Faith Christian @ Home.

O.K. Girls,

An ugly win is always better than a pretty loss. We defeated Faith 33 to 20 but it was not a game that we can be very proud of anything about it except the outcome and that we played hard. Missing layups and not being able to execute plays is going to get better or we are going to fall far short of the potential we have with this team. To date this is the first team I have coached that could not execute plays with some degree of skill. That includes my very first team when it was brand new to every player on the court.

Getting better will start with practice on Tuesday. We cannot keep trying to wish the ball where we need it to go instead of making good passes, we cannot play sound basketball and not value the ball. In case you have not noticed the ball is important, you would never score if you don't have the ball. If you take care of the ball and get a lot more good shots at the basket than your opponent you have a great advantage in a basketball game.

We absolutely cannot keep missing point blank layups. There is a lot to said for having the necessary focus to improve and we need to get with it. We need to make our #one focus become making lay ups and being more careful with the basketball or as it is called in coaching jargon "value the basketball".


Stats: By quarters; 1st- 3-7, 2nd-8-0, 3rd 11-6, 4th 11-7

Scoring: Emily-8pts, Jamie 7pts, Meredith 6pts, Alex 4pts, Kelly 4pts, Lindsey 2pts.

Faith Scoring: #4 Stephanie Stallings 7pts, #12 Carrie Lewis 6pts, #30 Bailey Parks 5pts, #11 Mary B Fisher 2pts.

FG%: Team 13/47( 27.6%); M&M 1/1***, Alex 2/4**, Kelly 2/6*, Lindsey 1/4*, Emily 3/11, Mer 3/12,
Jamie 1/8.

FT%: Team 7/21(33.3%) Jamie 5/12 , Emily 2/7, Kelly 0/2.

Rebounds: Team 14off/17def; Kelly 5/6, Mer 4/5, Emily 3/1, Lindsey 0/3, Alex 1/1, Jamie 1/0, Kaela 0/1.

Assists: Team 6; Mer 2, Lindsey 2, Kelly 1, Alex 1.

Turnovers: Team 11; Lindsey 3, Jamie 3, Mer 2, Emily 2, Leslie 1.

Steals: Team 11; Jamie 3, Lindsey 3, Mer 2, Emily 2, M&M 1.

Blocks: Team 3; Mer 1, Em 1, Kelly 1.


I might post some additional thoughts later but the one thing that comes to mind is we have to work harder and with more focus to get better in the areas we are not doing well. Lay ups, Value the Basketball, FT's and Assists, which will go up by executing the plays we run better.

Grades: Play Hard-A , Play Smart-D, Play Together-B, Execution-Offense F, Defense B.

Thought: You never get back more than you are willing to put into something. We have got to be willing to invest our focus and our effort towards improving both our team skills and our individual skills. Time's wasting for this team, we just had practice #20 so we are about 25% thru this season. Those that have a passion to be really good need to step up. Opportunity only knocks so many times.

Coach May