The junior high team got the only victory since I last posted. I probably haven't been able to say that this year.
The game against Calumet was probably the biggest the varsity had this year. Win and the team clinches the regular season championship of the SSCC-West. A loss would be the first in the conference this year for HSRC and would most likely leave the determination of the top seed in the conference tournament to a coin flip.
Hope the coin flip goes our way.
After leading for three quarters, the HSRC Patriots seemed to run out of gas, Calumet started hitting threes they were missing earlier and the CCS press that our Patriots solved earlier became very perplexing in the fourth. HSRC's four point lead heading in the fourth disappeared quickly, and our Patriots went down to defeat for only the third time this year, 62-52.
The game started like the last one we had with CCS finished. In that game HSRC outscored Calumet 23-4 in the fourth and in this one, HSRC, behind Josh's deadly fadeaway, jumped out to 15-6 lead. CCS's Nick Ripoli hit a three at the end of the quarter, but our Patriots led theirs 15-9 after one. The second quarter saw Calumet start hitting their threes and the reigning MVP of the conference, Darric Obinger, got hot and scored seven. For HSRC, Josh got some rest and Lucas took over. His drives and put-backs off of offensive rebounds helped us keep up. Calumet didn't catch us, but they did trim the deficit to three at half, 29-26. Josh picked it up in the third again, and Calumet's three-point shooters stopped hitting. Darric was also quiet, although Matt Barker, their new center, became active offensively, scoring seven of their thirteen. Lucas and Seth contributed threes in the quarter, and HSRC maintained its slight edge, leading 43-39 at the end of three. However, Nick and David hit threes to open the fourth, and we started turning the ball over. Calumet quickly opened up an eight-point lead. We then had to resort to fouling, and Calumet resorted to making free throws, eight of twelve in the quarter. HSRC couldn't get back into it and fell by bye aforementioned ten.
All wasn't lost on that night - the junior high boys defeated their counterparts at CCS by the score of 23-11. Our substitution pattern was a little mixed up, but the starting group of Xavion, Mark, Matt, John and David played very well in the first quarter. They shut out CCS while scoring eight, six by David. Strangely the second quarter was even with our usual starters in. Calumet opened by hitting a three, then split two free throws. Our guys then got going, scoring the next five - a basket by Will, two free throws by Henry and another by Matt. Ice cold shooting by HRSC kept CCS in it in the third. Our Patriots could only get one of thirteen to go through the rim. The defense was decent, holding the eastern Patriots to only five. The six point lead heading in the fourth turned out to be the closest Calumet would get. Caleb got untracked, hitting two of the four baskets scored by HSRC. Calumet was limited to one basket in the quarter and we cruised to a 23-11 victory.
Thursday was our second set of games against the big and fast Glenwood team. We lost both games by pretty big margins. On this day the elementary team scored first, on a free throw by Nate. That was all we would get in the quarter. The taller Glenwood team got inside for several easy baskets and led 8-1. The Patriots slowed them a bit in the second quarter, but continued to have trouble scoring against the hosts. Nate scored again this time from the field but that was all we would get and trailed 12-3 at the half. Glenwood started clicking again in the third. After they opened the scoring, Nate got another field goal, but that was all we would get for a while. Glenwood ran off eight straight before Joel finally broke the streak with a free throw. Glenwood added on more basket before the quarter ended and led by eighteen. Against the subs in the fourth, Joel was able to scored a couple of buckets and the defense kept Glenwood from scoring, but that only trimmed the final deficit to fourteen: 24-10.
The junior highers battled in their game. They only trailed by four at 8-4 when Glenwood got a steal and score just before the quarter ended. The score would have been closed had we been able to hit some free throws and that became the story of the game. The defense sharpened up in the second and held Glenwood to three. However, that was all we could score, all from Henry on a field goal and free throw. The defense continued to play tough in the third, but the offense struggled. The boys had their chances, but again the problems from the free throw line really hurt us. We went two for eleven from the charity stripe in the quarter, which made us three for sixteen for the game to that point. We went cold in the final quarter while Glenwood really heated up. They hit five for nine from the field and opened the game up. Glenwood outscored us 10-0 in the fourth and we went down 29-11.
