Late game heroics again

The Patriots followed their usual pattern Monday night, falling behind early, then finishing strong as they defeated the Families of Faith Christian Academy Screaming Eagles, 55-42. This time the rally didn't start until the fourth quarter. The Patriots led only by two entering the last period, but a fourteen point run in the quarter clinched it for the Patriots.

In the prelude, the junior high team went down to defeat again, this time by the score of 32-15. Again the story was not enough size, not enough shooting. We knew Caleb was going to be in for a long night when we saw one of their starters was also in their varsity rotation. He was an inch or two taller than Caleb, but probably outweighed him by forty pounds. Between that and the fact that FOFCA kept up a full court press most of the game, the Patriots had a long night. At first we had some success at beating the press, and our half-court defense was solid as usual. However, Caleb was being smothered in the post by their big man, and we managed only three, all by Caleb Y, in the quarter. The guys kept FOFCA somewhat in check, giving up only six, but four were from the free throw line by their center due to two fouls on Caleb. He eased up a little in the second, and their big man got free for six, while #8 also scored six. Caleb Y. matched his output with three, but again that was all our scoring, and we trailed 18-6 at half.

Our shooting completely abandoned us in the third quarter. We took ten shots and none went in. Caleb Y. was suffering a little from the effects of a bloody nose, so he sat for a short time. On the other end of the court, the guys continued to play good defense, and held FOFCA to six so the lead was eighteen going into the fourth. Caleb Y really got going in the quarter, scoring seven and Charles added a bucket on a fast break. FOFCA continued their steady pace on offense, pouring in eight, so while we "won" the quarter, it was too little too late.

Caleb Y. led the team with thirteen of the fifteen points. Charles scored the other two. Caleb also blocked two shots and added two steals.

Back to the varsity. These two teams faced each other in the opening game at the Victory tournament, and HSRC had little trouble with them, opening up a 22 point lead by the end of the third quarter and cruising to a fifteen point win. However, we heard that they had defeated Victory, who had a full squad that night, and figured they were improved and were going to come in with a lot of confidence. And that was the case. After Lucas opened the scoring, their 6'7" center popped in a three. Lucas matched it to put HSRC up two, but FOFCA tied it right back up. After Kyle scored to tie it at seven, FOFCA scored five in a row, including another three by their big #5. The teams traded baskets until the end of the quarter, with FOFCA still holding a five-point lead, 16-11. Seth had the hot hand to open the second, scoring the first five of the quarter to tie it up. Josh then got free inside to put the Patriots ahead. Two more baskets by Seth stretched the lead to six and HSRC had the ball, but FOFCA scored on a turnover. Seth made it twelve for him for the quarter with a three to give HSRC its biggest lead of the game at 25-18, but FOFCA scored the last four of the quarter on a put-back and a jumper to make it a three-point game at half.

Lucas and Seth scored to open the second half, and it looked like another big third quarter for the Patriots. #5 had something to say about that, scoring the next six points. FOFCA added a free throw to tie it up. Seth put us back on top, but #5 hit two free throws. Kyle then went to the line after being fouled on a shot attempt, and he made them both. #5 scored again off an offensive rebound, but Kyle made a field goal to put HSRC back up by two entering the fourth. HSRC came out strong again. Lucas and Nate opened with field goals, and after Seth split two free throws, the lead was back up to seven. Their point guard snuck inside for a layup. After an HSRC miss, #5 hit two more free throws to make it 40-37, but that was all the scoring for a while for FOFCA. Lucas had five (a three and a two), Kyle four, Nate three (basket and a free throw) and Seth two in the run. FOFCA finally got back on the board with two foul shots, and after a Seth free throw, hit a late three to finish the scoring.

Seth led the team in scoring, ending up with 21, twelve of those in the second quarter. Lucas added sixteen and Kyle ten. The S brothers both ended up with double-digit rebounds, Kyle hauling down thirteen and Josh eleven. Nate led defensively with eight steals and six blocks. Seth led the team in assists with six.

The boys are 8-3 heading into the break, winning more games before the holidays that the previous two seasons combined. They lead the conference with a 4-1 record, tied with Portage (who has the head-to-head advantage having defeated the Patriots, giving them their only loss in the conference). Interestingly, the three top teams in the west each have one loss - ours coming at the hands of Portage, who lost to Calumet, who lost to our guys. The conference race should be interesting right down to the wire.

No games now until Friday, January 6 at Grace Baptist in Kankakee. Our next home game is Tuesday, January 10 against Christian Haven. We will be hosting them at Crete Elementary. Hopefully we will have some sort of scoreboard at that one. Practices over the break will be Tuesday and Thursday, December 27 and 29 from 3:00 to 5:00 at the South Suburban Sports Complex, just off 394 in Crete. Both varsity and junior high will practice as we have two courts.

Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Ugly win

The guys spent a lot of time preparing for the Victory team they faced a couple of weeks ago in the Victory tournament championship game. The team they played last night was not the same team. Victory's star guard did not play, and the guys looked like they didn't know quite what to do for stretches during the game, especially the second quarter, but eventually they figured it out, in time for a 49-41 victory in Valparaiso, improving their record to 7-3 and 3-1 in the conference.

I didn't get there until almost the end of the first quarter (thank you Friday night 80-94 traffic), and by that time the guys were up 12-4. Per the dad I was sitting with, the first quarter belonged to Kyle, who was driving and finishing, scoring all eight of his points in the quarter. VCA was limited to a three and a free throw to that point, and it looked like HSRC might cruise to the win. Not so fast. VCA's #2 came out strong to open the second, opening the scoring with a three followed a old-fashioned three - scoring on the the free throw when he was fouled while scoring. His teammates joined in the fun as VCA went on a ten-point run to take the lead at 14-12. On the offensive side, the Patriots couldn't find the basket from the outside, and Victory's interior defense was solid. Seth did finally stop the run. After a Lions free throw, Lucas finally found the basket to put the Patriots back on top. Nate followed this with a score, but that was all the scoring for the Patriots for the half. A Lions bucket pulled them to within one, then #2 popped in another three to put VCA back on top. A crazy off-balance three off an offensive rebound at the buzzer completed Victory's eight-point run to close the half and gave VCA its largest lead of the game, 23-18.

VCA opened the scoring in the second half with a basket, but the inside game showed a little life here. Nate got fouled and made one of two free throws, and Josh scored to pull the Patriots to within four, but VCA quickly answered with two more scores. Lucas, as he as done before this season, asserted himself after halftime. He followed a three with a two-pointer to cut the lead to three. Victory scored two more baskets sandwiched around a Seth free throw to make it a six point game, but Seth made back-to-back threes, the second near the horn to pull the Patriots back even at 33-33. Victory opened the scoring in the fourth, but the Patriots went on an eight-point run to go up six, with Lucas scoring six of the eight on two baskets and a pair of free throws. The Patriots never let the Lions get closer than four after that, as the Patriot ball-movement improved greatly, freeing up the middle for some baskets by Nate (2) and Josh. Seth completed the scoring on a layup, and the Patriots had their first win ever over Victory. Ugly, but effective.

Seth and Lucas each had thirteen points to lead the team. Josh and Kyle had eight apiece and Nate added seven. Ethan and Peter each got some playing time due to foul trouble but neither scored. Nate led in rebounding with eleven, with Josh adding nine and Lucas eight. Nate also led the team with four assists and three blocks. Seth and Kyle had three assists each, and Josh led the team in steals with three.

The Patriots now have as many wins this year, before Christmas, as they had the two prior years combined. Each of those first two years, however, included one victory over a JV team, so this year's team is already ahead in varsity victories. The big improvement has been on the offensive side; while the 2011-2012 edition is giving up about two points less than the average of the first two seasons, the scoring is up nearly twenty-five points a game. In comparison to last year, a better year than the first, the defense is giving up less than one point per game fewer (47.5 vs. 48.1), but scoring is up twenty-one points per game (54 vs 32.8). Eight times this year the Patriots scored more in a game that their highest-scoring game of the past two years. Individually, records broken include points in a game (Seth with 28 against Grace, breaking Justin's record of 23) and assists in a game (9, by Seth against Calumet, breaking his own record of eight, set against Community).

Next up is Families of Faith Christian Academy, who is coming off a big upset of Victory last Tuesday. We will be taking on the Screaming Eagles on Monday on our home court at Hidden Cove. Junior high is at 5:30 with varsity to follow. See you there.

Getting there

Yesterday afternoon the junior high boys traveled again to Glenwood to play Glenwood School. We had just played them a couple of weeks ago, suffering one of our worst losses of the year, 42-17. Glenwood played a 1-2-2 defense, and we didn't really have a good offense to run against it. Then. This time we adjusted, which cut down down our turnovers and the resulting Glenwood fast break. We were again on the short end of the score, but this time it was only 26-19 and we had a chance up to the end.
It didn't look good at first, however, as we adjusted to our new offense and gave up the ball for easy baskets early. The boys got a little run going at the end of the first quarter, scoring the last four, and trailed only 12-7 at the end of a quarter. We slowed them down in the second, cutting out the turnovers and fast breaks while playing very good half-court defense. Our offense struggled as the boys had trouble getting shots off. Glenwood outscored us 6-5 in the quarter, as Charles scored from the free throw line to pull the Patriots withing six at half.

The even play continued in the third quarter. Caleb D. knocked down a shot from the corner. Caleb Y. was working hard down low, but the physical play of Glenwood kept him in check for a time. Late in the quarter he got free for a short shot which he made while being fouled. He made the free throw to draw the Patriots to within five, but Glenwood scored the final basket of the quarter to take a 24-17 lead into the fourth quarter. Caleb's hard work in the paint paid off with four trips to the line early in the quarter and he made two to again cut the lead to five. Meanwhile the defense was very strong, holding Glenwood to one for eleven shooting, but they couldn't find the basket after Caleb's free throws.

Caleb led the team with ten points and fourteen rebounds. Caleb D  added four, Charles three and David got his first basket for the other two points. Hopefully the boys can carry the momentum from this game into their next (Monday against Families of Faith at Hidden Cover) and get their first victory.

