursday (see the calendar and an earlier post for time and location), and the guys are playing Families of Faith Academy in Channahon 5:30 on Friday. Come out and cheer on the teams.