JV Girls win @ St. Davids

Hi Girls,

Certainly an exciting victory. Heart, hustle and determination and a will to win always pays dividends. As I told you before, playing winning basketball in this league is not for the faint hearted or the weak willed. It also helps if you can execute your offense and defense very well and make lay ups.

We had a couple of outstanding plays that were vital to us winning this game. Jesse with her block under the goal with about 8 seconds to play and her defensive rebound and determination not to get tied up for a jump ball or have the ball stripped away was the #1 thing. Lots of heart on that play. The will to win.

Lindy making 3 out of 4 foul shots with the game on the line late. Huge also. Focus and determination and Perfect Practice, Execution.

In the stat column Lindy with 3 out of 4 from the line, 10 rebounds and 3 assists, 1 steal and 2 blocked shots and 5 points stands out. Jesse with 5 steals, 1 block( a huge one), 3 rebounds and 6 points was big. Jamie had 2 blocks, 2 steals, 3 assists 4 rebounds and 4 points and lots of hustle plays. Actually everyone had lots of hustle plays, Emily played most of the game on one leg and had 7 rebounds and a block and an assist.

Remember, we win as a team and we lose as a team. We need to remember though when we have the chance to kill the other team early we need to do it. We probably missed enough lay ups to have won this game by 12 or 14 points. I didn't see the other team blowing easy lay ups so we need to toughen up on them.

1- Points: Jesse 6, Lindy 5, Jamie 4, Lindsey 2, Alex 2, Mer 2, Emily 1. 22 points (We needed everyone of them)

2- FG%: Jamie 2 /3***, Mer 1/2**, Jesse 3/7*, Alex 1/3*, Lindsey 1/3*, Lindy 1/6, Caroline 0/2, Emily 0/4. 33.3% equals a minimum winning performance for and individual, but obviously we need some players to shoot better than that if we are going to shoot 33.3% or better as a team.

3- Team FG%: 30% Just shy of a minimal winning percentage. If we make a couple more lay ups this game is not that close.

4- FT's: Lindy 3/4**, Emily 1/2*, Jamie 0/2. Team %: 57%* 50% is the minimum winning performance level.

5- Rebounds: Lindy 10*** (8D and 2 off.), Emily 7**(4D and 3 Off.), Jamie 4*(2D and 2 off), Jesse 3*, Mer 1D, Lindsey 1 off, Caroline 1 off.

6- Assists: Team 9; Lindy 3*, Jamie 3*, Lindsey 1, Jesse 1, Emily 1.

7- Steals: Team 8 (What happened? We need to refocus on defense) Jesse 5*, Jamie 2, Lindy 1.

8- Blocks: Lindy 2**, Jamie 2**, Emily 1*, Jesse 1* ( very likely the game saver, but if any of the other shots that were blocked had gone in we might have lost then also, Still a great play and a clutch time)

9- Turnovers: Lindsey 3, Jesse 2, Jamie 1. These turnovers stats seem kind of low to me.

10- Opponent Scoring: #23 M Woods 6 (Zero in the 4th qtr), #11 K Dickens 6 (2 in the 4th),
15 C. Garrett 15 (1 out of 3 from the foul line in the 4th), #14 J. Caro 2 (all in the 4th),
#12 A. Buckingham 2 (all in the 4th)

11- Scoring by quarters: HA first; 5 to 6, 6 to 0, 4 to 8, 7 to 7. 22 to 21 final.

Final Thoughts: It was a great win in their Taj Majal Gym. It could have been a much easier win. We will have to play much better to beat Cary Christian coming up Friday. As a team we need to learn to make hay while the sun is shining. Easy points off lay ups sometimes get hard to get as the game goes on(the other team learns your plays). We need to focus and focus hard. Still bottom line we won and there is no place in the victory column for a write up of it being close only who won and that was us.

Girls we win as a team and we lose as a team. A team is no better than the trust you have in each other and the trust you have in your coach and the system you are trying to execute. Its not an accident we are 3 and 0 in the conference, actually I don't think we should have lost a game, maybe Roanoke Rapids but even that game we just did not play well.

When you lose everyone wants to be critical, when you win everyone wants to be your friend and your coach. Bottom line back when everyone said we would probably only win one game for the entire year(before the season started) I believed in you and you had to believe in yourself and what we were trying to do. We don't want to lose sight of how fleeting fans and fame can be and we absolutely cannot afford to lose sight of the fact we need to keep getting better and keep doing very well at the things that have gotten us to this point and this record.

Thought: You have eyes in the front of your head to see the things you need to accomplish both individually and as a Team not in the back of your head to see what you have already accomplished. Roy Williams, UNC.

Grades:

Play Hard- A+, Play Smart-(execution) B, Play together A.

Enjoy this win until tomorrow at 3:15 pm (it was sweet) and then come to practice with the focus and determination to become better than we were today and yesterday. Our opponents probably will be working on getting better also.

I am proud of you for what you have accomplished on the court. Don't take it for granted, there is no easy way to be a winner, you just have to be willing to scratch for it.

BTW: The Fayetteville Christian game has been canceled. Sorry, thats 2 home games we have lost off our schedule counting Ridgecroft. And 2 likely wins seeing we beat them both on the road fairly easily.

Team Record: 10 wins 3 losses. Conference Record 3 wins 0 losses.

Coach May