We got up in the am to have breakfast early so they could get a good meal before our game at 11:15. The girls weren't as awake or ready as I've seen them in the mornings, but Nationals is a grind. We haven't had a game yet without big time intensity, so getting up over and over again for games is becoming a concern. We had a very poor start against Ontario but found energy later. If we want to avoid the 7-8 game against a very tough Alberta team that can't happen.
After breakfast the girls went back to their rooms to go back to sleep and relax. I spent that time drawing out simple counters to what Alberta wanted to do defensively and wrestled with how detailed to get into before the game. Cursing the schedule, I decided to focus our pregame on things we wanted to work on controlling and just overview their offense and our adjustments in the context of what we want to do anyway.
In our pregame we set goals of protecting the paint by fronting posts/cutters and requiring lobs, cutters or drivers to knock us to the ground to get into the interior. We also decided that if we could beat Ontario on the boards then we could do the same today. Offensively we just wanted to get the ball inbounds and run our stuff against their pack line making them defend cuts and movement before shooting over the top.
During our taping one of our toughest kids Emma Wissink was in tears because of pain she was in from where she had sprained her thumb against Ontario and couldn't move it. We got it taped but I told our assistant I probably couldn't play her. After their individual prep time we drew up each of the sets/ continuities they ran and spent some time with simple counters to the key action. We didn't want to complicate things but asked them to talk when they heard things called to make sure we at least got that action defended. Basically we told them against all the sets wether it was horns, a post clear out, their continuity or 1-4 low that they wanted a layup for the PG #6 who lead the team in scoring, or a post touch. They did have one shooter they kicked out to but there was very little ball reversal it was just pound at the rim.
We went out to warm up we seemed focused if not energized. Any nerves were dealt with during O' Canada as their was some loud feedback at the opening of song and my 3 year old daughter yelled "What's that noise?" and ran past all the standing girls and fans out of the gym hollering while nobody else moved. Trying not to laugh we got the to the bench a quickly made sure the girls new what our early sub patterns were going to be.
We had a great start on offense. We executed and made some shots we hadn't made all week. A shooter who had struggled all summer, finally stuck her first shot and looked like she was going to have a day. Pretty early it was clear the game was going to be scrappy. On a blocked cut our leading scorer to a forearm and shoulder to the chest knocking the wind out of her. We subbed her out and on divining play for a loose ball not a minute later an Alberta player had to leave the game with a bloodied nose and change jersey's. It was going to be a war.
Defensively we weren't as active I would like. We were anticipating the next action well but instead of reacting early were simply standing in spots ignoring cutter to prevent action. We had to talk to several kids about defending our way and even the other coach was complaining about us playing zone. We weren't violating zoning principles against the rules but we certainly were very late in being concerned with moving and reacting to what the players without the ball were doing. I also thought we drew a couple of good charges early that were no calls when kids got drilled trying to hold space. To our kids credit they stuck with it and kept putting their nose in there.
We got a lead early but Alberta battled back. With a minute left in quarter I told Emma Wissink I would try her but she had to tell me if catching hurt. She went into the game and in the last 57 seconds drew two charges. She is easily the toughest kid on this team and maybe the toughest girl I've ever coached. I asked her how her hand was and through wincing tears said fine.
Pam and I made the decision not to play her again and went back to rolling the other kids in and out during the 2nd quarter. It was a back and forth battle. We would get up by 7-8, Alberta would then come back and cut it to a one possession game. As the quarter wore on I was still unhappy with our defensive activity level. We were grinding to get stops, but as our offense sputtered we were getting nothing out of turnovers as we were just battling to get stops instead of pressuring the ball.
Coming out of halftime we wanted to maintain what we were doing on offense but bring better defensive energy. Our first shift was awful no movement on offense, no communication on defense. Less the 50 seconds into the we'd gone from up 4 to down 1 and I was sending subs. I made the decision to play Emma W again because we needed defensive energy and inserted her into the 2nd group. They immediately went out and had two good offensive possessions with lots of ball movement leading to an uncontested jump shot that went down and an "and 1" for Emma W. The defensive energy was better and I personally believe it was EW's efforts that inspired her teammates to a better 2nd half.
The rest of the half was a a grind. Tough hoops, tough defense. A low scoring physical game where nothing easy was being given to either team. THe shooter who made a shot early that we'd been waiting on continued to make big shots, she also took a couple of bad shots early in the clock but I'm a believer that when it comes to scorers or shooters they must be allowed to take shots they need to take based on their confidence. Now she was shooting 50% from the floor for the game so I was willing to accept some early shots, had she been 0-8 at the time she probably wouldn't be seeing the minutes to take those bad shots anyway. Every time we needed a big hoop or play someone stepped up and made one.
Down the stretch we just kept making big plays and stops to hold on for a 47-43 win. Our kids celebrated like they had won a medal right there, and everyone was eager to meet and congratulate me and players. I sent the girls to the change room and quickly tried to find out our schedule and book practice time for later in the days. I was very proud of our girls effort, they had held their leading scorer to 6 points, and while lost the rebounding battle we did win the points in the paint vs a team who was larger and focuses on getting to the rim.
I sent the girls to eat with their families while I booked gym time for practice and watched NS play Sask. to see who we would play in the 5th place game. Sask looked to be in control early but caved to NS ball pressure in the 3rd to get outscored 18-5 and eventually lost by 8.
We had practice at 4 pm talked about NS and being ready for their dribble drive offense. We also adressed their pressure m2m and said if we limited turnovers by slowing down and making them defend cuts/screens we would have a lot of success. Other then that we just shot the ball a lot to stay confident.
After practice we hit the dining hall and then down to watch the semifinals. Most girls left in the 2nd half of QC vs BC as it was a 20 point spread and showered before coming back to watch Ont vs MB which was pegged as being the game of the week. It didn't disappoint, a thriller going to double overtime. There were half court shots, clutch free throws and huge plays made by both teams stars before MB escapes with a wild 2 point win.
Coaches had a technical meeting while the girls went back to go to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment