Well, the girls team we played tonight was really, really good. It's a team that's been together multiple years, is made up entirely of 5th graders, and they practice more than the once per week we do. Very good team.
They had a girl that was probably close to 5'6" and a couple of other girls that were around 5'3"-5'4" (basically much bigger than us). They also play fast break basketball. They had 2 guards that can really run with the ball and looked to push at every single opportunity. Our strength is in the half court game when we can set up and run our offense.
We started out by trying to match their speed and not playing our style of basketball. All that really led to was a bunch of turnovers and no points for either team 4 minutes into the game. I called a timeout to settle my kids down and remind them to run our offense and play our basketball. Out of the timeout we calmed down and scored 6 straight and more or less controlled the rest of the half by slowing things down.
Right before the half, with about 30 seconds left, we had an opportunity to run a play my kids have been dying to run all year. We have a play for side out plays when the defense extends pressure with less than 2 minutes in a half (with less than 2 minutes you can press full court).
We have the point guard stand away from the stack and try to sell that we're going to just try to throw a simple in bounds play to him. If his defender is up on him then on the slap of the ball he cuts while the 3 players stacked turn and screen. The in bounds person lobs a ball out toward the basket for the point guard to run under and, if run properly, have an easily layup. If the defender is playing off the point guard on the other side of the stack then we just pass to the point where he is. If the point guard cuts and isn't open the 2 guard then pops out to receive a pass after setting his screen.
We ran the play absolutely beautifully. Wide open layup that put us up 9 going into the half. It definitely didn't feel like we were up 9 though.
In the 2nd half we went back to trying to play fastbreak basketball and that combined with the fact that my boys were apparently not willing box out girls made things very interesting. The refs also seemed like they were doing some AI rubber banding to tighten the game up.
They slowly whittled down our lead until we were up 5 with about 4 minutes to go. That's when we ran into a few things that led to my water bottle sailing into the bleachers behind me (no one sits behinds us so it was just a tossed water bottle into bleachers
). They crossed half court with the ball, their point guard picked up her dribble just over the line, my player did exactly what he was taught to do and pressured the hell out of her. With a ref maybe 5 feet away and staring right at her she stepped back into the backcourt (not on the line, but the entire foot over the line), held her foot there for 2-3 seconds, and then stepped back over. No call.
Our next trip down the court a girl swipes the ball knocking it off of Quentin's knee and it goes to their player. A big no-no in a no steals league. No call.
Then they come down the court, drive in for a layup, make the shot, and draw the foul. With it not quite being under 2 minutes there's no free throw. Instead it's an automatic point. They then go to the scorer's table and discuss things with the scorekeeper for a couple of minutes before coming out and saying the shot counts, they get the point for the foul, and they get the ball out of bounds as well. When I ask for clarification on why the hell they're also getting the ball out of bounds I was told "because the rules don't state otherwise". To which my response was "but common sense does".
Sidenote: over the past 3 games its become clear that we're not going to get the benefit of the doubt on calls. Our team is being ref'd distinctly different than other teams (there are things I don't really mention here like 3 second calls against my team but not others, ect) and we're ref'd much differently than our games were early in the season. I honestly don't mind it too much. In the heat of the moment I get pissed and have the occasional word with the refs, but it's just something for us to overcome and it hadn't come close to having any real impact on a game. Tonight it nearly had impact on the result of the game and that would have pissed me off.
Despite that we were holding onto our lead until they knock down a 3 with about a minute to go that cuts our lead to 1. We come back down and Kaden gets a wide open layup off of an inbounds play under the basket that puts us back up 3. They immediately push the ball back down the court and get another layup plus the foul. However, with just 30 seconds or so left they have to shoot a free throw to try to tie. The free throw misses and after a brief scrum we come out with the ball with about 15 seconds to go and dribble out the clock for a 1 point win to run our record to 5-0.
I should also mention that since the girls were considered the home team and were to provide the basketball we played the game with a size 5 ball rather than the size 6 that my kids are used to. During the 1st timeout I mentioned above it was what all of my players were complaining about in the huddle. So we didn't shoot the ball particularly well and it was understandable.
This was by far the best competition we've played and that same girls team plays the team we've beaten by 31 and 21 points (the Cougars) next Thursday. Their size will probably be an even bigger issue for that team and I wouldn't be shocked if they beat that team worse than we have. It will probably come down to whether their coach calls the dogs off and plays her bench half the game like I did. The Cougars did beat the Jazz before our game tonight for their first win of the season. We play the Jazz before the girls team plays the Cougars next week.
I'm incredibly pleased to come away from this game with a win. It was easily the most exciting basketball game I've ever coached in. Probably the best youth game I've been a witness to. We didn't play our best basketball, but we still played well. I can't overstate how good this girls team was. They really were impressive.
Our next and final game this season is next Thursday against the Jazz. We need to take care of business and close out this season so I can focus on my baseball team.
