WYBT 14U Tournament, Kailua-Kona
After splitting two games with the Stingrays last week at the NJB Classic, our guys were very motivated today. Losing to them by 26 in that tourney's third-place game must've really bothered them. They came out playing hard, a little too aggressive at times. We came back from a 7-point deficit, but trailed 31-29 at halftime.
The Stingrays' 3-point shooters killed us in the first half. Though they were missing a few players — I think they are committed to football and/or were from Honokaa during the NJB tourney — they were still incredibly smart with ball movement. In a lot of ways, they're like us and we're like them.
We trailed at the half 31-29. We went to man defense exclusively in the second half, dropping the press entirely. The guys picked up their level of defensive intensity and turned the game around. Tani got a lot of passes on the break for layups when we opened the lead to 49-33.
Chase's back tightened up in warmups, but we got strong play from Colin in his place. Jared was superb defensively and offensively, knocking down four or five treys in the second half while covering the PG. Kapaa gave us the usual multi-skilled performance with rebounding, great close-out defense on shooters, work at the point and wings.
Chris was key from the start with several low-post power moves for buckets. That opened up opportunities for our other guys when the double teams arrived. It took some time for us to figure out how to attack a man defense with so much help in the paint, but the guys did it with a lot of penetration and kick-outs.
Tani sat most of the last 10 or so minutes with a bruise on his shin, but our reserves (13U) came in and executed well again. They held their own against big teams this year, and they did enough for us tonight with Chase out and Tani slightly dinged up.
All in all, it was a big win for a team that had back-to-back games (with a 60-minute rest break). Beating the Stingrays is never, never easy. We're just fortunate that we played one of our best games of the year in the Stingrays' turf. There will be epic battles with them in the future, I'm 100% sure of that.
The guys were so stoked after the win. They were so gratified, much more than I expected. They might still be celebrating now, at least in their spirit and mood as a team. Can't blame them. They took all of my direction and a lot of my criticism and kept answering with great plays, great hustle, GREAT HEART. Lub these guys!
Tani put it like this after the game: "The Stingrays are just like us, coach." I agree. They practice hard, work together, play aggressively on both ends of the court, move the ball, share the ball and can shoot the 3 with the best of them. But the intangibles matter to both teams: playing clean, hard basketball. No trash talking. Just loving the game and loving their teammates.
Next: Tuesday, 10:30 am - H1 Thunder vs. LA Titans (WYBT 14U).
WE LUB THIS GAME!
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