The varsity is now 18-3, the junior high team is 3-12 and the elementary team is 1-8. That may be it for the elementary team, although we are still trying to add one more game. The varsity takes on Grace tomorrow at Deer Creek, a home game for us. The junior high and varsity will both travel out to Channahon on Friday for games against Families of Faith.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Biggest win in program history?
58-10. 77-25. 55-22. 55-38.
Those are the scored by which the varsity boys Patriots were beaten by HRK in the four priot meetings between the two homeschool programs. Cumulative score: 245-95.
60-53.
That's the score by which the Patriots turned things around yesterday.
Yes, the Patriots, after a year hiatus from playing the Home Run Kids, went back up to Gurnee and came back with the first win the program had against the Eagles in basketball on any level. Up until the varsity boys game yesterday, the program was 0-10 against HRK (girls, 0-3 and junior high, 0-3).
No more. Behind the ferocious defense, dialed up even more than usual, the guys broke through and got that first win.
But first, the junior high game. As usual, our opponents were taller than our guys. On average, I would guess, the Eagles had about four inches and twenty pounds per player on us. Apparantly that wasn't enough of an advantage, because they started out in a 3-1-1 press, something we had never seen before. By the time we knew what was going on, it was 10-0, which was the score at the end of the quarter. They called off the press in the second and our offense got going. Caleb hit a shot to get us going. Even though the guys were playing solid defense and the offense got untracked, we couldn't make much of a dent in the lead. The half ended with the score 18-10. The offense went south again in the third. The only points we scored in the quarter were three free throws by Henry, while HRK kept up their steady scoring and opened the lead up to 27-13 by the end of the quarter. Will figured out how to maneuver around the interior defense and scored a couple of buckets in the fourth. David hit his second basket of the game in the quarter but the Patriots were still outscored in the quarter. Final score: 34-19. Even though the score wasn't close, the effort was there.
Now to the varsity game. Both teams started out in a press. While both were somewhat effective, the Patriots had difficulty hitting shots. HRK jumped out to an early 10-4 lead despite a huge block by Nate on HRK's 6'5" start, and it looked like maybe this year wouldn't be any different that prior years. Nate got fouled while hitting a shot and made the free throw to cut the deficit in half. The teams traded baskets until Stan split two free throws at the end of the quarter to make it 16-12 going into the second. It seemed like the defense made a little change in the second, still ferocious but more oriented to keeping the ball out of their point guard's hands. Also the ball started going through the hoop. Kyle scored twice to tie up the game, then Nate scored to put HSRC ahead. HRK tied it up, but Lucas and Kyle scored from the field, then Seth split two free throws to put us up by five. The lead ranged from three to seven until at 29-24, the Patriot scored seven straight. Gurnee hit some free throws at the end of the half to trim the lead to nine going into the second half. Foul trouble had forced Josh to the bench, and HRK started hitting threes. They crept closer through out the quarter until tieing it at 42 on a three. Stan fouled out so Josh went back in and he hit a couple of baskets to keep the game even, which it was at the end of three 46-46. Nate come out on fire both offensively and defensively in the quarter. He opened the scoring and when he scored again, the Patriots had run off eight points. Lucas also was hot, and he hit a shot to maintain the eight point lead. Gurnee got as close as five at 56-51, but Kyle put it back to seven with a couple of minutes to go. The Eagles hit two free throws with about a minute to go, but Seth matched them with a few seconds to go to ensure the victory. Kyle led the team with eighteen points, and shared the rebounding honors with Nate with thirteen each. Kyle also had eight steals while Seth had five assists.
The Patriots are now 18-2 on the season. The biggest regular season conference game is Tuesday, at Calumet's home court at Lincoln Center. Come out and support the HSRC Monee Patriots!!!
Those are the scored by which the varsity boys Patriots were beaten by HRK in the four priot meetings between the two homeschool programs. Cumulative score: 245-95.
