Just like the previous season games against College of Idaho, the playoff game was frustrating as can be. They full court press and hope that teams get rattled up and make bad decisions. They also hope that if a team does get the ball across half court, that they will take a quick shot so COI can hurry and get back on offense. They like to play fast-paced—faster than what we like.
We put in a new option out of our regular press break that we were supposed to run. It was supposed to work, but who knows if it would have, because we never ran it! I don’t member one time throughout the game that we got the cuts we needed to make. It was difficult because as soon as you received the ball a trap automatically came, but we should be used to it by now. They were also face guarding on the in-bounds, so it was difficult to throw the ball in bounds after a made shot or dead ball.
During the game, it felt like we weren’t shooting that well. Looking at the stats, they didn’t shoot that well either, at least from the three-point line. They made only 2 of 19 attempts from behind the arc, and we made 6 of 21. We did better in that category…but that’s about it. We shot less than 30 percent from the field, and only grabbed 27 rebounds to their 45. That’s the biggest difference when it came down to it. They out-hustled us in every aspect of the game. They had almost 20 more rebounds than us—that’s a lot! Also, they had 15 offensive rebounds. That’s heart and desire right there. We were not boxing out, nobody put a body on anyone, and they were going after every loose ball. I remember one time when the ball was on the floor in the middle of a crowd under the basket. They had three people on the floor in a split second diving after the ball. We had ZERO people diving after the ball. Everyone seemed to be standing around the entire game. There was no energy, no enthusiasm, and no sense of urgency. I don’t know why, I’m still trying to figure it out, but it is too late now. It’s over and we’re done.
Now that I think about it, it feels like we should have lost by a lot more than we did. The whole game is kind of a blur, but I do remember that we were not with it. I don’t think it has to do with people being tired, but the team was just not playing hard. It reminded exactly like the game against Southern Oregon University, at SOU. We were kind of just going through the motions and no matter what anyone said, we never picked it up.
Before the game, coach told us that we could not let ourselves get into a whole. We could not get behind, because that is what this team counted on in order to win. The first time we played them we got into a big deficit in the beginning, and couldn’t get out of it despite our effort the rest of the game. The second time we played them we got in a hole at the end of the game, and by then there was no time left to take action. Well, despite his warning, we got into a huge hole right off the bat to put us behind the rest of the game. I remember thinking, ‘well, we did it again. We put ourselves in a tough position if we want to get the win’, because I remembered what coach told us. We got down by as much as 15 points in the first half, which inevitably lead to our 63-44 defeat.
After the game, tears fell and hugs were exchanged. The season-ending game wasn’t something to be proud of, but the season was. We tied the school record for wins in a season and improved tremendously from the beginning of the season. This team consisted of the most fun girls I’ve played with and I will remember this season as a bittersweet ending to my collegiate basketball career.
No comments:
Post a Comment