As for the tourney, we lost to Lanakila, which brought their full team. That means their recent grads, very good players (Ryan Reyes, Mikey Kleman, Viane Vaina). And yet, with our team of mostly incoming juniors — two years younger than Lanakila's best — we were up early and led for most of the first half. Our press (Power 10, 41) was working well.
But over time, experience and talent do surface. Lanakila pressed us and we got a lot of good looks, but when we stopped using the pressbreaker and didn't box out, we got swamped. A 23-18 deficit turned into a 50-34 runaway win for Lanakila. We'll learn from it, I think. One, always trust your teammates — set up the pressbreaker every time. (If they change their press, we can go to pressbreaker #2, aka Lightning.)
Two, always box out. That was the biggest difference in the game. Their bigs were often UNTOUCHED and WALKED INTO THE PAINT without resistance. At some point, coaches can only instruct so much. It's on the front line, the posts, to take pride and protect that paint. Instead, they destroyed us on the boards partly because we weren't all committed to playing PHYSICAL basketball.
It's that simple. I'm not saying we should've won. I am saying, though, that those were the two biggest keys. If execute those two elements from start to finish ... we don't lose that early lead, maybe. We stay close to the end. We're younger. We will learn.
Second game, a much more sustained effort. It was as if the level of play we had against Lanakila — the good part — carried into the game against Aiea Blazers. Our reserves played well as a unit, scrappy on defense. Mick got us some timely baskets against Aiea's man-to-man. Mike did a helluva job hustling back to clear the boards when Aiea did break the press. On the whole, everyone played tenacious defense from end to end and I think everyone watching saw what Thunder heart really is.
To the Thunder who hit the floor for loose balls, salud! Final score was 45-34.
Tonight, Thunder vs. Kalani, 7:15. See everybody there at 6:15. Hopefully, the jerseys will be dry by then.
Tomorrow (Sunday), back at Aiea for a 9:00 am game. We'll have another game after that at around noon or so. Good chance we'll play some teams we've never played before, or at least haven't played in a few years. Should be lots of fun.
I LUB THIS GAME.
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