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.