Strong down the stretch

The Patriots showed their resiliency once again last night, coming from as far back as eight, and from a five-point deficit to open the fourth, to defeat the Southside Torchmen 45-41 last night in Oak Lawn. The junior high team was not as successful though they did play a strong fourth quarter, cutting an eighteen-point deficit to twelve, but eventually falling 26-14.

We knew the junior high game was going to be tough, as Southside plays several ninth-graders on their team. The report from the junior high soccer coach was that they had one very tall, talented ninth-grader on that team, and sure enough, there he was warming up on the basketball team. From the start, he clogged up the middle on defense and was the go-to guy on offense. Caleb found the going rough inside from the beginning, with every shot contested and several blocked. Matt did get us on the board early, but the Patriots trailed 7-3 after one quarter. Southside really came out strong in the second. They shut down the lane completely on defense, and the offense was a little more diverse, with six of their players scoring. The ball wasn't going in for us from the outside much, but Charles and Matt each knocked down a jumper. Southside scored thirteen in the quarter however, and led 20-7 at half. Our defense was stronger in the third, but our offense was very quiet. Caleb's free throw was our only scoring, and while we kept Southside in check much of the quarter, they did score a couple of baskets late to make it 26-8 at the end of three. As mentioned, the boys picked it up in the fourth, playing tough defense and shutting out the Torchmen, but the offense was only good, not great. Caleb got free for two baskets underneath and Henry got one from the outside, but it was much too little too late.

The requisite history lesson: We have played Southside's varsity the last two years, and while the scores were similar (58-40, 57-30), we actually were better the second year than the first, when they put their junior high team in for the fourth and we outscored them 20-0 in the quarter. Last year the lead increased gradually throughout the game. Once again, though, TIADY (This Is A Different Year). But once again, the Patriots started out like nothing had changed. Southside's offense was tailored to the gym, with a lot of short interior passes and good movement, and HSRC had difficulty in stopping them. On the other end, the guys had trouble adjusting their offense to the narrow confines of the Torchmen's court. A Southside free throw made it 12-4, but as in the Calumet game, the guys didn't get down, they just set to work to come back. Seth got fouled and made the free throws, then Lucas, who started the game cold, scored and it was 12-8 at the end of the first quarter. The teams traded baskets to begin the second until Seth followed two Kyle free throws with a basket to bring the Patriots to within two at 16-14. Southside then completed a three-point play. Seth and Josh sandwich field goals around another Southside score to make it 21-18 at half.

As has been their pattern, the Patriots came out flying to begin the second half. Lucas split two free throws which Josh followed with two free throws and a bucket. Kyle completed the scoring streak with a jumper to give HSRC a four-point lead. Southside answered with three straight baskets and Coach Boss called a timeout. Southside scored again, but then Lucas and Seth scored two each to tie it at 29. Southside then scored seven of the last nine points of the quarter to give them the lead at 36-31, their largest lead since the first quarter. After the two teams traded baskets to open the fourth, Coach Boss stopped stretching out the defense, and packed the 2-3 zone down tight. The two top defenders popped out to challenge the three's, but otherwise stayed around the free throw line. This completely frustrated the Torchmen. They did not score again until around a minute left in the game, while the Patriots scored twelve straight. Baskets from Kyle, Lucas, Josh, Kyle again, Seth and finally Josh again put the Patriots up 45-38. Southside stopped the run with a three, but that was it for scoring in the game. We had a little trouble with the concept of running out the clock, but no damage was done, nor was there any more scoring.

Josh and Seth led the team in scoring with fourteen each, while Kyle added ten and Lucas seven. There was little rebounding in the game, mostly because of the close quarters, ball were often knocked out of bounds before anyone could get possession. Josh led in this category with six, and Kyle and Nate added five each. Kyle and Lucas each had four assists. Seth set the team season high with ten steals (another function of the small gym - lots of steals and turnovers) and Kyle had seven. Nate had three blocked shots and he and Kyle had three deflections, a new stat category I'm tracking. Also, Josh took two charges, I believe our first charges taken this year, and probably should of had three.

Next week we play Luther East on Monday at 6PM at St. John Lutheran in Lansing, then a big rematch at Victory in Valpo on Friday at 7:30. SYT.

Torched again by a point guard, different result

I don't think there's a better conference (at least among small Christian schools and homeschool teams) for point guards than the South Shore Christian Conference. Lee at Victory, Darric at Calumet, Micah from Families of Faith, and our very own Seth are a pretty talented group. Saturday was Victory and Lee S., and last night it was Calumet Christian and Darric O. down in Bourbonnais.

Before the varsity match the junior high team took the floor for our fourth game of the season. Calumet has a very talented little guard that we had trouble with all night. And they have Devon as well. Devon did play very well against us, but Ishmael, #10, did most of the damage against us. As we were missing shot after shot in the first quarter, he kept knifing to the basket for layups. After one, we were down 13-3. The defense stepped up in the second, shutting out CCS, but the offense could only match their output from the first quarter, with Caleb Y. getting a free throw and Matt making a jumper. All the momentum we had going into the half quickly dissipated under an onslaught of baskets from Ishmael. Once again three was all we could manage, all from Caleb. The boys played loose in the fourth. Caleb kept working down low, and it finally paid off. He scored seven in the quarter, three from the line. Caleb D. knocked down both field goals he attempted and HSRC scored more in the quarter - eleven - than they had the first three quarters. The final was 33-20.

I don't know why I keep recapping last year's games against the teams that we have just played, because our team is so different last year, but here goes. Three times the Patriots played the Patriots, and three times the homeschool Patriot went down, getting outscored by 95 in the three games. The boys did get the margin down to fifteen by the last time we played them.

At first, it looked the game was going to resemble the first two game against Calumet last year - forty point blowouts. Darric popped in a three to get things started. Seth answered with basket, but another three by Darric was followed by another three, then two two-pointers made it 13-2. However, the guys turned it around at this point, with Kyle stopping the bleeding with a basket which Seth followed with a free throw, then a three-pointer to pull HSRC within five. Nate scored to make it a three-point game, but CCS scored before quarter end to make it 15-10 after one. Kyle started the scoring in the second with a three. From there to about a minute left in the half, the lead was between two and six for Calumet. The lead was four at about the one-minute mark, but Darric took over at that point, scoring two threes and a two with a steal thrown it before halftime, giving CCS a 33-21 lead, with Darric scoring 22 of the 33.

The lead got as big as fourteen early in the third quarter. Lucas, who hadn't scored in the first half, started to hit his stride. He scored, then Seth put in a three to pull our guys to within nine. Lucas scored again to make it seven, and the lead ranged between seven and ten before the quarter ended with CCS leading 44-35. Lucas got our guys to within six with a quarter-opening three, The blue Patriots had started figuring out the press in the third, and they pretty much had it mastered by the fourth, throwing the ball over the top for several layups. Two baskets following Lucas' score completed the seven point run and brought HSRC to within two. CCS answered that with seven straight of their own to push the lead back out to nine. The teams traded two baskets each. The press break really started working here, with HSRC going on a 13-1 run, getting conventional three-point plays from Seth, Lucas and Kyle. Josh got free for two baskets, and was fouled on the second, but missed the free throw. A questionable foul was called on scramble for the ball after a missed HSRC shot that would have given our guys a five point lead, and CCS hit both free throws. After a turnover, Darric was fouled again. This time he split the the two free throws to tie it and that was it for scoring in regulation. Nate opened the scoring in the overtime period. After a CCS basket, Josh got free underneath for a basket. CCS tied it up again, then Lucas and Josh scored to give HSRC a four-point lead. After a defensive stop, Lucas got fouled and made one of two to make it 68-63. Darric quickly answered with a three and after a missed layup, Calumet tied it at 68. Seth got free for a layup after breaking the press, and the stole the ball and dribbled out the clock, giving the blue Patriots a thrilling 70-68 overtime victory. I don't know what it is about Hidden Cove, but it seems like we have all our nailbiters there.

After shooting 31% in the first half, our guys shot 67% in the second half. They didn't turn around their free-throw shooting, however, hitting only 7 of 21 for the game. Seth led the team in scoring with 24. Lucas added eighteen, all after the half, Josh had thirteen, Kyle nine and Nate six. Josh has twelve rebounds with Kyle and Nate adding ten each. Seth broke the team record for assists (again) with nine and added four steals. Kyle had two blocks to lead the team.

Yet another team we have had trouble with is up next - Southside Baptist on Thursday. Junior high at 4:30 and varsity at 6, in Oak Lawn. See you there.

Learning and growing

I guess we shouldn't be disappointed. Last year if we would have gotten to the championship game, it would have been the highlight of our year. Of course our performance in the tournament last year shouldn't be a the standard by which we should be judged this year.

But enough about my coaching ability.

The Patriots had a chance of upsetting and dethroning Victory Christian in their own tournament, leading 41-39 early in the fourth quarter before faltering, eventually losing 62-52 to the host team.

The two  teams are quite a bit different than they were last year. Victory had a very strong team, led by two seniors. This year they have a very strong team, led by a transfer from Calumet High (not Calumet Christian). HSRC had a major makeover, with only two holdovers from last season. While Victory remains at a high level, HSRC is making the long climb from where they were, winning only three and four games the last two years.

The game started out with each team kind of feeling each other out. Victory had been averaging about 75 points a game to this point, so holding them to fourteen in the quarter was an accomplishment. Nate came out on fire for the game, playing great defense, passing smartly and hauling down rebounds. The team, however, had trouble getting shots to fall. Thankfully they made up for it with offensive rebounds. I counted eight for the quarter, so despite shooting only 25% for the quarter, the Patriots only trailed by two. The game seemed to slow down in the second quarter, with some physical play under the basket. The Patriots got off only six shots (making one) in the quarter after taking twenty in the first. They made their points from the line, shooting six for ten. The defense continued playing at a high level, holding VCA to 33% shooting for the quarter (32% for the half) and twelve points.

The Patriots made up the five point deficit pretty quickly in the second half. I believe that HSRC caught up at 27 after a three by Lucas. Lucas and Nate carried the team offensively in the quarter, with Lucas scoring nine, getting his points inside and out, and Nate scored four while continuing his active work on defense and the boards. He also was the outlet for the press break that the Patriots executed successfully for the most part. The Patriots also slowed the passes through the zone to open players in the short corners that VCA pulled off several times in the first half. VCA managed two threes among the five shots they made in the quarter, which helped keep HSRC from opening a larger lead than three, which was the largest lead the Patriots had in the quarter, at 37-34. One of those threes tied it up, but the Patriots went up with another field goal before the end of the quarter. VCA tied the game early in the fourth, but Seth put us back up by two. That was the last score for a while for the Patriots. Victory ran off thirteen straight points, scoring inside, outside and from the free throw line. The Patriots were cold during this stretch but also had trouble holding onto the ball. Finally Seth knocked down a three to break the string. Josh scored inside after a defensive stop to make it a six point game, but that was as close as they could get the remainder of the game. VCA scored two, then Josh answered with a basket, 54-48. That was repeated twice more to make it 58-52, but Victory scored the last four points to finish the game. For the quarter the teams shot a similar percentage, but Victory went to the line nine times in the quarter to zero for the Patriots.

Josh led in scoring with fifteen after a flurry of inside baskets in the fourth quarter. Seth added thirteen and Lucas had eleven. Three Patriots were in double digit in rebounds: Kyle had eleven while Josh and Nate had ten each. The passing was very good in the game: Kyle had seven assists and Lucas had four. Seth had four steals and Nate rounded out his exceptional performance with three blocks. Lucas and Seth were named to the all-tournament team as well.

To get to the championship game, the Patriots had to defeat another conference opponent, Families of Faith Christian from Channahon, IL. The Patriots had defeated FOFCA two years ago, but lost last year by one point when several players couldn't start and two junior high team players had to start. At the risk of sounding repetitive, this is a different year. For a very short time, the game was close. FOFCA scored the first basket, then went up 3-2 after a free throw.  HSRC scored the next basket and never trailed again in the game. By the end of the first quarter the lead was 17-5. The zone defense was frustrating their big man as well as their point guard. HSRC kept up the offense in the second half, matching the seventeen scored in the first, but FOFCA's offense got a track on little and they were able to score eleven in the second. In the third, the only Patriot shooting well was Lucas, who made three of four in the quarter and completed a three-point play by making a free throw. Josh was the only other Patriot to score. The defense was stifling, as it often is after the half, and FOFCA was only able to score on two threes. Coach Boss had already sat down Seth with a twenty-point lead, and he kept them there as the Patriots started the fourth with a 44-22 lead. FOFCA played hyperkinetically (officially the longest word I've used in a blog post) in the fourth, which resulted in twelve points, but it took them seventeen shots to get there. Meanwhile the Patriots, playing their bench players, only managed five points, but with the game comfortably in hand, it was more than enough in the 49-34 win.

Lucas led in scoring with seventeen, shooting six for eleven with two three-pointers and three free throws. Seth had fifteen and Josh eleven. Kyle led in rebounding with twelve, but Lucas added ten from his guard position. Seth and Josh each had four steals to lead the team. Kyle had five assists and Nate two blocks to lead the team in those categories.

On Thursday, the guys traveled all the way out to an eerily empty and quiet gym in Wheatfield, IN for a conference game against Christian Haven. HSRC got one of their wins against Christian Haven last year on a last-second shot by Lucas at our first home game ever, at Hidden Cove. The Patriots started slowly against CH, leading only by one, 13-12 at the end of the first. CH's #24 was hot in the quarter, scoring inside and out. The Patriots play was rough and at time seemed unfocused. But, as has happened often this year, the team came out after halftime ready to play. They carried the play into the fourth, out scoring CH 31-13 in the half for a final of 56-33. Four Patriots scored in double figures: Seth with seventeen, Lucas fourteen, Kyle twelve and Josh 10. Kyle pulled down fifteen boards, team high for the year while brother Josh had ten. Four players had either two or three assists and Josh led the team in steals with four.

Tomorrow we host Calumet Christian at Hidden Cove, junior high at 5:30 and varsity at 6:30. The Patriots' varsity lost to CCS three times last year, so hopefully we can change that. On Thursday we travel to Oak Lawn to play Southside, junior high at 4:30 and varsity at 6:00.

Good start, not so good finish

The young Patriots struggled tonight against another taller and faster (and older) opponent, losing to the Glenwood Wildcats 42-17 in Glenwood's gym. The Patriots started strong, knocking down two outside shots, one by Matt and the other by Caleb D. to take a 4-2 lead, but that was the high point of the evening. Glenwood scored two more baskets in the quarter while all we could manage was a free throw by Henry, and we were down 6-5 at the end of the first quarter. Glenwood changed to a 1-2-2 defense to start the second quarter, and we really didn't have an answer for it. With the top three defenders smothering our point guard and two wing players, we committed several turnovers which Glenwood converted to fast breaks. While Glenwood was streaking down the court and getting layups, as well as making a three, all we could manage int the first four and a half minutes of the quarter was a free throw by Caleb Y. The boys started clicking on offense a little to end the half, however. Caleb Y. got fouled again and split his free throws. Henry then made a nice move to shake his defender and knocked down a jumper, and Caleb finished the mini-streak with a nice move inside for a basket. This pulled the Patriots to within eight at half, 19-11.

The halftime seemed to take away our momentum, and Glenwood really dialed up the defense to start the second half. Glenwood scored seven very quickly, and we continued to struggle even getting shots off. Caleb Y. continued his effective play in the post, hitting on two of three, but no one else was able to make a shot. Glenwood finished the quarter getting several easy baskets off fast breaks. They finished with fifteen in the quarter and a 34-15 lead going into the final period. Our defense was a little sharper in the fourth, but our offense continued to struggle. We only got off three shots in the quarter and missed them all. Matt and Caleb Y. each split two free throws for our only two points. As I mentioned, the defense was better, getting back quicker in transition and playing pretty effective post defense. Because of the turnovers and the struggle to get rebounds, however, Glenwood took fourteen shots in the quarter, making four.

Caleb Y. led in scoring with nine. Matt and Henry each had three and Caleb D. got the other two. Henry, Mark and Caleb Y. each had five rebounds to lead the team. Henry also had two steals, as assist and a blocked shot.

Here are the stats for the year to date:

A Tale of Two Weeks

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

That is just WAY too melodramatic. Also, not exactly accurate. Dickens was referring to the juxtaposition of sociological....oh wait, this is a SPORTS blog. Let's try this again.

The Patriots' opponents this past Monday and Tuesday were a step up (or two) in class from their opponents of the previous week. On Monday, we traveled to Portage for the christening of their gym, which from what I gathered, was long anticipated. Portage came in second in the conference tournament last year, losing a tough battle with Victory in the championship game. They have almost all of their top players back and have to be considered one of the favorites for the conference championship in 2012.

The first game of the evening was the junior high game. Our first thought when Portage's team came out for warmups was, where do they get players that big? But when the game started, Portage's size wasn't really the difference, though they did get the ball to the big guys over the top of our defense for some easy baskets, and there were several rebounds we had no chance of getting. The big difference was their point guard, a gifted ball-handler as well as a tough one-on-one defender. PCS started out the game in a somewhat passive defense, as it seemed they were assessing us to determine how best to play us. We had some open shots, especially Matt, and he knocked down a couple, a two and a three-pointer. Caleb worked hard down low and was able to get to the free throw line where he made two. From there, though, PCS cranked up the pressure at half court and caused a lot of turnovers. Between that and their rebounding, we could hardly get a shot off. Caleb scored three over the second and third quarter, but that was it for our offense. Portage scored 21 over that stretch, many on fast breaks off turnovers. To their credit, our guys continued to play hard. Caleb Y. was very aggressive, scoring four and Henry made a field goal. PCS didn't slow down on offense, however, and the final was 42-16.

After some ear-splitting music and deafening introductions, the varsity game got underway. The game began, and after a couple baskets and a 4-2 lead, our shooting stopped. HSRC seemingly could not get a shot to go down, even layups. Lucas and Nate scored a basket each, but that was it for the offense. The defense was good, but PCS did get five of twelve to go down, and they led at the end of one, 11-4. The second quarter was more of the same on offense. Time and time again, the Patriots got opportunities for layups and putbacks, but the they just wouldn't go down. The Patriots scored four again, this time on baskets from Lucas and Josh. The defense was better, allowing PCS to score only eight in the quarter on four of fourteen shooting, but it still left the Patriots down eleven at half.

Both teams picked it up on offense in the third. Josh and Nate saw some success working down low, and Nate even made a three. They got as close as six in the quarter, at 31-25, but Portage got the next two baskets, and after the teams traded baskets, PCS still led by ten going into the fourth. Both teams kept up their offenses in the quarter. HSRC started getting a little more aggressive with their defense and the fouls started piling up. Portage made fifteen trips to the line in the quarter, making only four, but Seth ended up fouling out. The guys also were more aggressive on offense, and they went to the line ten times, making five. PCS gradually increased their lead in the quarter, leading by as many as fifteen. Kyle made a late three to make the final score 55-43.

The Patriots ended up shooting 17% in the first half, but 56% in the second for 38% for the game. The team also only shot 36% from the free throw line (five for fourteen). Josh led the team in scoring with thirteen, while Kyle and Lucas added ten and Nate eight. Josh also led in rebounding with 14; Nate had eight. Lucas and Kyle had three assists apiece, and Lucas added three steals. Josh had two blocked shots on the night.

On Tuesday, we were part of another gym unveiling, playing Kankakee Trinity Academy at the their "new" gym - they just purchased a Lutheran school and were using the gym for a game for the first time. We had played KTA last year in the Calumet tournament, losing by twelve. For this game, we were going to be down one starter, as Lucas had previous engagement. The trapping halfcourt defense was very effective early. Our guys caused a lot of turnovers and deflections. On offense, the early-game shooting woes of the previous night's game haunted us again, as we only shot three for thirteen from the field (one for three from the arc) and two for six from the line in the opening quarter. Meanwhile, the defense concentrated on keeping the ball out of the hands of #21, KTA's star guard. Between that and the turnovers, KTA scored only ten in the quarter. The second quarter saw KTA capable forward, #14, getting free, so as the defense shifted toward containing him, #21 started getting some open looks. Our shooting difficulties continued. Josh was doing good work in the post, but our outside shots would not go down. The team shot 7 for 31 in the half, and trailed 28-17 at the break.

