Biddy C

A famous book starts, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." and that seems like a fitting start to the summary of our games this weekend (except we should reverse the order :-) Or maybe, like an old song goes, "What a difference a day makes."

 

I think you get the idea. Sunday's game was a great example of how good we're capable of playing. Or rather, a good example of how GREAT we can play. I haven't seen so many nice passes in one game this season. You played aggressively on defense and turned what was a very close game into a blowout. We saw how effective the fast break can be, and we'll keep working on that in practice.

 

We experienced the other side of that on Saturday, as Brunswick took away our offensive movement and passing with their aggressive defense, and put on a great display of shooting and passing themselves. Your coaches need to work on some solutions to try to prevent that from happening again. You guys need to remember that there's no substitute for hustle and hard work on defense. You can always make up for offensive problems with tough, alert, aggressive defense and rebounding.

 

There are some things we have no control over, like who we play and what the refs are calling (or not calling). Some teams, like Brunswick, and St. Jude before them, may seem so good that we'll never be able compete with them. But that's not true. The only thing separating us from them is a little experience and a some ball-handling skills.  Experience will teach you where and when to move, and ball-handling skills will give you the confidence to do so. That's why we need to always be working on the fundamentals. (I'd go into another "basketball puzzle" thing here, but this summary is getting way too long)

 

One thing to remember, St. Augustine was playing without quite a few players today, so don't expect it to be as easy the next time we play them. But do let this game build your confidence. The way you were finding open teammates with passes was beautiful to watch, and shows how far you have come this season.

 

We owe a big thanks to the Biddy B girls who played with us, and came to our practices last week. Erin Murray, Erin O'Donnell and Mary Richards learned our offense and fit in so well, so quickly and we literally couldn't have done it without them. They also led by example with their smart, aggressive play. Good luck with the rest of your season, girls!

 

Now, on to the stat portion of our program...

 

Points: (alphabetically by last name)

Kate - 2

Sarah - 6

Erin M. - 2

Mary - 2

Katie - 1 

Rebound leader: Erin O. - 3

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Points:

Emma - 2

Kate - 1

Sarah - 4

Lily - 2

Erin M. - 9

Erin O. - 6

Mary - 2 

Rebound leader: Erin O. - 8 

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There wasn't a player on our team, on either day, who didn't contribute or play hard. I hope this was as fun for all of you as it was for the coaches. Speaking of coaches, thank you to Mr. O'Donnell for stepping in for an ailing Coach Tim on Sunday.

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Tough game against a tough team. 

Remember the puzzle theory, Eagles. We're building a puzzle of basketball skills and experience, piece by piece, and, believe or not, today's game was another important piece of the basketball puzzle. You can learn as much about a team when they lose as when they win, and I think we learned a lot about you guys today. I didn't see anybody hanging their heads during or after this game. You hung in there and tried your best all game. You kept fighting. That's a great attitude, that's Eagle Pride.

At halftime I told you to play like the score was 0-0. Guess what? At the end of the second half, the score was 4-2 in favor of St. Jude. They outscored us by only one basket! Once again, you showed how tough you are in the second half of our games. 

Another thing we can learn from a game like this is to remember how that team played. They were giving us a great example of some of the things we've been working on this year. They passed well, hustled, handled the ball well, played aggressively, shot well, ran their offense well, played tough defense, and passed well. Yeah, I know...I said pass twice. Because I was really impressed with the way they passed.

Respect everyone, fear no one, right? St. Jude earned our respect, but when we play them again this year, we have nothing to fear. We'll challenge ourselves to improve on our performance today. 

Things to work on: 

• Moving without the ball, especially in the paint between our 4s and 5s.

• Ball movement. Quick passes to move the ball around the court.

• Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling! Dribbling and catching, especially. 

And what about positives, you ask? There were many, in addition to your great attitude I've already mentioned. We saw quite a few really nice passes today. Several times we had 4 or 5 passes in one possession. We saw girls moving to the point when a teammate needed some one to pass to, allowing the ball to be rotated out of trouble. We saw some great "help" defense a few times. We got jump balls many times by aggressively grabbing the ball. We went with girl-to-girl defense all game, and you guys are getting a lot better at making sure you have someone to guard.

On to the stats!

Final score: St. Jude 26, Bethlehem 4

Points: 

Emma - 2

Lily - 2

 

Rebound leader: Sarah - 3  

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You can hold your head high, Eagles. You represented Bethlehem with pride and guts (sounds kinda gross, but it's a good thing!)

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Well, you did it again, Eagles. You found a way to win after being down at halftime.  We outscored them 9-4 in the 2nd half, and so far this season have outscored our opponents 42-22 in the 2nd half. That's amazing!

 

It takes a special kind of team to perform your best when the game is on the line and you guys have proved again and again that you're that kind of team. 

 

Green Island created some big problems for us, both on offense and defense. On offense, they took away our plays and we had to adjust on the fly. You made some fantastic passes tonight, and a few ended up in baskets for your teammates. That's beautiful basketball!

 

When we were on defense, they had one dominant player who handled the ball most of the time. She was very hard to guard and sometimes got away from the girl who was covering her. However, she usually ran into another Eagle, because you were playing alert and helping out. 

 

Things to work on in coming practices:

• Passing over the top – ways to get the ball over the defense to make them pay for double teaming us

• Avoiding dribbling into trouble.

• We need to get better at figuring out who we're guarding on defense, and staying on them.

• A new inbounds play (like the Stack) 

 

However, as with every game so far, the positives far outweighed the negatives. And more piece of the puzzle have been put in place.

 

On to the stats:

 

 

Points: 

Emma - 4

Lindsay - 1

Kate - 4

Sarah - 2

Grace - 2

 

Rebound leader: Sarah - 8

Steals leaders: Kate, Emma - 2 each 

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To the girls not listed above: Austen, Rachel, Lily, Katie and Alex. Each of you made big contributions in this game. This was the first game we played where every girl had a positive mark in the scorebook, either assist, steal, rebound or point.

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Thanks to Mr.s. Downing, beloved team parent, for organizing our "volunteer" schedule for the season. And thank you to all the parents who gave their time all year. 

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We changed things around this week and didn't have a lot of time to practice it, but we saw signs of how great you can play. Sure, there was some confusion at times, but you remember what we said at practice on Thursday? We expected that. What's important is that you were trying soooooo hard... hustling...  helping your teammates... listening to your coaches. 

As in our first two games, we took control in the second half, outscoring the other team 8 to 4, after being tied at 6 at the half. 

We played against the press for the first time, and you handled it well. We'll be working more on that in the practices to come.

This was a very physical game. What does that mean, you ask? That means the refs were letting a lot of shoving and body contact happen. We came out battered and bruised, but, you know what? That's basketball. It can be a rough sport. But you stayed tough, fought hard, and didn't back down.

Here's the stats:

Points:

Jordan - 2

Emma - 6

Sarah - 4

Katie - 2

Rebound leader: Sarah - 7

There were so many really nice plays tonight. We've got a lot to work on, but we're off to a  great start.

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