Great effort tonight by our shorthanded 13U (7 strong), playing our second game in as many nights. We started strong against a massive team. HomeGrown had a big 6-3 guy, a 6-1 and a 6-0. Still, we led for much of the way and it was 22-14 early in the second half before we gave up three 3-pointers in a row.
A lot of that had to do with fatigue and inexperience. No way we should let them hit an open 3, and after the first one, it's time to tighten up, but with our team being young guys, it takes time and experience to unlearn bad defensive habits. We'll get there.
We still had a 5- or 6-point lead in the final 2 minutes, but our unforced turnovers did us in. So did missed free throws on our part. HG hit two free throws with :04 left in regulation to tie it and in the first OT, we got the ball and weren't able to get a good shot. I should've called 6 or Double 9 instead of assuming someone would hit the high post and screen for Colin on top.
In the second OT, we fouled them right off the tip even though we had two guys back on defense to protect the rim. Another mistake due to inexperience. They hit the first free throw on 1-and-1 and that was the game.
I did everything I could for you guys, but this loss is on me. I just couldn't get us to execute our pressbreaker consistently. All the times we dribbled through it set us up for a crucial turnover late in regulation when we tried to dribble (again) through a double team instead of trusting our teammates, being crisp, moving the ball and cutting to open space. We were very, very lacking tonight on cutting through the middle on press breaker.
On the defensive end, even though we had lots of fouls to give, nobody fouled their big guys on the low post. Very similar to the night before, when we lacked the intelligence to be physical on the low post - give fouls and force them to take the ball out again.
I hope we learn from this and get back to fundamental, fast, smart basketball. And I hope we learn to be very physical when necessary down low against taller teams. We really miss Javan, who understands this very well. Kali‘a is another guy who is very intelligent and physical defensively.
All in all, a huge effort in defeat. We're now 2-2 in PAA 13U League with 3 more regular-season games before the playoffs. Young and shorthanded as we are, I expects us to make a run and win the championship. If that means all our guys have to run every day when there's no practice, then that's the sacrifice it will take. It kills me to see us lose to a team just because they're bigger and we didn't consistently, constantly push them out of the post. We'll learn quickly. That's my hope for all our 13U guys.
Lineup: Walter Berthold, Jayden Ramos, Colin Ramos, Micah Visoria, Felcris Ahadain, Ryan Higashionna, Josh Roberts.
Next: Friday - No practice.
Saturday, 12:15 pm - H1 Thunder vs. HomeGrown (PAA 15U), Koko Head gym. All 13U needed since we're shorthanded on 15U. Stretching/warmups 11:15 am.
WE LUB THIS GAAAAAAME!
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