As it did the previous night, the offense started clicking in the third, while the defense took a step back. Seth started hitting some shots, scoring seven, while Josh kept up his steady work inside scoring four. Kyle also hit a couple of baskets and a free throw. However, #21 was very hot in the quarter. He scored seventeen of his team's 21, mostly on outside shots, several of which were defended pretty well. KTA kept adding to the lead in the fourth, but now behind the efforts of #14. He made all six of shots in the quarter, many of which were off nice moves around the basket. Also, #21 was setting him up with nice passes as the defense concentrated more on him. The Patriots began to get desparate on offense, taking a lot of shots and missing most. The guys were 6 of 22 in the quarter, two of which were threes. They got to the line seven times as well, making three. I believe the biggest lead was 23 for the Eagles, but a late basket by HSRC made the final 73-52.

For the game, the Patriots only shot 29.6% to KTA's 53%. Josh led the team in scoring with eighteen on eight for thirteen shooting from the floor. Seth added fifteen, Kyle ten and Nate seven. Peter got his first points of the year, scoring two. Kyle had rebounding honors with eleven. Josh had nine and Nate added seven. Seth had four assists and Josh had three blocks.

The team's next game is Thursday, December 1 at Christian Haven, so the guys have a little break. If anyone want to check on the stats for the team, I have been recording them on Maxpreps. Our schedule is there as well, but I'm not sure if it is completely up to date at this point. I will try to make sure all the schedules are synchronized this weekend. You also can see our standings within the conference here.

Have a blessed and restful Thanksgiving!

Who are you and what have you done with the Patriots?

58-37. 66-31.

We have seen scores like this before. Generic Christian School or X Homeschool Dynasty would score the greater amount. HSRC would score the lesser.

This year, however, HSRC is on the left side. HSRC gets to attach a W to the score.

Whoever these guys are, at least they don't know history. At least they aren't affected by it.

Already this year the team single-game scoring record has been broken. Twice. The team record for field goals in a game has been broken. Twice. The team record for shooting percentage from the floor has been broken. Twice. The team records for assists and blocked shots have been broken. Only once for those.

Apparently 2011-2012 is a different year.

HSRC's opener was Thursday against Grace Baptist of Kankakee. We hosted the game at Crete Elementary, and it was obvious that it was our first home game. From having no concessions to a non-functioning scoreboard projector, the night did not go smoothly, at least logistically. The game, however, was a revelation. Last year we barely beat Grace in their gym, winning 37-35, one of the four games the guys won last year. The Patriots started out a little slowly, especially on defense, as they weren't sure where Grace's strengths were. Seth, however, did not start slowly on offense. He was five for five in the first quarter, most on drives to the basket, although he also hit a three. Josh was also perfect from the field, hitting both of his attempts. On the strength of their efforts, HSRC pushed the lead out to six at the end of the first quarter, 17-11. The defense tightened in the second, while the offense cooled a bit. The Patriots were settling for three attempts, but only one was successful out of the six taken. When the guys did get it inside, good things happened, as they hit four of six two point attempts. Seth cooled off a bit, but still scored seven in the quarter and had eighteen at the half. On the other half of the court, the defense was stifling. Grace only was able to connect on three of thirteen attempts. Several of the misses were due to blocks, thanks to Nate and Josh. Occasionally the defense was a little overexuberant, resulting in six trips to the line for the Chargers. Thankfully only one was successful, so the Patriots were able to increase the lead to ten, 28-18, at the half.

The second half saw Kyle pick things up on the offensive end. He scored on all three of his attempts i the quarter, including a three. While Seth slowed a bit on the offense end, his defense continued to be strong. He scored four in the quarter and Lucas and Nate added a basket each. Grace scored three more from the line in the quarter, but their shooting percentage remained low. At one point HSRC led by seventeen, but a late three by Grace made it 43-29 at the end of three. Seth got hot again in the fourth, hitting all three that he took in the quarter. The other four starters - Josh, Kyle, Nate and Lucas each added a basket and Nated added a free throw. The defense repeated their performance of the second quarter. Grace again shot three for thirteen while making two foul shots. The lead grew throughout the quarter. The final was 58-37.

Seth broke the team record for field goals made (13) and points in a game (28), breaking the records held by Justin VanderPloeg (10 and 23), set in the 2009-2010 season. Team record for points, field goals made, and blocked shots were broken as well. The 58 exceeded the previous high of 47 set in the 2009-2010 season. The new high in field goals, 27, exceeded the previous high of 23, set in that same game in 09-10. The old blocked shots record of seven was also set that season, but was exceeded by one in this game. As I'm sure you guessed, Seth was the leading scorer with 28, followed by Kyle with 13 and Josh with eight. Josh led in rebounds with seven, while Lucas offset a rough shooting night with five assists. Nate's five and Josh's three made up the record blocked shots effort.

The momentum seemed to carry over to the next night, when we took on Community Christian. Community rose from the ashes of Ridgewood Baptist, which had been a basketball powerhouse, both boys and girls, for many years.

But first the junior high team debuted. Our team is pretty young, with several sixth graders on the team. CCS jumped out to an early lead, but Caleb D. got us on the board. CCS slowed down after the quick start, but still led after one, 8-4. The boys stayed with the Panthers early in the second, but they soon unveiled a 1-2-1-1 press that we were unprepared for. Time after time the Panthers forced turnovers which led to easy baskets. CCS scored the last eight points of the half. HSRC was only able to score one on a free throw from Caleb Y. Halftime score: 18-5. The Patriots were able to slow the Panthers a little in the third. The half court defense was solid, but every time the Panthers applied the press, we had trouble. Caleb Y. was able to get free a couple times in the quarter for layups, but he also traveled a couple times on questionable calls that might have turned into layups as well. Caleb Y. kept things going in the fourth. He scored on three of four shooting. The half court defense continued to be solid. CCS had called off the press, so HSRC was able to show their half court strengths. HSRC "won" the quarter, outscoring CCS 6-4, to make the final 31-15. Not a great start, but the effort was there.

As mentioned, the former incarnation of Community had a reputation for strong teams. Also, as mentioned, HSRC was coming in with a lot of momentum. One of those two things held true this Friday evening, and CCS looks like their going to have to build their own legacy. It took a little while to get it going, however. A couple of starters were late, so Peter and Ethan got their first starts, They, with Josh, Kyle and Lucas made up the lineup for the first quarter. That group played quite well. Even though the score was close, it was noticeable that we had the better team. Lucas got off quickly, driving to the basket. He scored six in the first to match Kyle for scoring honors in the quarter. The star player for CCS kept them close with three threes plus a two, but his teammates scored only one other point. Josh also scored in the quarter, and HSRC led 14-12. The regular starters were in to start the second, but it was Lucas who kept things going. He shot four of five in the quarter, including a three. But was really notable about the quarter was the defense. The Patriots forced turnovers or bad shots time after time in the quarter, leading to fast breaks. And on the fast breaks, the passing and finishing was breathtaking. Speed down the court, touch passes, no-look passes, and beautiful finishes led to a lot of easy baskets. CCS continued to get almost all their offense from #12, but less so as they guys started figuring out how better to play him. HSRC scored 23 in the quarter while giving up only nine, and the halftime score was 37-21.

The Patriots didn't miss a beat starting the second have. The same defense, the same results. This time Kyle was the benenficiary on the scoring side. Seth kept piling up the assists, and Kyle, Nate and Lucas also chipped in. The defense was even better, or CCS started panicking. Either way, CCS shot only two for thirteen. HSRC scored 21 to CCS's five and the lead was 58-26.  Fifty-eight. The amount scored the last night in the whole game which was the high water mark all-time for the program, and a full quarter to play. If Coach Boss had elected to, the record would have obliterated. As it was, he played his bench players all quarter and ordered his charges to pass, pass, pass. However, he did not tell them to back off on defense, and the result there was another five-point quarter. The slow-down strategy plus a mini cold streak kept the Patriot scoring down to eight, but the scoring (and field goal) record was broken again in the 66-31 victory.

The scoring was more balance in this game than the Grace game. Lucas led in scoring with 17 on seven for 11 shooting. Josh had 16, Kyle had 14, Seth had 11 and Nate had eight. Josh owned the boards with 13 rebounds. Nate and Kyle had nine each. The notable stat of the night, though, was assists. The team and player single-game records were both broken. Seth had a record eight of the team record 17 assists for the game. Kyle led the team with four steals. As mentioned, the scoring and field goal team records were broken for the second consecutive night. The shooting percentage record was also broken this night, as the Patriots shot over 50% for the first time in its history, shooting 51.7%.

What a difference a year makes. See you all at Portage Christian on Monday. Go Patriots!

Season wrap up

The second season of the HSRC junior high soccer team in now complete, with the post-season banquet taking place on Thursday. This season was far more successful in terms of wins and losses than the first year, as the Patriots finished up with six wins and six losses, after finishing last year without a win.

At the last post, the Patriots were 2-3. Those two wins were consecutive and were the first two of what turned out to be a five-game winning streak. The third win in the streak was 5-1 victory over Cornerstone of Chicago Heights. This was a good measuring stick of how far the team had come from last year, as the team lost to Cornerstone last year 1-0. The next game was against Zion Lutheran of Beecher, a late add to the schedule. The game was at Zion's home field. The details are a bit murky, but I think the score was about 6-0. The last game in the winning streak was against St. Paul of Oak Lawn. This game was our second and last home game. The game was a lot of fun, and I believe the final score of that one was 8-2, with Noel scoring six of the goals.

Alas, the fun came to an end against Southside Baptist on October 7. Last year we only lost by one, but they got a lot bigger and we got beat 4-1. The conference tournament was up next. Four of the organizations in the conference had middle school teams - HSRC, Portage, Granger and Victory. We had Granger up first. Granger dominated the game, going out to a big early lead before going on to the 7-3(?) victory. In the consolation game, the boys took on Portage. They moved out to a two-goal lead and held on despite a last-minute goal by Portage, 5-4. The final game of the season was against Trinity Lutheran of Tinley Park. This game was also a vast improvement over last year, but still was a loss. Last year it was 8-0; this year, in a well-played game the team only lost 2-0. The loss kept the team from finishing over .500, but 6-6 is not bad. And we got a trophy.

The banquet was fun with a lot of good food. Coach Goudzwaard gave out the awards: MVP was Noel, of course. The energy(?) award was given to Sam and the newcomer award was given to Dillon. Coach noted that we outscored our opponents on the year and that Noel scored thirty-one of the forty-seven (?) that the team scored. All-in-all, a good season with a lot of improvement. Looking forward to next year.

First full-squad win!!

This afternoon the Patriots traveled to Glenwood School for their fifth game of the season. Two games ago our guys came very close to winning, losing by one after trailing 3-0 at halftime. That game we were without Bobby for the first half; today we were without him the whole game. Despite that, the boys took away their first win with a whole squad in the history of the program, winning 2-0.

It was an interesting game. The majority of the play was on our side of the field. Glenwood was faster as a team than the Patriots, and were a bit more aggressive. Shot after shot was taken by Glenwood and most of them were on goal. Thankfully we have a very good goalie. I wish I would have counted the number of saves Blake had in the game. I'm sure it was at least fifteen. Of those, three were shots penalty shots. Not one shot got past Blake; he was a wall. It did help that all of the shots on goal were low. Every high shot they took went over the net. But if their was such a thing, and I had a vote, I would vote for Blake for player of the game. Noel scored toward the end of the first half and then early in the second. I don't think there were more than two other shots by the Patriots the entire game. We didn't get a lot of opportunities, but we made them count. 


Other players who shone tonight were Peter and Caleb for their excellent clearing kicks on defense; Mark and Sam for their energy; and of course Noel for scoring both goals and helping out on defense later in the game.

Our next game is at Cornerstone of Chicago Heights on Thursday. Check the calendar at fofchomeschool.org for the time and location. See you there.

Season summary to date

I have been remiss in blogging here and I apologize. I have only been able to attend two games of the four so I can't give first-hand accounts of the Illinois Lutheran and Landmark games.

I have recapped the opening game against Victory, so I won't go over that game again. Our next game was against Illinois Lutheran. We had played their B team three times last year and lost two of them by only one goal. (The third was a 5-2 IL victory). We were hoping, because of the team's improvement, that we might be able to beat them this year. However, our signals got crossed somewhere, and IL played their A team. We have ways to go before we get to that level. As I mentioned, I wasn't there, and the people I talked to had a hard time keeping track of all the goals scored by the opponent. So the final was around 8 to 10 for IL and 3 for us. If anyone is sure of the final, please make a comment and I will edit this post As in our first game, all of our goals were scored by Noah.

Our next game was against Glenwood School and was our first home game on our Monee field. The field was in good shape and it was great to host a game. One of our players misplaced his cleats so he was unavailable to play in the first half. We were already down to thirteen players, so that left us with only one sub. The team played well considering the circumstances, but Glenwood's speed was too much for us to handle and they led 3-0 at half. The shoeless Patriot showed up at half time with the proper equipment and that made a bid difference. We controlled the ball much of the second half, but could only net two while holding Glenwood scoreless. Noel continue to be our offense, scoring both.

I was unable to attend the most recent game, against Landmark at their field. They only had eight, so they requested that we play with the same number. They also preferred not to play against girls, so Anya and Rebecca had to sit out. None of this slowed down our team, as the Patriots recorded the first soccer victory in the program's existence, 8-1. This time Noel shared the wealth, as several players scored. Per Coach Goudzwaard, he believed the scoring came from Henry (3), Noel (2), and Sam, Isaac and Blake with one each. Again, if anyone is sure of the scoring, please leave a note.

This week's games are both away games: Monday at Glenwood at 4:30 and Thursday at Cornerstone in Chicago Heights at 4:30. More details are on the calendar that you can find here: http://fofchomeschool.org/calendar.html#year=2011&month=9&day=17&view=month. Keep checking the calendar, as we may be adding a couple more games.

The season is underway

HSRC began its second junior high soccer season tonight with a game at Victory Christian Academy in Valparaiso, IN. While the team didn't come out with a win, there were a lot of positives the team can build on. Because the, ahem, athletic director, whoever that is, forgot that he scheduled a game with Victory, we kind of had to scramble to get the team together to even play this game. And it was quite fortunate that the OTHER game we scheduled that day got canceled. Oops. We will do better.

Anyway, back to the game. I didn't get there until just before the first half ended (thank you holiday traffic), and the Patriots were trailing 4-1. That is how the first half ended. The team tried to cool off in some shade at the end of the field at halftime. It must have helped. Behind three goals from Noel Keeble (who also scored the first half goal) the Patriots tied up the game and the momentum was on our side. But alas, it didn't last as Victory scored the last two goals of the game to take the win, 6-4.

So the program continues to look for its first win. With just a little more experience, it looks like that wait might be over soon. Noel stood out (obviously) on offense, Bobby looked very good with ball control from his midfield position, and Peter did very well on defense. As some of the younger players get playing time the defense should get better and that win should come.

Next game is at Illinois Lutheran in Crete (Route 1 about one mile south of Exchange) Tuesday at 4:15. On Thursday we host our first game in history, against Glenwood School for Boys and Girls, also at 4:15. Hope to see you there.

Summer activity

HSRC Sports is putting soccer and basketball clinics this summer. The soccer clinic will take place on July 16 at Crete Reformed Church, 24755 South Country Lane, Crete, IL  60417  (just west of IL394 on Exchange, across the street from Walt's).

From the coaches:

How would you like to meet professional or World Cup soccer players and be able to learn the game and kick the ball around with them for a few hours?  Well, I would too, but we don’t know any of them.  Instead, the Home School Resource Center will be hosting a summer soccer clinic on July 16, 2011, from 9:00am to 12:30 pm. The clinic will be conducted by HSRC Junior High soccer coaches Steve Goudzwaard and Jay Dorn.   

Boys and girls who are 10 to 13 years old (5^th – 8^th grade) are invited to participate.  The purpose of the clinic is to introduce basic soccer skills of kicking, passing, trapping and dribbling.  Proper techniques will be emphasized.  We will conclude with a short scrimmage game.

Participants should wear shorts and a T-shirts as well as proper footwear and shin guards.  Water and snacks will be provided, but participants may still want to bring a water bottle and snack of their own.

The cost of the clinic is $ 15 payable to Home School Resource Center (HSRC). Each participant will receive an HSRC Patriots t-shirt.

We are preparing a home soccer field at Family of Faith Church in Monee, IL., where we will have practices and home games for this coming season.

In addition, HSRC will be hosting a basketball clinic for boys 6th to 9th grade at the South Suburban Sports Complex, 1329 Commerce Drive, Crete, IL. 

708-367-8075

www.sssportscomplex.com

This will be headed up by Brian Power, junior high coach of the HSRC Patriots. The clinic will run from 3PM to 5PM each day from July 25 to July 29. It is open to 6th to 9th grade boys (11 to 14 on September 1, 2011). Cost of this camp is $45 per player and includes an HSRC Patriots t-shirt.

Final post

Yes, I'm finally getting around to the recap of the Portage and all-star games. I'm building anticipation.

Anyway, a week ago Monday we went to the Courts of Northwest Indiana, Portage's home court, for our final girls' and boys' varsity games of the year. However, when we scheduled this game last fall, we did not tell Portage that we wanted to play their boys' varsity this year. They assumed we wanted the same game as last year, a JV game, so that is what they scheduled.

The first game on the schedule was the girls' game. Last year HSRC won by I believe five or so, in a very tense game, both on the court and on the bench. Those of you who were there will know what I'm talking about. We had seen Portage at the Grace tournament. They seemed to have different players from one game to the next, so we weren't sure who we would be facing. We soon found out that PCS only had six girls there, but both of their quick little guards and one of their very tall forwards were included in that six. Coach Boss, however, designed a game plan to draw out the big girl from underneath by bringing Rachel up to the elboy, and that with some very good perimeter defense kept us in the game for a while. After one quarter, PCS's lead was only two. The girls continued to hang tough in the early part of the second, keeping the lead to four until near the end of the quarter. PCS scored to go up 16-10, and then got the ball back with a few seconds to go and managed get another basket at the halftime horn, so the lead was eight heading into the second half. Rachel had gotten into foul trouble so she had to go to the bench, and she took most of our interior defense with her. PCS kept working the ball inside and there was very little we could do. Cass kept up the offense, but we game up nearly as many points in the third as we did in the first two quarter. PCS outscored our girls 17-9 in the quarter. The fourth was even worse. Our offense and defense abandoned us, but the girls never gave up. Portage ended up with a 54-24 victory. Rachel (12) and Cass (10) scored all but two of our points (which were scored by Carolyn on a nice little drive to the basket). Rebounds were hard to come by - Rachel led the team with five. Rachel also had two steals and an assist. Corinne contributed the only block of the game.

As mentioned earlier, the boys played PCS's JV team. Last year we played their JV team with a couple of varsity players and lost 38-19. This year it was exclusively their JV team, and the result was quite different. The guys started the game hot from the outside. Sam and Dan each hit a three and a two, and Justin pitched in with a basket underneath. On the other side of the court, the pressure defense was effective against Portage, holding them to six. Our offense cooled in the second, as the shots would not go down. Michael got a two-pointer and Dan hit another three, but that was it. The defense however, made up for it. If they weren't forcing turnovers, they were making the Pacers take bad shots. Portage got no points in the quarter, so it was 17-6 HSRC at the half. The third quarter was quite different than the second. The Patriots outscored PCS again, but it was 14-13 in this quarter. Our outside shooting picked up again while Luke L and Justin each scored down low. Portage found their shooting touch as well, hitting three threes and two twos. HSRC maintained the offense in the fourth, as well as the balance. Six players contributed to the thirteen scored in the quarter. The defense was intense, only allowing five shots, one going in (a three). Final score - 44-23, HSRC Patriots. A nice game to finish the season. Dan led in scoring with thirteen and Sam had twelve. Both guys shot 50% or better from the field. Nate, Luke L and Justin each had four rebounds and Justin also had four steals.

