Back to business

After a brief break for Thanksgiving, we're back in the gym getting ready for South Side. We had a good workout today. Aubrey Holle, the starting point guard and captain of our first state championship team, stopped in today before heading back to Centre College to get ready for her game tomorrow. Tonight, on the Big 10 network, I got to watch another former Lady Cavalier, Megan King, and her College of Charleston team upset Northwestern. Those two are great kids and there's no doubt that they played a huge role in the development of our program. They make us proud and, hopefully, our current squad can continue to represent well all the former players who did so much to make Lady Cavalier Basketball what it is today.

Canterbury 78 Eastside 61

Tonight's game was a pretty wild affair. Eastside wanted to press and run all night and we are partial to that style. We only pressed a couple possessions, but we ran. A lot. Five kids in double figures led by Paige who was absolutely on fire from the field in knocking down a career-high 20 points. Madison had a career night as well, tallying 14 hard-earned points. Tab, Cassie, and Bailey all did their usual. Matte gave us good minutes on the point and Molly was an extremely determined defender. We'll get Becky back now as we begin preparing for South Side next Wednesday. I still struggle with giving up 61 points, but there are so many more possessions in this style of play, the odds are much better that people will be able to score more points. We'll keep working on it though.

Skeleton crew

We're going to be awfully thin on the benches tonight with just 14 players available for the two games. Our Florida soccer players won't be back, three others are leaving early for Thanksgiving out of town, and one more who doesn't yet have her 10 practices. That doesn't leave us with much wiggle room. Hopefully, we can continue to avoid injuries and make it through what is usually a very physical game with Eastside.

Eastside

Eastside always gives us a tough time at their place. They like to throw out a lot of junk defense mixed in with physical play in an effort to keep us off balance. They are 2-2 on the season. The last two nights they've given up 83 and 77 points. I'm hoping we can finally break loose. Our shooting has definitely been subpar through the first week - maybe tomorrow we can hit our stride. Still no Becky, so that will hurt our attack. We're still trying to mesh the new faces with the veterans and tomorrow night will give us another chance to work out some of the kinks.

Hall of Fame

We had a good time touring the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame yesterday in New Castle. The girls took lots of pictures of the flags flying outside and our state championship display inside. They played the trivia game, laughed at some of the old memorabilia, and generally enjoyed each other's company. Roger Dickinson did a great job during his tenure as the HOF director and Chris May will pick up where he left off. I think they're going to stock a few copies of Four Sunny Saturdays in the gift shop - that will be pretty cool.

More consistency, please.

In the aftermath of the Mooresville game, I was pleased with how we performed at certain points of the game, but consistency is necessary to beat good teams. I attribute a lot of our difficulty to the fact that we've got several new faces and it takes time to mesh. By my count, we've had 18 practices so far, and only 11 of those practices have been with our entire core group of varsity players. That's just not enough time to do what we need to do. We're trying to put in a new offensive scheme, a matchup zone, and a sufficient number of offenses to run against various defenses. In addition, we still need to get our press package in (really could have used something against Mooresville) and fine tune what we have. That's why I talk about being ready for February. It really does take that long!

Mooresville

We had a good game plan tonight vs. Mooresville, but just didn't hit enough shots to pull off the upset. They are ranked #3 in 4A and #5 overall, but will probably move up since Oak Hill lost this week. Lots of high profile coaches and basketball people in the house to see our game followed by Elmhurst and Ben Davis. We closed to within six early in the fourth quarter, but couldn't get over the top.

We got some good contributions from our younger kids tonight. Bailey, Matte, and B all had their moments. We ran the floor well and got to the free throw line 29 times compared to just 11 for Mooresville. Once we start shooting the ball a little better and get our press defense package in place, we ought to be able to dictate. I thought we were much better defensively tonight and certainly played with a higher degree of urgency than we did Wednesday against Woodlan.

Tabitha led us with 18 points and Cassie chipped in with 10. Madison got us started with seven points in the first half. Paige was a thorn in the side of Jama Sharp all night, limiting her to just 12 points, all hard-earned. We took some positives from the game, especially when we consider that we did all this without Becky. Looking forward to Eastside on Tuesday.

Here we go!

After an opening win Wednesday night vs. a scrappy Woodlan squad, we are loading up today to head to Indianapolis, home of last year's national champion Ben Davis Giants. We don't play the host team, but we are matched up against Mooresville, a top 5 team in the state and a powerhouse in their own right. Playing without Becky will be tough, but hopefully some of the other kids can step up in her absence. We talked earlier this week about playing through adversity - this may be one of those times.

I'm going to try to keep the blog updated now that the season has officially started. It's not going to be as entertaining as the Potter-Martz affair going on over at the Mad Ants sites, but it will have some interesting information about the Lady Cavs along with an occasional shameless plug to buy a copy of Four Sunny Saturdays - ideal for that tough-to-buy-for person on your Christmas list!

Let's go, Lady Cavs!