Great Win over Parrott Academy!

Hi Girls;

We had a great win tonight and I will post it on the Official Halifax Academy site and send it to the Daily Herald.

Some interesting points and stats about tonight's game were:

1- We made 12 out of 45 shots for 27% shooting. We made 9 out of 18 fouls shots and some clutch fouls shooting in the 4th quarter. Good Job. I really think we can shoot 40% really easy from the floor and I am looking foward to seeing us do it. On foul shooting 50% is good but we could and should be able to shoot better than 60%.

2- We had 15 rebounds, 15 turnovers and 15 steals. In the last game we made 25 turnovers so that was good progress. 15 Steals were great, this number would not include the times we hustled and forced them to make a turnover. Again this was a great job. The rebounding number was not up to our expectations but hopefully the high number of steals and forced turnovers means they did not get alot of shots at the basket. We do not keep stats on this area of the game.

3- We had 6 blocks and committed 14 team fouls. The foul number was extremely good seeing we pressed the whole game. Interestingly Jennifer had 4 blocks and Ashton had 2. Of course Ashton and some others had some good blocks taken away by bad foul calls.

4- Individual scoring: Lindy Clark and Jamie Harris both had 9 points. Jennifer had 8 points and Kaela had 5 points and Ashton had 2 points. Jennifer had 6 points in the 4th quarter making 2 field goals and 2 for 2 from the foul line. Lindy had 5 of her points in the fourth quarter scoring 1 field goal and making 3 out of 4 foul shots, Jamie had 4 points in the fourth quarter and made a number of great defensive steals and tips.

5- Individual rebounding was led by Lindy with 4. Ashton and Kaylee both had 3, Jamie and Kimberly each had 2 and Jennifer had 1.

6- Leading the team in steals were Jamie with 6, Jennifer 5, Kaela 3, Lindy, Kimberly Ashton and Lindy 1 each.

7- Field goal percentage leaders were Jennifer with 3 out of 5, Jamie with 4 out of 7, Lindy with 3 out of 9.

8- Again I was happy with the shots we got from our offense. We had great looks at the basket. If we ever make them like we do in practice we could score 60 points in a game.

9- Defensively we play well, which means we hustled as a team. Our press bothered them alot. We did let them go by us a few times too many in the first half but in the second we took that away from them. Good thing we did since if we had not we would not have won. Their leading scorers were: #2 Emily Buffaloe 8 points, #5 Margaret Ellen Edwards 8 points, #12 Maddie Barker 6 points, #22 Danielle McLaughlin 4 points, #4 Katelyn Wilkerson 2 points and #20 Teigha Beth Bailey 1 point. They had 18 points in field goals and made 11 out of 20 foul shots.

10- Final score of the game was 33 to 29.

11- By quarters, 1st when we were giving them lay ups against our press it was 9 to 2 them. 2nd quarter we outscored them 10 to 3 making the score 12 to 12 at half. In the 3rd quarter they out scored us 10 to 6 making the game score 22 to 18 them. In the 4th quarter we out scored them 15 to 7 making the final score 33 to 29 Halifax JV Viking Girls.

12- By everybody playing their girl hard with our 24 lockdown defense and not allowing them to get breakaway uncontested lay ups we created offense for ourselves from our defense plus we wore them down. Be proud and remember what I said at halftime, If every player on the court plays this defense tight and hard without letting the other team get easy shots by hustling back to the paint when a player gets by someone most opponents will melt from the heat. Be proud of the Victory and take a great lesson from what you did tonight. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link in an all out man to man pressure defense. Anything less than all 5 playing hard and covering up when a player gets beat and you can look at the score in the 1st quarter and see what happens.

13- Last point: tonight was our first conference win and it came against a team that if it took one additional student in their high school would be in 3A while we are barely in 2A. We took a big step as a team again tonight and I think anyone who has followed this team since the beginning of the year can see the improvement. I cannot think of a coach anywhere that would not love to get the great shots we get at the basket and would not love to have his team play hard, smart, together and with heart the way we played in the 2nd half.

14- Picture day tomorrow. Be ready for a walk around practice on half court at the regular time. Yes, wear practice gear. I will let you stop early enough to cool down and get ready for your pictures at 5:00pm.

15- Girls enjoy this Victory tonight but be ready to start thinking about the upcoming game against Faith on Thursday. I am willing to bet they will be better prepared for our press so it will have to be sharp, hopefully for 4 quarters instead of 2 or 3.

Great Win Girls,

Play Hard, Play Smart, Play Together

Coach May