The all-star games the next night were fun. The girls started and the difference in ability of the MCAC players compared to the rest of the teams was quite apparent. Mainly due to their play, the East girls won, I believe by about seventeen. Rachel had a nice game with seven points, ten rebounds and three steals. Cass also played well. At halftime, the boys' three-point contest was held. Lucas did well, finishing tied for fourth. In between games, a shooting contest was held with two boys and one girl from each program. Calumet set the standard early, and no team could match it. The boys game was the opposite of the girls' game: the West jumped to a big early lead. The East made a run in the second half, but only got as close as eight, I believe. Justin and Sam both played well, scoring six and twelve, respectively. The girls's three-point contest, held at halftime of the boys' game was exciting. Cass hit seven and held the lead for a short time, but the MCAC girl, in the last group to shoot, made nine so Cass finished second. All in all, a very fun night.

Last night was the season-ending banquet. After a delicious potluck, awards and certificates of participation were presented. The Lorenzes continued their tradition of putting together season-summarizing photo montages, and everyone enjoyed the food and fellowhip. See you next year!

Final basketball post of the 2010-2011 season

Well, that's it. The 2010-2011 basketball season for the HSRC Patriots is in the books. I don't think I'll take this opportunity to recap the year; I may do that in a later post. Let me just summarize the state tournament games for our junior high and varsity boys, the final regular season games against Portage, and the conference all-star festivities.

First, the state tournament. The junior high tournament took place on Friday, February 25 - it did for us, anyway. The championship game was played on Saturday. We didn't quite make it to that, so both our games were on Friday. The first one was against HRK-Gurnee, who we had played earlier in the year. We lost that game 33-12, but we were without the Powers boys (and dad) in that game. HRK put up a lot more shots than us in the first, making three of seventeen, while we went one for seven. The shots were more even in the second, but HRK kept shooting a better percentage. #32, who went oh-for-six in the first, stopped shooting, and the rest of the team went five-for-eleven. Adam was bottled up inside so he couldn't get off too many shots, making only two free throws. Trevor added a basket and it was 17-6 HRK at half. Things slowed down considerably in the fourth. We packed in the defense and they slowed the pace. We managed four again with Adam and Trevor each making a basket, while completely shutting down the Eagles. HRK scored one early in the fourth to make it 18-10. Henry made a three, but HRK went into a stall and we couldn't get the ball back, so 18-13 was the final. Adam had six points, eight rebounds and two blocks. Trevor led the team with nine rebounds.

Game two was also a rematch. The opponent was Crossroads' 12U team, essentially players seventh grade and younger. That one was played without Devon, who missed the game with a sprained ankle. The first contest was a blowout, with Crossroads winning 51-13. This game was much more tightly contested. We trailed 12-1 at the end of one in that game; in this one we were only down 12-8. Adam did all the scoring with three baskets and two free throws. He also was piling up the rebounds. Crossroads opened up the lead to ten by half. Adam got four more in the quarter and Trevor added a freethrow, but Crossroads scored eleven. Adam already had sixteen rebounds at this point. We played evenly with Crossroads in third. Trevor scored a basket, Devon had a bucket and a freethrow, and Adam scored three. Crossroads played tough defense in the fourth, and we had to start fouling to get the ball back. The Crusaders got nine in the quarter, seven from the free throw line. We only managed four, so the final was 41-25. Not very close, but a lot better than 51-13. Adam had a monster game. He scored fifteen, but the big number was 30, as in 30 rebounds, a record that will likely not be broken for a long time. Peter H. added eleven rebounds as a part of the biggest rebounding game (50) the junior high had all year. Peter also had two rebounds and two steals. Trevor also had two steals. The junior high ended up with a 5-10 record.

The varsity had their first game at 8:45 Saturday morning, also against a team they had already faced, HRK Gurnee. It was not a very good game for us. We were down by 24 at the half and lost 55-22. We played a much better first half in this one. We only trailed by two at the end of the first. Sam, Stan, Justin and Lucas all contributed to the eleven the Patriots scored in the quarter. The second was also a good quarter. Gurnee pushed the lead up to ten at one point, but the guys got it back to a five point deficit by halftime. The scoring continued to be balanced, with Mike, Sam, Stan, Justin and Lucas all scoring in the quarter. That was pretty much the end of our good play for the day, however. HSRC couldn't stop #24 in the third, while we had trouble getting shots off, then had trouble making them. Our balance also went away, as Justin got all our points. HRK increased the lead to sixteen by the end of the quarter. We played them pretty even in the fourth, but couldn't get any offense going to make a run. We only made two for eleven, the last one being a three by Ben that went in to make the final score 55-38. Justin led in scoring with thirteen, with Sam, Stan and Lucas contributing six each. Justin also had six rebounds and three steals. Sam had two assists and Luke L had two blocks.

Our final opponent for the tournament was Crestwood Cavalry, the team Coach played for. We knew they were tough, and it turned out they were too tough for us. They played probably the toughest defense we faced all year and came out on top 58-22. They opened up a 19-5 lead after a quarter, with their points coming mostly inside even though our guys were playing a tight zone. We couldn't get any shots off, nor did we rebound well. The Patriots played better in the second, only getting outscored by two. Mike, Sam, Justin and Nate all scored. The third quarter was a disaster, expecially offensively. The guys only got seven shots off and none went in. Their coach's son continued to score, getting eight in the quarter, and his teammates added five more. 43-14, Crestwood, at the end of three. Crestwood continued their steady scoring in the fourth, while HSRC scored a threes by Luke D and Dan, and a basket by Justin. We shot 8 for 32 in the game. Crestwood had 21 more shots than the Patriots as they outrebounded us by nine and had eighteen fewer turnovers. Justin had six points and Dan had five. Justin had six rebounds to lead the team, Stan had two assists, Sam had three steals, and Nate had two blocks.

I will summarize the Portage game and the all-star festivities in my next post.

Unpleasant guests

I think that is an appropriate description of us, after we partially ruined another senior night and partially ruined a homecoming. For the record, that's two partially ruined senior night and one partially ruined homecoming on the year.

On Friday, we played the boys' game against Luther East that was originally scheduled in December. Luther East had some eligibility issues then so they were unable to field a complete team at that time. Since our boys were going to play anyway, we added another girls game as well. This was the first contest of the evening. We had lost to Luther East twice early in the season, but both losses were without Rachel. Tonight we had Rachel, but of course, no Holly. The tone of the game was set early. That tone was a rugby tone. Describing LE's play as physical would be a big understatement. Brutal might be a better term. The refs were allowing it, so it continued throughout the game. At one point, a LE girl through a shoulder into Rachel after the whistle. Rachel reacted angrily, and received the technical. That typified the action throughout the game. Because Rachel was the focal point of he offense to start out the game and LE's game plan was to triple and quadruple team her every time she got the ball, HSRC didn't get anything going in the first. The defense was strong, and limited LE to only four. Things opened up in the second, but the gap also opened up. Hannah made a three and Carolyn put one in, but that was all we got. LE put up nine in the quarter and it was an eight-point lead half time. The threes started falling for LE in the third. Cassidy scored seven in the quarter for the Patriots and Corinne added two, but LE seemed to get every rebound from their misses and got a ton of points on put-backs. They ended up with sixteen to push the lead up to fifteen. Corinne found the range in the fourth and fouls were finally being called on Rachel's defenders. Corinne made three baskets, Rachel made eight of ten free throws, and Cass added a field goal. LE was limited to eight, but that wasn't enough as the girls went down to defeat, 37-30. Cass had nine points with Rachel and Corinne adding eight each. Corinne had nine rebounds and Rachel had eight. Cass had three assists; Rachell had three steals. Cass and Rachel also each had two blocks each.

After the senior night festivities, the boys' game got underway. We trailed 4-2 after a couple of minutes, but then got going. It was even at six before we got the last four in the quarter to take a four-point lead. The momentum continued into the second half, with the Patriots scoring the first four in the quarter on two free throws by Stan and a bucket by Justin. The wheels seemed to fall off here. LE scored eight straight points before Sam made a shot for us. LE scored the final basket in the half to tie it up. HSRC reestablished their dominance early in the second half. Lucas and Justin were scoring early, with Justin making an old-fashioned three point play and Lucas burying a three-pointer. Lucas' basket made it a twelve-point game. LE outscored the Patriots 6-2 to finish the quarter to cut the lead to eight. After LE scored to open the quarter, Lucas and Stan made baskets to push the lead back to ten, but then LE went on another run. They scored nine straight points to get to within one. Finally Sam got fouled and made both of his free throws. The Patriots were able to smother LE for the rest of the game and came away with a 37-34 victory. Justin led in scoring with ten, while Lucas added nine and Stan eight. Justin and Luke L were the double digit rebounders with 14 and 11, respectively. Stan had seven steals; Justin and Sam had five each. Luke L got our only block in the game. Lucas had two assists to lead the team.

The party-ruining continued on Friday. Calumet invited us to play their JV team because their scheduled opponent's JV team had disbanded. We had several players with plans for the weekend, so with Calumet's permission, we cobbled together a team of some varsity and some JV players. The starting lineup was Ben, Stan, Luke D, Justin and Lucas. Dan, Sam and Peter H were on the bench. Calumet's JV team was a little different too, as their star player was ineligible for the game. The game started out slowly as each team tried to get a feel for the other. Ben broke the ice with a nice three. Luke D and Justin followed that with buckets. Calumet could only get one basket to go down, as they had difficulty with our pressure and changing defenses. The second quarter scoring was nearly the same as the first. Our scoring came from Luke, Justin, Lucas and Dan, who matched his brother's first quarter three. Calumet was limited to three in the quarter, so HSRC led by eleven at half. The intensity seemed to be even higher in the third. CCS had difficulty in getting off shots, much less making them. Luke D and Dan led the Patriots with five and four respectively in the quarter, with Sam adding a two and Justin a free throw. The lead was 28-7 at the end of three. The Patriots relaxed their full-court pressure in the fourth, and their shooting percentage dropped somewhat, but they still were the better team in the fourth. Sam got a couple of baskets and Justin added one. The goal of keeping CCS in single digits wasn't met, as their new big guy, #40, got a couple of baskets, but the victory was still impressive, with a final of 34-11.  Luke D was the leading scorer with nine. Justin and Dan added seven each and Sam scored six. Lucas had six rebounds, Justin had three assists and Luke D had four steals to lead the team in each category.

The season is winding down. The junior high and varsity teams will have at least two game at the state tournament, the junior high games primarily on Friday and varsity on Saturday. Then the following Monday we wrap up our schedule with boys and girls varsity games against Portage. Our all-stars will have one more game the next Tuesday in the conference all-star game at Victory, then that will be it. We will be wrapping up the season with the banquet on March 7 at Family of Faith Church in Monee.

Second and last home game

On Saturday, the Patriot welcomed the Cougars(?) of First Baptist Christian of Mishawaka to our home court at Hidden Cove in Bourbonnais. FBCM doesn't have a girls' team this year, so there were only two contests, junior high and varsity boys.

Just looking at the FBCM junior high team, we knew that we would have our hands full. They didn't have many players, but most were big, and big teams were the ones that gave us the most trouble. It wasn't very far into the game that we found that they were going to use their height as much as possible. Their interior passing was very effective, and their one outside shooter made one of two three-pointers in the first quarter. Adam was effective on our offensive end, making both of his first-quarter shots, but the guys had difficulty getting it in to him. Devon also scored, but FBCM led 11-6 at the end of one. The visitors kept up their inside work in the second, and started to collapse on Adam defensively. Adam found Peter E free for one basket, and Devon added one, but all Adam could get was a free throw. FBCM scored thirteen in the quarter and led by thirteen at half. Coach Powers fired up the guys at half, and they came out hustling. Adam and Peter E were working it back and forth in the post, and they scored ten between them. Devon got a couple, Peter H put one in and so did Trevor, and the Patriots had their highest point total for a quarter this year, eighteen. Meanwhile FBCM continued on the their steady offensive pace, netting ten, eight by their #20. But HSRC's offensive onslaught had brought them to within five. But Adam had gotten into foul trouble, and shortly into the fourth he fouled out. Without him in there, we had great trouble stopping First Baptist, and didn't have much inside offense. FBCM ended up outscoring our guys 16-4 in the fourth, and came away with the victory, 50-33. Adam led in scoring with thirteen, Devon had eight, Peter E six, Trevor four and Peter H 2. Adam had "only" twelve rebounds to go with three assists and two steals. Peter E had four assists, mostly feeding Adam in the post.

We had asked Victory's coach about FBCM's varsity team who had beaten Victory by two the last time they faced each other, so we had some sense of what they were like. What they are like is that they have one very, very good player, #14. He got six of their ten first quarter points, mostly on drives. Sam hit a three to get us going, and Justin added three of his own on a free throw and a bucket, and Sam pitched in with a free throw. Then to begin the second, FBCM scored and Stan matched that with a basket of his own. FBCM got free inside on drives and scored five straight to move out to an eight-point lead. Lucas began to find his range at this point, knocking down a three. The two teams traded baskets, then Lucas found the range again, and it was a two point game. The Patriots got the ball back again and scored once again, and it was tied 19-19 at halftime. We opened the second half scoring, but it was nip and tuck all quarter. No team had greater than a three point lead all quarter until First Baptist made their first three of the game to close out the quarter's scoring, which gave them a four-point lead entering the final period. Stan and Justin got us back even early in the quarter. They scored a three to break the tie, but a basket by Justin got us to within one, then Stan put one in to put us up by one. That was it for us. #14 scored on a basket and then later made a free-throw to put the visitors up by two. We had a chance with the ball and 1.2 seconds remaining, but we had to go the length of the court and the long pass went awry, and FB came away with the victory 37-35. Justin led in scoring with thirteen and added twelve rebounds. Stan had eleven points and six rebounds. Luke L added eleven rebounds while Sam pitched in five steals and three assists. Nate got both blocks HSRC had in the game.

Tomorrow is the varsity teams against Luther East at St. John's Lutheran in Lansing, then Friday the JV team will play Calumet's JV team at their homecoming. See you there.

Weekend recap

HSRC had another busy weekend of basketball, with three games against Victory on Friday and two against First Baptist of Mishawaka at "home" on Saturday. Not as successful as we would have liked, getting only one win, but all of the losses were competitive.

On Friday, the junior high boys, varsity boys and girls traveled to Valparaiso to play the Lions once again. The varsity boys had already played VCA twice and the junior high and girls team had played them once. All of the previous contests were losses, but that streak soon ended. The junior high boys were first up, and dealt the Lions the loss, 23-16. Adam was the story in this game. He scored sixteen on seven-for-fourteen shooting and added nineteen rebounds. This was the third game in the last four that he had pulled down nineteen or more rebounds. VCA didn't really have anyone to match up with him inside; their strength was their ball-handling. Which made it strange that VCA wouldn't allow us to press. We had run into a "no-press" rule in some elementary games, but even in those the teams were allowed to press the last two minutes of the half and game. House rules, I guess.

The game was an 8-4 affair after one, in favor of the Patriots. VCA began finding the range from three-point distance, hitting two in the second. We could only muster three points in the quarter, so the lead was only one at half. However, the Lions' touch abandoned them in the third. Adam was clogging up the middle on defense, and was getting free on offense. HSRC shut out VCA in the third while scoring six, moving the lead out to seven. The Patriots maintained that lead in the fourth and came away with their fifth win of the season. Besides Adam's big numbers, Trevor added five points, two assists and two steals. Mark contributed three steals.

The girls had played VCA in their first game of the year, losing 25-8 while playing with four most of the game. That was the game Rachel injured her ankle early in the game and Melody's family had a car accident on the way to the game. It was rather a shock for us to see their team come out for this game. They had added a new player since we played them last time - a very tall girl. A very tall girl that did a very good job neutralizing Rachel. She wasn't terribly skilled offensively, but was tall. Did I mention she was tall? Anyway, she prevented Rachel for getting many rebounds, and played solid defense on her. Thankfully, Cass found her outside stroke, making two of four from distance and four of ten overall. The Patriots actually led by four at the half, but Rachel was in foul trouble. She picked up her fourth early in the second half and Coach had to sit her down. VCA outscored our girls 4-0 in the quarter and never trailed after that. Rachel fouled out early in the fourth and that was about it. VCA pulled away to a 25-18 win.

The varsity guys had lost the first two games against Victory by 33 and 28. The second game was far better, with VCA pulling away slowly unlike the first game where they jumped out to a huge early lead and then played their bench. This game followed that progression. The first quarter was similar to the first two games, with the Lions owning it. This time they led by eleven, which was progress, as VCA had 21 and 13 point leads the first two games. An aggressive full court defense enabled the Patriots to stay even with VCA in quarter two, but they couldn't eat into the lead. Sam's driving was the story in the third. He got free for some easy ones in the quarter and also got to the free throw line, where he made both attempts in that quarter. Justin got on the board with five points after getting shut out in the first, and the Patriots trimmed the lead to ten by the end of the third. They got as close as nine in the fourth, but VCA pulled away, scoring seven from the free throw line as the Patriots tried to get the ball back by fouling. The final was 53-38, quite an improvement from the first two games. The Victory coach had some nice things to say about our defense and the play of Sam in the game. Sam ended up with eighteen points and eight rebounds. Justin ended up with six and led the team in rebounds with nine. Stan topped the team with three steals.

Recap of the Saturday First Baptist of Mishawaka games will follow tomorrow, as well as some statistics.

All-tournament selections

The all-tournament selections for the recently completed inaugural SSC Conference tournament, and both Rachel and Justin were named to the team. They will receive their awards at the home game on Saturday. Congrats to them both!

One and out for both teams in the conference tournament

The guys and girls put up good fights in their first round games in the first ever South Shore Christian Conference but each came up short.

From our guest blogger, Carolyn Horne:

For the girls game we only had 5 girls as Corinne was a sickly child and couldn't play. Granger (as in Herminone) came out in a full court press to begin the game, and caused some trouble for us Patriots, but soon we were able to regain our footing and break the heinous press. The Patriots started out in a 2-3 defense, which was able to contain the opposing team, but they were still able to score 22 points to our 16 that half. Even though the girls were down 8 shortly before halftime, Carolyn and Rachel had an amazing play to end the half. Carolyn pressured a girl on Granger, who had gotten the defensive rebound, and she was able to strip the ball away. Rachel, who had remained under the basket quickly yelled for the ball, received the pass, and was able to score to end the half making sure that the team had energy going into the 2nd half, and putting the Patriots down by 6.

Despite the energy the team had going into the 3rd quarter, it quickly dissappeared. Granger full court pressed the entire 3rd quarter, and half court pressed in the 4th. A couple of steals of later it seemed that the game was out of reach for the Patriots, but they fought and were able to put in a few buckets thanks to Cass and Rachel. All of our girls played really hard and made sure to contain Granger, and thanks to some very good refs (probably the best refs we have ever had) the game was able to be a little phyiscal, without getting out of hand.

The game ended with a 51-26 loss, but the girls played hard all the way through the game. Rachel lead the team with 20 points, while Cass had 5 points, and Carolyn with 10 rebounds.
[EDIT: Rachel ended up with 21 points and sixteen rebounds. Cass got the other four points.]

The guys game was against Portage, the third seed. We had not faced them, but some of us had seen them play at the Calumet tournament. They were at about the same level as Calumet, and as we had some success in our last game with them, we thought we might have a chance. But when we found out that half the team was lost (and wouldn't show up until the end of the first quarter), we knew that the battle was an even more uphill affair. The opening of the game confirmed our fears. Portage had no difficulty solving the defense, and eventually built up a 10-0 lead. Then Dan knifed in for a layup, and Justin made one inside. PCS scored again, but Ben closed out the scoring in the quarter with a three to make it a five point game at the quarter. The rest of the team had shown up at this time, and the starters were back on the floor to open the second. PCS had missed six free throws in the first quarter, but in the opening minutes of the second, the Patriots fouled the PCS player that could make them, and he did. Sam matched those with two of his own. The teams exchanged baskets, then Portage started finding the range from distance. They bracketed two threes around a made free throw and all of a sudden it was a twelve-point Pacer lead. But the Patriots started climbing back into it, scoring two baskets. Portage got those back, but that was it for them in the half. HSRC scored the last six, capped off by two free throws by Justin and were only down six at halftime.

