Christmas break

As we roll into the last days of 2009, our record sits at a very respectable 7-1. Following our impressive win over sectional rival Blackhawk Christian Friday night, we are counting our blessings and looking forward to some exciting challenges in January. But first, a brief recap of the Blackhawk game...

Leading 13-12 early in the second quarter, we were showing the effects of a short week of practice, disrupted by final exams. Blackhawk was doing some nice things offensively and we weren't able to find the mark in the first few minutes. Then we scored the next 35 points in a row.

Midway through the third quarter, when our opponents finally cracked the scoring column for the first time since the opening seconds of the second stanza, we had amassed a 48-12 lead. It's almost ridiculous to consider how dominant we were in that stretch of time. Offensively, defensively, rebounding, running in transition -- it's hard to imagine playing much better. Everyone was contributing in one way or another. I began clearing the bench late in the third quarter and we played primarily swing players in the fourth. All but one of the girls scored and, when it was over, we rolled to a 78-36 win.

At this point, we are the #9 ranked offensive unit in the state at 68 ppg. However, more pleasing to me is the fact that we have limited our last four opponents to less than 40 points. I was disappointed with our defensive organization early in the season; I feel a lot better about it now!

When we come back from Christmas, we open first with Elmhurst then a few days later we see Concordia. Those are perhaps the top two teams in the SAC. They provide different sorts of challenges. Elmhurst is very athletic, a proven winner, and will likely be poised to gain revenge for the beating we gave them last year. Concordia is a very solid team fundamentally with no weaknesses at either end of the floor. Winning either of those games will be a nice accomplishment given our relative inactivity over the next two weeks. We will be working out, but they will be playing games. There's a difference trying to stay sharp - hopefully, we can find our rhythm early and compete well against both of them.

We had the girls out last night for a Christmas party. They enjoyed the evening, eating and watching last year's state championship together. I really, really like my team. We have high hopes for the rest of the season. If we can stay healthy, I think the fun's just beginning...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Canterbury 63 Bethany Christian 32

On the day when we moved to #29 in the Sagarin ratings - our highest ranking ever - we traveled to Waterford Mills to play our first sectional opponent of the season, Bethany Christian. We only have three 1A teams on our schedule, all schools in our sectional, and I think we were expecting for them to go a little more quietly than they did. They gave us a good battle for two quarters, but a defensive adjustment and some red-hot scoring from Becky sealed the deal in the third quarter. We coasted in from there and finished another good week of play with a record of 6-1.

We talked in practice Friday about how Bethany wanted to slow the game down, pack the box with a 2-3 zone, and try to keep us from getting up and down the floor the way we had vs. Whitko and Wawasee. True to form, they dared us to shoot the outside shot and patiently tried to execute their halfcourt offense. We hit a couple threes, but not nearly enough to shoot them out of their zone. In addition, we only had one trip to the free throw line (we've averaged nearly 30 attempts/game on the season), so our halftime talk consisted of strategies to successfully handle this type of grind-it-out style of game. We know most teams are not going to want to try to run with us, so I expect to see more of this in the future. The nice thing is, we have so many offensive weapons and you're not going to shut them all down. Today was Becky's day, as she put up a career-high 16 points. Tab and Cassie were also in double digits, Paige was a point away with 9 and Bailey would have been there if she had gotten a couple more shots to fall (or gotten a couple calls around the basket). We're the #14 team in the state in offensive average, but I've been just as pleased in recent games with our defensive prowess, holding teams in the 30s the past three nights.

We also took some stock in our season today by looking at some of our earlier opponents. Mooresville, our only loss, is ranked #15 in the country in this week's USA Today poll. South Side destroyed 2A #1 Bishop Luers last night by 20. Wawasee won two games this weekend. Whitko bounced back with a good win last night. By any measure, our body of work has been pretty good so far, and we still have lots of room for improvement. Even though a game like this one today may seem like a bit of a step back, it really just gives us a little more experience in playing different styles, an important part of our stated goals as we prepare for the post-season. At the end of the day, it was still a 31-point win, and that ain't too shabby.

