Thunder 13U had a good night at the Aiea Tournament. A close win over the Ewa Tigers (40-37) and a solid win over Homegrown (33-18). Playing back-to-back games was a challenge, but we were 10 strong and that was a huge reason we finished strong.
Because our game with Kupaa on Wednesday was ruled a forfeit win for us, we finished first in our pool. We play on Saturday, 11:15 am, in the semifinals. If we win, the title game is at 1:30 pm. The boys played well overall, and they played together through the ups and downs. That's what makes it fun for me, seeing our team play hard from start to finish, every single guy.
Our bench was a major factor in the wins. They played well and played poorly in the first game. Second game, they basically controlled the game for the last several minutes of the first half, which allowed our first unit to rest a lot. When the subs can extend a lead, that's always a total plus.
Having Big Micah and Ryan on the second unit is a super advantage for us. That's basically two guys who can start giving a boost to our team at one of the most vulnerable times in a game, when both coaches are using subs. It was their defense, on-ball pressure and rebounding that made the most difference, along with Kali‘a in the middle playing strong, physical ball. We also had Javan and Felcris playing very, very good defense. That was tough five and I still think they would give our first five a good battle.
Jared's strength at the point allowed Kyle to play a lot more in the post, getting easier looks and playmaking opportunities than he had in the first game yesterday. Kalai was outstanding on the top of the press again, and his decision-making with the ball in the post is a key to our offense. He knows when to find our shooters on the 3-point line, and they usually deliver. Little Micah had a good offensive night, but his defense was excellent. Josh was smarter tonight, staying out of foul trouble, getting deflections, hitting some timely 3-point bombs.
Team-wise, our defense was very good tonight. Let's keep it up when we play in the PAA League playoffs on Friday (Koko Head gym, 8:15 pm) and the Aiea Tournament semifinal on Saturday.
It was a long two days for the tourney director, Rob Godinez III. He had to deal with complaints from other teams, then had to draw a line and enforce the Sept. 1 cutoff date. That meant we lost Jerry for the rest of the tourney (he still came tonight and cheering the boys on from the bench), but other teams lost many more players. The team we lost to yesterday, Kupaa, even dropped out of the tourney. That led to our schedule change, playing two games tonight instead of one. It gives us a bye tomorrow, which means "only" one game (PAA playoff).
Whatever the case, I'm just glad we have a tourney to play in for our 13U team. Having a strong 12U unit just prepared us even more for any challenges this week and beyond.
I just got home from Aiea, so I haven't had time to finalize our 17U active and reserve rosters for this weekend's 17U tourney at Aiea. I'll have that posted by tomorrow morning. 17U had a solid workout this afternoon at Makiki Park after a short meeting. Waiver forms were passed out.
BIG MAHALO to Auntie Claire for bringing a huge pile of chicken wings. That was awesome. It was gone in a few minutes!
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