SG Basketball: Stanstead Invitational Tournament 2023-24

 

 

Our first game of the day would prove to be our best game, as we did a lot of fundamental things right. Despite never having played against a zone this year, last year’s veterans went full throwback mode, seamlessly calling upon the offensive set we ran last year to generate open shots. Melissa and Camryn and Valerie intelligently and safely moved the ball around the perimeter, Hayley in the high post drew the defense in, and Maddie scooted around down low looking for gaps and ducking in for rebounds. Heck, we even ran our “line” inbounds play without having tried it at all this season and scored 4 pts off it! Final score 27-25 in another close win for the Red & White, and we’d started the day on the right foot.

 

Play Of The Game #1:  Sarah Leasure scoring her first basket of the season when she corralled an offensive rebound on the weak side and calmly finished at the rim – congrats, Sarah!

 

Play Of The Game #2:  Melissa Kakayuk fading to her right at the top of the ECS zone and whipping a bullet across her body to sneaky Maddie Lippmann at the rim for the type of easy layup that 2-3 zones are designed to stop. A bee-yoo-tiful play.

 

We had watched the Lions play earlier in the day, so we knew this was going to be a test. A test of our resolve, our perseverance, and our mental toughness. Because LCC was fast and athletic, and they were going to relentlessly pressure every dribble and every pass, every second of the game. Would we get rattled? Would we fold? Or would we keep trying our best no matter how many times they might steal the ball?

 

I’m happy to report we did NOT fold. In particular, Player Of The Game Camryn Moore – maybe not a point guard, but definitely a warrior – gave everything she had to get that ball across half. “Hustle” is not a strong enough word to describe how hard Cammie worked in this game.

 

The other positive development from this game was, after LCC built a big enough lead to pull their press off, we ran our brand new “Ginobili” offense for the very first time, and it worked pretty well, all things considering. In fact, at one point we got four straight good looks off of it, which bodes well for the future.

 

Final score a 38-13 loss, but we’d learned two important things. One about our offensive potential. The other about ourselves.

 

Not much to report in this one, as there shouldn’t be in a 12-11 loss(!). It was the 3^rd game of the day and neither team had much gas in the tank, so it was pretty ugly. The one bright spot was the defensive play of Player Of The Game Valerie Lin, who was at her most disruptive at the top of the defense and who smartly tracked down 5 weakside rebounds – well done, Val!

 

All in all, it was a productive day. We learned a few things and we made progress. But more important than progress, is we did a lot of things right. And that’s what I want to focus on right now. Sometimes it’s easy, in the drive to improve, to only remember the mistakes. But if you’re not happy when you do things right, or when your teammate does something right, then you’re not getting enough joy out of sport. So yes, let’s learn from our mistakes, but from now on let’s celebrate our successes, too. We’ve had a lot of them so far, and we’re only going to have more 😊.