60-53.
That's the score by which the Patriots turned things around yesterday.
Yes, the Patriots, after a year hiatus from playing the Home Run Kids, went back up to Gurnee and came back with the first win the program had against the Eagles in basketball on any level. Up until the varsity boys game yesterday, the program was 0-10 against HRK (girls, 0-3 and junior high, 0-3).
No more. Behind the ferocious defense, dialed up even more than usual, the guys broke through and got that first win.
But first, the junior high game. As usual, our opponents were taller than our guys. On average, I would guess, the Eagles had about four inches and twenty pounds per player on us. Apparantly that wasn't enough of an advantage, because they started out in a 3-1-1 press, something we had never seen before. By the time we knew what was going on, it was 10-0, which was the score at the end of the quarter. They called off the press in the second and our offense got going. Caleb hit a shot to get us going. Even though the guys were playing solid defense and the offense got untracked, we couldn't make much of a dent in the lead. The half ended with the score 18-10. The offense went south again in the third. The only points we scored in the quarter were three free throws by Henry, while HRK kept up their steady scoring and opened the lead up to 27-13 by the end of the quarter. Will figured out how to maneuver around the interior defense and scored a couple of buckets in the fourth. David hit his second basket of the game in the quarter but the Patriots were still outscored in the quarter. Final score: 34-19. Even though the score wasn't close, the effort was there.
Now to the varsity game. Both teams started out in a press. While both were somewhat effective, the Patriots had difficulty hitting shots. HRK jumped out to an early 10-4 lead despite a huge block by Nate on HRK's 6'5" start, and it looked like maybe this year wouldn't be any different that prior years. Nate got fouled while hitting a shot and made the free throw to cut the deficit in half. The teams traded baskets until Stan split two free throws at the end of the quarter to make it 16-12 going into the second. It seemed like the defense made a little change in the second, still ferocious but more oriented to keeping the ball out of their point guard's hands. Also the ball started going through the hoop. Kyle scored twice to tie up the game, then Nate scored to put HSRC ahead. HRK tied it up, but Lucas and Kyle scored from the field, then Seth split two free throws to put us up by five. The lead ranged from three to seven until at 29-24, the Patriot scored seven straight. Gurnee hit some free throws at the end of the half to trim the lead to nine going into the second half. Foul trouble had forced Josh to the bench, and HRK started hitting threes. They crept closer through out the quarter until tieing it at 42 on a three. Stan fouled out so Josh went back in and he hit a couple of baskets to keep the game even, which it was at the end of three 46-46. Nate come out on fire both offensively and defensively in the quarter. He opened the scoring and when he scored again, the Patriots had run off eight points. Lucas also was hot, and he hit a shot to maintain the eight point lead. Gurnee got as close as five at 56-51, but Kyle put it back to seven with a couple of minutes to go. The Eagles hit two free throws with about a minute to go, but Seth matched them with a few seconds to go to ensure the victory. Kyle led the team with eighteen points, and shared the rebounding honors with Nate with thirteen each. Kyle also had eight steals while Seth had five assists.
The Patriots are now 18-2 on the season. The biggest regular season conference game is Tuesday, at Calumet's home court at Lincoln Center. Come out and support the HSRC Monee Patriots!!!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Quick update
I have been using Facebook to update the progress of the team, but blogging give me a chance to give a little more detail and since I haven't blogged in nearly a month, I figured it was time.
The varsity guys kicked (tipped?) things off in the new year on Friday, January 4 with a game in Hammond against City Baptist. City Baptist used to have a pretty strong sports program but for some reason they shut it down. Recently they started it up again and got in contact us for a game. We had no idea at what level they played until we heard from Calumet that Calumet had beaten them by 60+ with their bench. So apparently this game was going to be a glorified practice. Which it turned out to be. Coach Boss played his usual game with the starters for the first quarter. Score at the end of one: 26-2. They went to a pretty passive 2-3 zone with the bench playing for the last three quarters and still outscored City Baptist 35-17 on their way to a 61-19 win. It was nice to get a win, but it wasn't much of a test, and really wasn't what the guys needed to get ready for the Calumet tournament which would be the next weekend.