The girls will take a brief hiatus now for Exam Week, something that kids at most schools will not endure, at least to the degree Canterbury students do. It takes a lot of preparation and concentration and basketball will rightly take a back seat for a few days. Then, it will be time for another sectional opponent, a rivalry game with Blackhawk Christian on Friday. At the end of a long and grueling week of testing, I hope the girls are ready to break loose on the basketball court and finish the first part of our season in style by earning their seventh win.

Blessings

Yesterday, several of the girls, plus Chief and I, trekked over to Fairfield Elementary School to pack bags for the Blessings in a Backpack program. It's a very good opportunity for us to give back to the community, particularly to those in need. The program provides various food pantry items that go home with each child on Fridays. It helps supplement their nutritional needs on Saturday and Sunday, when they don't have the school lunch to depend on. Canterbury has been involved for the past two years, last year working with South Wayne Elementary School. More information about the Blessings in a Backpack program can be found here: http://blessingsinabackpack.org/

With final exams looming in the distance (next week), our focus is not as good as it could be. However, these kids are such terrific students, I can only marvel somedays with their ability to keep all the balls in the air, so to speak. We will back off after the game tomorrow and let them concentrate fully on their preparation for Exam Week. Basketball becomes a diversion - a way to let off some steam after a tough day of testing. We won't practice Monday; Tuesday and Wednesday will be optional. We'll get back to business Thursday after the last tests are written. By Friday, we'll be mentally drained, so we'll need to find a way to get ourselves prepared to play Blackhawk in our last contest before Christmas break.

"That's real nice..."

To quote one of our Canterbury students, this past week was "real nice..." Last week, I commented that by Thursday morning, I would know a lot more about our team. And I do. After scrapping our way to a good road win at South Side, we went on the road and dismantled a 4-1 Wawasee team. Last night, we finally returned home to play again. I was concerned that this might be a "trap" game, a term coaches use to describe a game you ought to win, but might struggle with because you aren't as focused or prepared as you need to be. On the heels of two big road wins (avenging losses from the previous year) I was concerned we wouldn't be sharp. Wrong!

The girls came out on fire at both ends of the floor, perhaps exceeding the tremendous effort we displayed at Wawasee. When the dust settled, we had scored 90 points, a school record. We did it without any full-court pressure. Our starting five played less than 20 minutes each. 11 of our 12 rostered players hit the scoring column. We held a second consecutive team to a paltry 35 points despite playing at a fast pace that produces many more possessions. Overall, we were very pleased with the results. Even nicer is the fact that we still have a lot of room to grow.

Our final two games before Christmas, at Bethany Christian and at Blackhawk Christian, will probably be departures from most of our early season schedule. They are the first 1A teams we will play this season (Lakewood Park is the only one after Christmas). They have struggled through the first half of the season. Given the dominating performances of the past two nights, our primary challenge will be to stay at the high level we've reached recently and not slip back. As we remind the kids often, if we're not getting better, then we're getting worse! Our goal is to get better every night. To this point, I have been very pleased with our progress.

A nice week!

Heading into this week, we were cautiously optimistic about our chances against both South Side and Wawasee. Despite the fact we had to go on the road to play those games and remembering that we had lost to both of those teams last year, we really felt like we could get the job done. And we did.

After doing enough things well in our Wednesday night victory at South Side (shot well, dominated the boards, hit clutch free throws, locked up defensively in the fourth quarter), the kids were rock solid yesterday at Wawasee. Despite falling behind early, they just stuck to the game plan and eventually overwhelmed their opponents. I cannot remember a more devastating defensive performance by one of my teams against a formidable foe. Wawasee was 4-1 going into the game and probably could have been 5-0 if they had caught a couple breaks in a close loss to Fairfield. Yesterday was no contest. Paige and Becky led the charge and everybody participated in trapping and rotating to cover. It was very, very nice!

