Vikings 18 - Kerr Vance Academy 17

Hi Girls,

We won the game 18 to 17. A bad win is always better than a good loss. However, lack of focus and execution just about cost us the win. We basically turned what should have been a comfortable win into a nailbiter that we would have lost if the clock had 1 more second on it. That's what not taking care of business can do to you.

1- Team scoring by quarters: H.A. first; 9-3, 3-5, 2-4,4-5. Final 18-17 We lost every quarter except the first. Thank goodness we were sharp early.

2- Scoring: Jamie 8, Lindy 4, Emily 4, Lindsey 2.

3- FG% Team: 24.1. 2 pointers, FG's% Team: 33.3 on 3 pointers. Combined FG% 25% for the game. Usually if you shoot less than 33.3% for the game you are not shooting at a percentage that gives you much of a chance of winning the game. Without looking back we have shot around 38% as a team for the year to date not including tonight. I think we got tired and lost our edge, focus and concentration.

4- FG% Individual: Lindy 2/3 66.6%*, Emily 2/5 40%*, Jamie 3/9 33.3%*, Lindsey 1/6 16.6%, Jessie 0/4, Alex 0/3, Mer 0/1, Casey 0/1. Team 8/32 25%

5- FT% Team: 1/7 14.3% Individuals: Jamie 1/4 25%, Lindy 0/2, Lindsey 0/1

6- Steals: Jamie 5*, Jessie 5*, Lindy 5*, Emily 4*, Lindsey 4*. Total 23 steals. Without a doubt the best stat of the night, if we score off 11 of the 23 steals we would have had 22 points just off scoring on half the steals and that would be a low conversion rate. Obviously we did not do that well since we only scored 18 points for the entire game.

7- Turnovers: Team: 8 Individuals: Lindsey 2, Lindy 2, Emily 1, Jesse 1, Caroline 1, Casey 1, Jamie 0, Mer 0, Alex 0. 8 seems low, I wish I had a film to study. If we only turned it over 8 times and they turned it over 23 times that means we had the ball 15 extra times with chances to score. That means we played even worse on offense than it looked.

8- Assists: Team 7: Individuals: Lindsey 4*, Emily 2, Jamie 1.

9- Blocks: Team 7*: Individuals: Lindy 4**, Emily 2*, Lindsey 1*

10- Rebounds Defensive: Jamie 4*, Emily 3*, Jessie 2, Lindsey 2, Mer 1, Caroline 1, Lindy 1.

11- Rebounds Offensive: Lindy 3*, Emily 1. In general not as good as we needed as a team. This number for offensive rebounds should average around 10.

12- Opponents scoring: # 14 Hannah Abbott 7pts, #15 Price Wester 4, #12 Rebecca Ross 3,
#4 Jessica Darnell 3, #13 Meredith Freeman 0pts, #10 Cameron Ford 0 pts, #11 Hannah Powell 0 pts. Take notice of how your player did that you guarded.

Final Thoughts:

We did a good job on their best players #12 and #15, thank goodness I had the chance to scout them in advance because they could have been scoring points on us early until we figured out who to guard and it might have tilted the game in their favor. We will not have that advantage in most games.

This was our first conference game, as you can see it is not for those who are afraid to play in the spotlight. These teams want to win and their fans want them to win. By all rights we should have lost this game, we just plain and simply did not play smart and we did not execute. Just a few good passes on fast breaks or a few lay ups made or a couple passes handled cleanly instead of bobbled when it would have been a layup and we win easy.

Basically, We Played Hard, we did NOT Play Smart, most of the time we Played Together. Early in the game we looked sharp as the game went on we played worse. Maybe thats my fault for not having us in top game condition.

We win as a team and we lose as a team, as your coach I loved the effort and the heart and the fact we managed to get a win but it should have never come down to us having a chance to lose.

I have to point out that every coach needs to be able to trust that the players on the court are going to always Play Hard, always Play Smart to the best of their ability and always make every effort to Play Together. If the players I choose to put on the court do the 3 things in our motto and we lose I say congratulations to the other team, it wasn't our day. But, as a team we need to be committed to what our motto stands for and executing our plan. That commitment is the difference between us having a great team maybe a conference contender and just a having a team. It cannot be any other way.

Have a good weekend and get some of rest. Rocky Mount at home next Friday, another conference game. They will play us at least as tough as Kerr Vance. Be ready.

Thought: Everyone has the will to win once the game starts but those that win consistently are those that have the will to prepare to win, both as a team an individual. Roy Williams, UNC.

Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together

Coach May