Before the varsity would take the floor again, however, the elementary and junior high teams played Cornerstone for the second time of the year. And just like the first time, both teams struggled against the bigger, faster Cornerstone players. Elementary fell behind 14-2 in the first quarter. Cornerstone played their bench in the second. Our guys managed to shut their second-stringers down offensively, but could only score four in the period. The starters were back in the third quarter and scored nine to our zero, giving them a seventeen-point lead heading into the final quarter. Again our boys shut down the Cornerstone bench but again could only score four to make the final 23-10. Five players scored one basket each, including Connor, who scored his first points of the year
While the junior high again lost by over twenty, the defensive effort was strong. In the first matchup Cornerstone scored 19 in the first quarter; this time we held the to eight. However, in both cases we were completely shut down offensively, not scoring in either game in the first. We did stay even against mostly their bench in the second, each team scoring five. Will had just arrived home from Colorado that afternoon after riding in the car all night. Caleb and Henry also had recently arrived home from skiing, so they didn't have much energy in the second half. Cornerstone added eleven to their lead in the third, and them by the fourth, our guys were really tired and couldn't keep up with the Cornerstone bench. They were outscored 8-4 and the final was 34-11. Henry had eight of the eleven points.
After several last minute changes, the varsity team ended up opening with Heritage, one of the strongest if not the strongest team in the tournament. Oh well, someone had to play them. And we stayed with them most of the game, eventually falling 70-53 after being as close as seven in the fourth quarter. The Patriots started well, scoring the first six of the game and then going up 9-2 after a Kyle three. Heritage got their feet under them and came storming back, scoring eight to go up by a point. The lead went back and forth with Nate scoring the last points of the quarter from the free throw line to put the Patriots back up by one. The second was owned by the Defenders. After a Lucas basket put HSRC up 15-14, Heritage scored twelve in a row and never trailed again in the game. The teams played evenly the rest of the quarter, Heritage leading 32-22 at the break. The lead got as big as thirteen early in the second, but the Patriots put together a 9-1 run, aided by a pair of free throws resulting from a technical foul against Heritage. Heritage was giving little shots to our players (and everyone else they played against that weekend) after the whistle; this was one of the few times they were caught or the shove/elbow/punch was blatant enough to draw the call. However, the six point deficit at 40-34 was as close as we were going to get. Heritage got the lead back up to ten by the end of the quarter. The lead was thirteen again when the Patriots made their last run, scoring six in a row to make it 56-49. However, Heritage ended any doubt about the outcome, scoring nine straight to put the game out of reach. Kyle led in scoring with seventeen, eight from the free throw line.
We were then relegated to the "second-chance" bracket. (Very nice, Dan. A pleasant euphemism.) Our opponent was MCAC, a former member of the conference. Two starters and key bench player were late so they were benched for the first quarter. The bench players did OK, but still trailed 14-10 after one. The usual starters started the second quarter and the momentum switched quickly. MCAC hit a couple of threes which kept the game respectable, but the Patriots outscored the Wildcats 21-8 in the second and 16-9 in the third. The bench was back on the floor in the fourth and the Wildcats make a little dent in the score, but the Patriots came out on top 59-47. Kyle had sixteen to lead all Patriot scorers.
Winning the next game meant ensuring a trophy and keeping hopes alive for the championship. The opponent: KTA, a team we had beaten by nineteen on their home court six weeks prior. It looked like more of the same in the first. The Patriot scored the first ten points of the game and led 14-7 after one. The shooting went cold, very cold in the second. The Patriots only hit four of nineteen shots in the quarter. The defense did its job and kept the Eagles to ten, but the lead was trimmed to five by halftime. KTA came out smoking in the third. If they weren't hitting threes, we were fouling them and they were scoring from the line. Our offense didn't make up the difference, being only marginally better than in the second. KTA outscored the Patriots 20-11 in the quarter to lead 37-33. HSRC scored the first four of the fourth to tie it, but couldn't get over the hump. KTA scored eight of the next ten to lead by six, but the Patriots behind baskets by Nate, Lucas and Kyle tied it up. KTA scored again, then split two free throws. Nate hit a shot, but the Eagles answered. We ended up with the ball and about three seconds to play, but couldn't get off a shot and fell 50-47. Fourth place. Very disappointing. Seth had twelve to lead the team.
