"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!

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.