Sad ending to a great season.

Hi Girls,

Winning is always so much more fun than losing. We just spotted CCS to much of a lead in the first half by only scoring 2 points in the entire half. We did a better job of stopping #25 by the hard work of Lindsey playing deny defense on her and we held her to 10 points instead of 18 like she got the last time we played her. #25 made about half or more of her points on offensive rebounds. One time she scored on an obvious no call over the back that should have been a foul on CCS.

Every team that has defeated CCS this year says they won by playing a zone defense and making them shoot from the outside. Tonight that strategy did not work very well as #2 had a most likely a career night with 11 points, mostly from long range shots in the corner. Sometimes you just have to take a chance against good teams.

All that said we just did not score often enough to have a good chance of winning. We only made one shot in the first half. We had several lay up chances and some good looks from the perimeter but we just could not score. Our shooting % was the lowest of the year.

In the second half Lindy did a nice job of screening out for Jamie who played a great second half, taking the ball into the gaps and scoring. We also did a nice job of rebounding in the second half. We just dug ourselves too big of a hole to come all the way back.

Stats:

1- Scoring: Jamie 10 pts, Lindy 2 pts, Emily 2 pts.

2- FG%: Team 6/31 19.3%; Emily 1/2**, Jamie 4/15, Lindy 1/4, Jesse 0/3, Caroline 0/2,
Mer 0/2, Lindsey 0/1. I do not think we could expect to beat anyone in our conference shooting 19.3%. Basically the minimum winning % against a good team is 33.3% and that is the minimum.

3- FT%: Team 2/7 28.6%; Jamie 2/4*, Jesse 0/3. Need 50% minimum.

4- Rebs: Team 20D/5off; Lindy 12 rebs**** 10D/2off, Caroline 5***- 5D/0 off, ,
Jesse 2-1d/1off, Jamie 2- 0/2off, Emily 1D, Lindsey 1D, Alex 1D, Mer 1D. We did a good job for the most part after the first few minutes.

5- Assists: Team 5; Jamie 2**, Lindy 2**, Lindsey 1*.

6- Steals: Team 10; Jamie 3***, Lindsey 3***, Jesse 2**, Lindy 2**. Not bad considering we did not press all out but about 1/2 the game.

7- Blocks/Deflections: 3B/4Def.; Lindsey 1B/1Def**, Lindy 1B/0d*, Emily 1B/0d*,
Jamie 1B/0d*, Caroline 1B/0d*, Jesse 0B/1D*.

8- Scoring by Qtrs: 0 to 6, 2 to 8, 8 to 8, 4 to 5.

9- Opp. Scoring: #2 Jamie Wertz 11 pts, #25 Anne Montgomery 10 pts, #12 Jena Ellis 4 pts.,
#5 Shelby Ballard 2 pts.

10- Turnovers: Team 9; Jesse 3, Lindsey 3, Casey 1, Caitlin 1, Lindy 1.

Final Thoughts: As you can see from the stats we lost the game by not shooting it very good. #25 really has been our problem, if we had been in 24 defense the whole game their guards most likely would not have scored much, the problem is #25 would have probably gotten her usual 18 instead of 10. They scored 32 against us at Halifax, 26 against us at CCS the first time and 27 against us this time. We just needed to score more points and unfortunately we have not shot the ball well in their gym.

I thought Jamie had a great game, especially the second half. It took great determination and skill to take it into the paint knowing she had to negotiate that big girl at the end. Lindy also had a great game with 12 rebounds and the savvy to go out and set those screens properly allowing Jamie to drive to the goal. Caroline also gave us a lift with her work battling on the glass getting 5 rebounds and playing hard on D.

Last but not least, Lindsey did a wonderful and brave job on #25 who was probably twice her size counting her reach. I was proud of the way she fought and also how she did not turn the ball over in the second half even against their press. She was also very unselfish and did not hunt her shot. They seemed to be concentrating on not allowing her to shoot from up top.

All in all it was a very good year. If we could count the 2 very likely wins taken away from us by not getting to host Ridgecroft and Fayetteville Christian both teams we beat by double digits on their home courts we would have won 16 games. Add in a couple of good plays at the end of some games and we might have gotten to 18 or 19 wins.

Looking back, not holding on to the win vs. CCS at home and losing to Parrott by 1 there was costly to us since it cost us being able to play at home the first two tournament games. I believe if we had won those two and were hosting St. Davids today at home we would be playing for the championship Saturday instead of feeling kind of empty about not getting there like I do now.

As I said in the locker room it was an honor to coach you this season. You played Hard and with effort, that is the best compliment you can have as a coach. I still think we are a great team and it was disappointing we never played our very best game like we do in practice most of the time.
But remember most of you are first year starters and young. It took a lot of heart to accomplish what you have accomplished. We have been the winningest team at Halifax Academy for the past two years.

We as a team improved a lot since the beginning of the season. We have the potential to be a great team in the future. But remember one thing, just like you have to improve every day in practice because the other teams are improving also, in the off season you have to improve your own skills because some of the girls we play against no doubt will be working of improving their skills. If you are not getting better you are getting worse, there is no standing still in sports.

I will post the final team and individual statistics later on after some time to work on it some. I will also post my email address for any of you that would like me to tell you what you need to focus on this summer to take your game to a higher level. It will include both what you do well and things you need to improve on, so if you are afraid it might hurt your feelings don't send me your email address. The skills evaluation is private between coach and player only, so I will Email it to you directly, if you want to share it with others that will be up to you.

I will miss practice Friday, I really thought we were going to go the distance.

Stay Sweet and always Play Hard, Play Smart and Play Together.

Coach May