The team did not have much of a turnaround with Luther East on the schedule at their home gym on the following Monday. Up until the tournament, LE had given the guys the most trouble of any opponent. With a rematch with KTA looming on Thursday and coming off the unexpected loss in the tournament, it remained to be seen how the team's mental state would be. That question was answered quickly. The game was tied early at 2. It was not close afterward. The Patriots went on a 16-1 run and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over. The lead was seventeen after one quarter. While the offense slowed a little in the second, the defense did not and the lead was 34-9 af the half. The bench got significant playing time in the second half and essentially maintained the lead. The final score was HSRC 57, Luther East 30. Kyle had fifteen points.
On Thursday, we played all three boys teams of KTA. We were short-handed on all teams, but the elementary team was especially hard-hit. We finally cobbled together a team of six. KTA has a player on their elementary team that is about 6'2". We didn't do badly against him the first time we played them and we didn't do badly at first against him this game. He missed all three of his shots in the first quarter. Amari hit the craziest shot of the year, a falling-sideways modified hook shot that slammed against the backboard, bounced off the front rim, hit the backboard again and went in. That was our only score but KTA also only hit one shot. Toward the end of the first half the Eagles started figuring out how to get the ball to their big guy down low, and he started figuring out what to do with it. His four points toward the end of the first half gave the Eagles the lead. He kept it up in the third, scoring all six of his team's points for the quarter. He ended up with twelve of the Eagles' 22 in the game as the Eagles won, 22-12. Joel ended up with six for the Patriots.
The junior high had lost by only six to the Eagle in the first match, so we had hopes of grabbing this one. Our defense was good in the first half and our offense was decent. Caleb and Matt did all the scoring in the first half, hitting five shots all from the outside, one a three by Matt. We trailed 16-11 at half but then our shooting went south. Out of twenty-three shots we took in the second, exactly one went in. KTAs defense was good, but it didn't explain all of our misses. Meanwhile they kept up their pace offensively and soon the game was out of hand. We were outscored 18-3 in the second half in the 34-14 loss. Caleb led in scoring with six.
The much-anticipated rematch of the varsity teams remained. The Patriots, as they did in the tournament, started very well, this time even better than last Saturday. Seth's driving (eight points) and the solid defense were the highlights of the quarter which saw the Patriots take a 20-6 lead. The lead got to as much as nineteen at 28-9 before KTA put on a little run. The hit two threes in scoring eight of the next ten to pull within thirteen. Seth finished the half with two free throws to make it 32-17 at the break. Note on that: that was the first call against KTA for the game. It was a good thing that so many players on both teams are friends, and all seem to be good kids, because the awful reffing in this game could have led to it getting out of control. In the second half, the lead ranged from eleven to eighteen. Any run the Eagles made was quickly answered by the Patriots. The final scored was 51-38. Seth had a very good game, leading the Patriots with eighteen points and nabbing six steals. The main difference between the outcome of the tournament game and this one was that the Patriots were able play better defense on Nick C, who was held to six points on three of fifteen shooting. In the tournament game he scored seventeen.
Up to Gurnee today to play the Home Run Kids, a homeschool team we played several times the first two years of the program and one that has handled us easily in the past.