The transition game also looked good. Wawasee's press had very little impact on us because we had the ball at halfcourt sometimes before they could even get organized. Then it was a race to the basket for layups or free throws. We shot 31 times from the line yesterday, led by Cassie's school-record 10-10 performance. Even some of the Wawasee faithful commented about the quality of our running game. Other areas were strong too. We kept turnovers down (13) which was a point of emphasis. Shooting was still pretty good, though not quite to the level as Wednesday night. Still, I can live with shooting 48% from the field.

The best part of the day was watching a veteran team play like a veteran team. They were on the same page offensively and defensively. There were very few mental mistakes. The younger kids are assimilating nicely and adding weapons to an already solid core group. We've got another solid test - at home!! - Wednesday vs. Whitko, then will begin to ease into finals week and Christmas break with games against sectional opponents, Bethany Christian and Blackhawk Christian. It's hard to believe we're even talking about the mid-season break already, but time flies when you're having fun!

Good start to the week

As I commented to a number of people who asked, "It wasn't a great game, but it was a good win!" We didn't play as well as I had hoped at South Side, particularly in the area of ballhandling, but we made up for it in other areas. For the first time all year, our shooting percentage was over 50% and we were deadly at the line too, knocking down 12-14. None of those free throws were bigger than Cassie's with just under 8 seconds to go, effectively icing the game. We had great balance again, both in scoring and number of scoring opportunities. One of the things I really like about the team right now is the simple fact that our offensive attack is spreading the shots around and we have kids like Madison, Paige, and Bailey stepping up to support the scoring load. That only makes us more difficult to prepare for and to play against. I also thought, for the first time all year, we got some defensive stops when we needed them, holding South to just six fourth-quarter points. That wasn't an accident; we made a defensive adjustment at the end of the third quarter that completely changed the flow of the game and took South out of a pretty good rhythm. This team has always demonstrated the ability to switch things up when we need to, and last night's game was just another example of that.

Now we set our sights on Wawasee. It will be a pretty good week if we can knock off another team who dealt us one of our four losses last year. Revenge is for suckers, but a good performance up there Saturday would be another sign that we are moving in the right direction. It's only early December - we're two months away from the time we want to start playing our best. Still, it's nice to have these measuring sticks along the way. Wawasee will be a good one.

Rough road ahead

Over the span of the next week, we will get the chance to play three distinctly different teams. All of them are dangerous, but not for the same reasons. South Side tonight is going to be a fast-paced, physical game with plenty of possessions. We haven't been handling the ball very well early in the season, nor have we been able to put the clamps on anyone defensively. In addition, our shooting percentage is down as well. We've been showing signs of improvement recently in practice, but we've only played three games and it's hard to tell where we really are. Tonight will give us more information, but South Side destroyed us last year - our worst loss in nearly four years. In fact, they have had our number the last four times we've played. We'll have our hands full tonight too.

Wawasee is a brand new team this year. All five starters from last year's team either graduated or transferred. Coach Zolman still has them playing very well. They are 4-1 at this point and receiving votes in the 3A poll. They have apparently embraced the Wawasee style and are earning dividends. A team playing with that type of confidence - no longer in the shadows of last year's powerhouse squad - will be tough to handle, especially on the road.

Finally, we see Whitko next Wednesday in our final home game before Christmas. Yes, it's also our second home game of the year - nice scheduling! I'm wary of them because they have played a very difficult schedule and have yet to win. Similar to Wawasee, the stars of last year's team have departed and a younger squad is feeling its way through a tough opening stretch. But Coach Bell does a good job and they won't come to Fort Wayne expecting to lose. We'll have to handle their physicality and make sure we stay true to our stated goal: Just do what we do!

By next Thursday morning, I expect to know a lot more about our team. That may sound odd, given the experience we return from last year. Still, we are just now beginning to get ourselves organized and of our three games, only one of those was played with our full complement of players. By comparison, South Side has already played four, Wawasee five, and Whitko six. Our patience will be tested - we'll see how it looks!