Portage came out strong to start the second half. They scored the first seven while we couldn't find the range. Finally Justin split two free throws. PCS matched that and added a basket to go up fifteen. Lucas then knocked down a three, which PCS matched. Stan closed out our scoring in the quarter with an old-fashioned three point play. PCS made one more field goal to lead 42-28 at the end of three. PCS opened the scoring in the last quarter with a free throw. Then the frantic press and man-to-man defense Coach Boss implemented started paying off. Dan made a basket, then Sam, Justin and Dan each split pairs of free throws. Portage got three free throws to push the lead back out to thirteen. The Patriots weren't done, however. Justin was fouled while making a shot and made the free throw. Luke and Sam followed this with baskets of their own, but that was it. Portage added one more free throw and the Patriots went down by seven, 47-40.

Justin had a monster game with fifteen points, fifteen rebounds and three steals. The team had their biggest rebounding game of the season, pulling down 54. In addition to Justin's fifteen, Jimi had eight and Nate, Luke L and Sam each had seven. Jimi also had two steals.

A whole week between games. Wow. And we actually get to practice. Twice. Game schedule this week is Friday at Victory (junior high, JV, girls and varsity) and Saturday at home (Hidden Cove) against First Baptist of Mishawaka (junior high and varsity). See you there.

Another win for the guys

On Monday the varsity teams played Grace Baptist of Kankakee. Last year's games were tightly contested, resulting in a 39-36 loss for the guys and a 34-32 win for the girls. This year we only had one close game, and it was the guys' turn for the win.

The girls were shorthanded, now for the rest of the season, as Holly is out with a torn ligament and tendon damage in her ankle. Grace has a good team, with a good ball-handler, a couple of good shooters, and a big presence in the middle. We have had more trouble against good ball-handling/ball-hawking teams, and that describes Grace this year. It didn't hurt them to have the six-footer in the middle either. She dominated the first quarter, as did Grace. Rachel couldn't get anything against her in the post, and our outside shooters were off as well. She had eight of their ten first-quarter points. We couldn't get anything to go on eleven shots. Cassidy popped in a three to open the second, but that was it for us. The game slowed down a little. Their center only got one free throw, but they got six from their guards and the lead was 17-3 at halftime. Rachel managed two free throws and Carolyn had a nice putback in the third, but we couldn't stop Grace's guards. They put in fourteen in the quarter. Their center got back into the action in the fourth, but their guards didn't slow down much. Cassidy made two baskets and Corinne one to give us six, but Grace scored twelve to make the final 43-13. Cassidy led in scoring with seven and added four steals. Rachel and Corinne each had five rebounds on a night that those were hard to come by. Rachel and Corinne each had a block

The guys came out with a lot of fire in their game. Coach Boss had them in a full-court press the whole game, and that seemed to get them going. Scoring still was an issue, but Justin, Luke L and Stan each got a basket while Grace was limited to four points. The pace of the game picked up in the second. Twenty-eight points were scored after only ten in the first. Happily, sixteen of the second quarter points were scored by the Patriots. Sam had a couple of buckets on drives, Stan added a bucket and free throw as did Lucas, and Justin, Jimi and Nate each made a shot. The third quarter was our toughest. Grace changed their offense to free up their guys for threes, and we didn't respond right away. Also, HSRC's shooting fell way off. After Lucas opened the second half scoring with a three, Grace scored nine in a row to tie it at 25. Stan put us back up with a nice mid-range jumper, but Grace closed the scoring in the quarter with another three and led by one. It was nip and tuck all through the fourth. I don't think either team led by more than two. Stan kept up his steady scoring with a basket. Justin and Sam each got a two and a foul shot, and Nate got another. Grace got the ball at the end trailing by two, but the guys didn't let them get off a good shot and came away with a 37-35 win, their second of the season. Scoring was quite balanced tonight, with Stan leading with nine, Justin and Sam with seven each and Lucas netting six. Justin also led with eight rebounds and a season-high seven steals. Sam had two assists and Nate got our only block.

I did say I was going to recap Saturday's game against HRK Gurnee, but I will sum it up by saying the guys were down 18-4 at the end of the first quarter and it went downhill from there. HRK Gurnee ended up with a 55-22 win. We ball-hawked pretty well, but didn't rebound and our shooting was very poor. Justin had six points and eight rebounds to lead the team. Sam, Dan and Lucas each had four steals, with Lucas adding two blocks and Sam two assists.

As of this writing, we don't know anything about this conference tournament, other than it will likely be on Friday for both teams. We will keep you posted.

Nearly lost weekend

Three-fifths of the test of endurance that the stretch from this past Thursday to next Tuesday is complete. The outcomes were somewhat discouraging, as the Patriots won one of the six games played.

Thursday night the Patriots played the make-up game with Heritage. This was supposed to be our first games of the season for both our boys' and girls' varsity teams, but it was postponed because of tornado warnings that day. Both games were originally rescheduled, but the we canceled the girls game altogether when we found out that Rachel would be unavailable due to her ankle. So only the boys played, and the opponent was Heritage Christian's JV team. It turned out that Andrew was delayed at work, so Lucas's dad and I were the coaches. It looked like we knew what we were doing to start. Justin was working well underneath, making four of four from the field and one free throw, and Luke L. added a basket. Meanwhile the defense was strong, limiting Heritage to one field goal on thirteen attempts. In the second, HCHS started getting both their inside and outside game going. #4 scored on a three ball, and #33 worked inside for a basket and a free throw. Their defense improved as well, as they started keying on Justin. This open things up a bit for the perimeter players and Sam took advantage with two baskets. Nobody else could get the ball to fall though, and the lead was cut to seven at the half.

We switched to man-to-man in the third quarter, and that seemed to be a mistake. This defense usually is effective against outside shooting, but we kept losing #4 and he made three threes in the quarter, scoring nine of their fifteen points. Justin scored four for the Patriots in the quarter, but he had to take seven shots to get them. Luke L., Dan and Lucas each got a basket in the quarter, but the lead was trimmed to two entering the fourth. In that quarter, HCHS's inside game was unstoppable, and #2 and #33 scored fourteen of their eighteen points, six on free throws. We could only get ten shots off in the quarter and got outscored 18-10 in the final period to give HCHS a 41-35 victory. An incoherent substitution pattern and switching to the man-to-man defense seemed to be our downfall. Justin had fifteen points and twelve rebounds to lead the team in those categories. Luke L. had three assists and Sam had three steals. HSRC actually shot at higher percentage than HCHS and made more field goals, but HCHS had five threes to our none and ten made free throws to our three.

Friday it was FOFCA out of Channahon, but the games were played in Morris, IL. The junior high started things out, and it started well. It was 9-2 HSRC after one, behind four by Adam inside and a three from Devon and a basket by Trevor from the outside. #00 started heating up in quarter two, and it was a good thing for FOFCA, because he was their whole team. Adam sat quite in a bit in the quarter, and the outside shots were not falling for us. #00 scored all eight of their points and we only got a basket from Adam before he sat down. We had a lot of turnovers in the quarter which added to our offensive woes, and we only led by one at halftime, 11-10. Adam was back in for much of the third and he scored six in the quarter. Trevor added a bucket. FOFCA scored six, with a player other than #00 getting a basket. Meanwhile, the fouls were piling up for #00. He scored a on three-point shot early, then fouled out trying to stop Devon from driving. Devon, Trevor and Peter H. each scored a basket in the quarter, and Trevor added a free throw. Final score was 26-19, HSRC. Adam had twelve points and twenty-five rebounds. Yes, twenty-five. An organizational record, and one that won't likely be broken for a long time. Trevor scored seven and Devon had five. Peter H. added eight of the team's 47 rebounds. Henry and Adam each had four steals.

The varsity game was a great disappointment. HSRC had defeated FOFCA last year for one of their three wins, and as we were improved, were greatly hoping for one tonight. It turns out FOFCA was a little bit better too, adding a 6' 6" freshman. HSRC shot 19% for the night, not really because of FOFCA's defense, and went down to defeat 29-28.

Dan and Ben were not available, so we were a little shorthanded, but that really doesn't explain our shooting woes. Their big freshman had something to do with it, blocking several shots, but we were missing uncontested layups and wide-open jumpers. Justin did manage to get free for two baskets inside early. Adam, playing on varsity for the first time, scored on a freethrow. FOFCA scored six in the first to manage a one-point lead. Our scoring wasn't any better in the second. We matched the first quarter with five. FOFCA was scoring a little too easily in the quarter. They scored ten, with big #30 getting four inside. #5, the big freshman, was clogging things up underneath. Sam was the only one that could do anything offensively after the half, scoring all six of our points on drives and a jumper. We slowed FOFCA down a little, as they also scored only six, four by #5. Stan gave us some encouragement to begin the fourth, nailing a three to bring us to within three. Eventually we tied it up at 25, but then gave up two baskets to FOFCA to go down by four. Stan made a field goal and Lucas made one freethrow, but that was it. We took 21 more shots than the opponent, but made the same number as FOFCA. In addition to our 19% shooting, we only shot three of twelve free throws. Stan's three was the only one of the game. Sam scored ten to lead the team. Justin had fourteen rebounds and Lucas had three steals. HSRC also only had six turnovers in the game, a season low.

Saturday we made the long trek up to Gurnee to take on Home Run Kids. Coach Powers, Devon and Trevor couldn't make it, so we played the junior high game without our starting backcourt. Though not as bad as Landmark, it was another case of small gym, big team. HRK had two players six feet or taller. They were successful in keeping Adam under wraps, limiting him to four points. The lead was six at the end of one and just grew throughout the game. To prove that the last night's game was not a fluke, Adam pulled down nineteen rebounds to give him 44 over the last two games. Henry led in scoring with six; Adam had four and Peter E. had two. Henry also had two steals.

The girls's game was also not pretty. They were down 14-1 after one quarter, and it went downhill from there. Corinne was not able to be there, Holly and Rachel were both playing on injured ankles (Holly is likely out for the year) and Rachel ended up fouling out. The less said about this game and the way it was played (and reffed), the better. I think the fact that HRK outscored our girls 15-1 in the fourth quarter when they started the quarter with a 23-point lead sums it up. The final was 50-13. Holly had ten rebounds, four blocked shots and three steals. Rachel led with five points.

I will sum up the boys' game later.