The varsity guys kicked (tipped?) things off in the new year on Friday, January 4 with a game in Hammond against City Baptist. City Baptist used to have a pretty strong sports program but for some reason they shut it down. Recently they started it up again and got in contact us for a game. We had no idea at what level they played until we heard from Calumet that Calumet had beaten them by 60+ with their bench. So apparently this game was going to be a glorified practice. Which it turned out to be. Coach Boss played his usual game with the starters for the first quarter. Score at the end of one: 26-2. They went to a pretty passive 2-3 zone with the bench playing for the last three quarters and still outscored City Baptist 35-17 on their way to a 61-19 win. It was nice to get a win, but it wasn't much of a test, and really wasn't what the guys needed to get ready for the Calumet tournament which would be the next weekend.
Before the varsity would take the floor again, however, the elementary and junior high teams played Cornerstone for the second time of the year. And just like the first time, both teams struggled against the bigger, faster Cornerstone players. Elementary fell behind 14-2 in the first quarter. Cornerstone played their bench in the second. Our guys managed to shut their second-stringers down offensively, but could only score four in the period. The starters were back in the third quarter and scored nine to our zero, giving them a seventeen-point lead heading into the final quarter. Again our boys shut down the Cornerstone bench but again could only score four to make the final 23-10. Five players scored one basket each, including Connor, who scored his first points of the year
While the junior high again lost by over twenty, the defensive effort was strong. In the first matchup Cornerstone scored 19 in the first quarter; this time we held the to eight. However, in both cases we were completely shut down offensively, not scoring in either game in the first. We did stay even against mostly their bench in the second, each team scoring five. Will had just arrived home from Colorado that afternoon after riding in the car all night. Caleb and Henry also had recently arrived home from skiing, so they didn't have much energy in the second half. Cornerstone added eleven to their lead in the third, and them by the fourth, our guys were really tired and couldn't keep up with the Cornerstone bench. They were outscored 8-4 and the final was 34-11. Henry had eight of the eleven points.
After several last minute changes, the varsity team ended up opening with Heritage, one of the strongest if not the strongest team in the tournament. Oh well, someone had to play them. And we stayed with them most of the game, eventually falling 70-53 after being as close as seven in the fourth quarter. The Patriots started well, scoring the first six of the game and then going up 9-2 after a Kyle three. Heritage got their feet under them and came storming back, scoring eight to go up by a point. The lead went back and forth with Nate scoring the last points of the quarter from the free throw line to put the Patriots back up by one. The second was owned by the Defenders. After a Lucas basket put HSRC up 15-14, Heritage scored twelve in a row and never trailed again in the game. The teams played evenly the rest of the quarter, Heritage leading 32-22 at the break. The lead got as big as thirteen early in the second, but the Patriots put together a 9-1 run, aided by a pair of free throws resulting from a technical foul against Heritage. Heritage was giving little shots to our players (and everyone else they played against that weekend) after the whistle; this was one of the few times they were caught or the shove/elbow/punch was blatant enough to draw the call. However, the six point deficit at 40-34 was as close as we were going to get. Heritage got the lead back up to ten by the end of the quarter. The lead was thirteen again when the Patriots made their last run, scoring six in a row to make it 56-49. However, Heritage ended any doubt about the outcome, scoring nine straight to put the game out of reach. Kyle led in scoring with seventeen, eight from the free throw line.
We were then relegated to the "second-chance" bracket. (Very nice, Dan. A pleasant euphemism.) Our opponent was MCAC, a former member of the conference. Two starters and key bench player were late so they were benched for the first quarter. The bench players did OK, but still trailed 14-10 after one. The usual starters started the second quarter and the momentum switched quickly. MCAC hit a couple of threes which kept the game respectable, but the Patriots outscored the Wildcats 21-8 in the second and 16-9 in the third. The bench was back on the floor in the fourth and the Wildcats make a little dent in the score, but the Patriots came out on top 59-47. Kyle had sixteen to lead all Patriot scorers.
Winning the next game meant ensuring a trophy and keeping hopes alive for the championship. The opponent: KTA, a team we had beaten by nineteen on their home court six weeks prior. It looked like more of the same in the first. The Patriot scored the first ten points of the game and led 14-7 after one. The shooting went cold, very cold in the second. The Patriots only hit four of nineteen shots in the quarter. The defense did its job and kept the Eagles to ten, but the lead was trimmed to five by halftime. KTA came out smoking in the third. If they weren't hitting threes, we were fouling them and they were scoring from the line. Our offense didn't make up the difference, being only marginally better than in the second. KTA outscored the Patriots 20-11 in the quarter to lead 37-33. HSRC scored the first four of the fourth to tie it, but couldn't get over the hump. KTA scored eight of the next ten to lead by six, but the Patriots behind baskets by Nate, Lucas and Kyle tied it up. KTA scored again, then split two free throws. Nate hit a shot, but the Eagles answered. We ended up with the ball and about three seconds to play, but couldn't get off a shot and fell 50-47. Fourth place. Very disappointing. Seth had twelve to lead the team.
The team did not have much of a turnaround with Luther East on the schedule at their home gym on the following Monday. Up until the tournament, LE had given the guys the most trouble of any opponent. With a rematch with KTA looming on Thursday and coming off the unexpected loss in the tournament, it remained to be seen how the team's mental state would be. That question was answered quickly. The game was tied early at 2. It was not close afterward. The Patriots went on a 16-1 run and the game was, for all intents and purposes, over. The lead was seventeen after one quarter. While the offense slowed a little in the second, the defense did not and the lead was 34-9 af the half. The bench got significant playing time in the second half and essentially maintained the lead. The final score was HSRC 57, Luther East 30. Kyle had fifteen points.
On Thursday, we played all three boys teams of KTA. We were short-handed on all teams, but the elementary team was especially hard-hit. We finally cobbled together a team of six. KTA has a player on their elementary team that is about 6'2". We didn't do badly against him the first time we played them and we didn't do badly at first against him this game. He missed all three of his shots in the first quarter. Amari hit the craziest shot of the year, a falling-sideways modified hook shot that slammed against the backboard, bounced off the front rim, hit the backboard again and went in. That was our only score but KTA also only hit one shot. Toward the end of the first half the Eagles started figuring out how to get the ball to their big guy down low, and he started figuring out what to do with it. His four points toward the end of the first half gave the Eagles the lead. He kept it up in the third, scoring all six of his team's points for the quarter. He ended up with twelve of the Eagles' 22 in the game as the Eagles won, 22-12. Joel ended up with six for the Patriots.
The junior high had lost by only six to the Eagle in the first match, so we had hopes of grabbing this one. Our defense was good in the first half and our offense was decent. Caleb and Matt did all the scoring in the first half, hitting five shots all from the outside, one a three by Matt. We trailed 16-11 at half but then our shooting went south. Out of twenty-three shots we took in the second, exactly one went in. KTAs defense was good, but it didn't explain all of our misses. Meanwhile they kept up their pace offensively and soon the game was out of hand. We were outscored 18-3 in the second half in the 34-14 loss. Caleb led in scoring with six.
The much-anticipated rematch of the varsity teams remained. The Patriots, as they did in the tournament, started very well, this time even better than last Saturday. Seth's driving (eight points) and the solid defense were the highlights of the quarter which saw the Patriots take a 20-6 lead. The lead got to as much as nineteen at 28-9 before KTA put on a little run. The hit two threes in scoring eight of the next ten to pull within thirteen. Seth finished the half with two free throws to make it 32-17 at the break. Note on that: that was the first call against KTA for the game. It was a good thing that so many players on both teams are friends, and all seem to be good kids, because the awful reffing in this game could have led to it getting out of control. In the second half, the lead ranged from eleven to eighteen. Any run the Eagles made was quickly answered by the Patriots. The final scored was 51-38. Seth had a very good game, leading the Patriots with eighteen points and nabbing six steals. The main difference between the outcome of the tournament game and this one was that the Patriots were able play better defense on Nick C, who was held to six points on three of fifteen shooting. In the tournament game he scored seventeen.
Up to Gurnee today to play the Home Run Kids, a homeschool team we played several times the first two years of the program and one that has handled us easily in the past.
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