The second half of my kid's fall AAU schedule started off with some positives, Millie's 5th grade team got a boost, as her injured teammates, one of the fame "twins" came back from her wrist injury. Lucky for the bench players, her time was still limited, so everybody got solid playing time.
In the third tournament at the season, we weren't forced to go from site to site for games. Heck, for Millie's division, they barely needed to get out of bed, rolling through pool play and the championship game, outscoring their opponents 125-12. The fewest points they scored in a game was 28, which was the smallest margin of victory for them (22).
Maja's 7th grade team started out in the similar pattern, a 63-4 destruction of a local rec team, but things got challenging after that. Their second game was against a hastily thrown together team of 5th and 6th graders from Delaware. Sure they were smaller, but they were faster, rougher, and Maja's team just kept giving them opportunities to get back into the game. They got out of there with a 48-40 win, and hopefully a little wiser.
The wisdom didn't seem to stick, as they them faced another undersized team, but from a nationally recognized program. This program's penchant for tenacious traps resulted in one of Millie's team's 4th grade losses, so coaches and players were prepared... just not as prepared as they needed to be. The 57-43 win doesn't reflect the closeness of the game, as in the last five minute's Maja's team went to a dribble-free offense, taking full advantage of their height, to pull away.
After getting battered in pool play, the arrived at the championship team against the new arch-nemesis, the Chargers. Except, it wasn't the team that thrashed them two tournaments ago... it was their better 7th grade team A-team. Issues aside, they jumped out to an early lead, lost it, and pulled back to an 11-point lead at half.
During the second half, the wheels slowly fell off the bus, and the Chargers A-team took advantage and pulled off a 43-40 thriller.
The final tourney of the season was finally at Spooky Nook, and we took full advantage of the complex, actually getting a reservation in their Warehouse Hotel in the building itself. It's pricey, and the rooms have some peculiarities you could imagine putting a hotel in a warehouse building, but advantage of waking up and wandering onto the court, instead of wrangling everyone into the car and fighting traffic and the massive parking lot was worth every penny. I might not do it for every tournament this Spring, but I recommend families try to get a reservation at least once.
Millie's 5th grade team rolled through pool play, but for some reason the coach never wanted to close out the games for good, getting the 20-point lead and start the running clock. Instead, they subbed in younger players, who were on the roster, but not the usual team. Sure, it was cute, but the girls effectively played 5-on-4, and the team kept "close enough" on the points they scored on the younger girls. I just don't understand why, it a sport where an injury can occur in garbage time as much as it can in the height of competition, you don't want to obvious victories to be over as fast as possible.
With all these shenanigans, it wasn't much of a surprise when a bigger, talented team showed up in the finals, and wiped the floor with them, for their first loss of the season. The girls couldn't do their normal magic, and the coaches didn't adjust, or if they did, the opponents matched them step for step. With both teams playing till the end, this time I was happy we were down by 20 and the clock was running, just to reduce potential injuries.
Maja's 7th graders started off rusty, but played some underpowered teams to dominant wins. The semi-final team from the other pool had a convincing Saturday, winning close games against teams that give Maja's team fits, and losing close games to the two team that troubled them, including the dreaded Chargers. Thanks to a forfeit, they got their spot in the semis. The result was a 20+ point win for Maja's team, but not without some drama.
The other team was skilled and spirited, but wildly undisciplined. There were so many fouls, that Maja's team was taking one-and-one foul shots eight minutes into the first half. The refs missed an flagrant kick to the back of our center while two players were on the ground, but called the obvious technical when a jump ball was called, and the other team shoved the ball right in our player's face.
Of course, having two tall girls on the same team raised some questions from the opposing team's parents, but poor sportsmanship takes away the imaginary high ground they though they stood on.
Maja's team took control early, made their foul shots, and slowly advanced towards a twenty point lead and the running clock of the mercy rule.
More strange things were afoot, as a team from North Jersey actually upset our arch-nemesis Chargers we had expected in the finals! Apparently the favored team didn't bring a full roster, so they were good enough for pool play, but the other team was more tenacious and showed more heart.
However, the championship game was a runaway 45-13 rout.
For Maja's team, a collection of new talent slapped atop the old foundation, with a new coach, two championships out of four tournaments was a good season. They have four titles out of nine tourneys going back to last Spring. And given that Maja will play with two of the girls on the junior high team gives us tremendous hope and confidence (and a new reason to rant during the winter).
Despite a low moment to end the fall, Millie's team won three out of four titles, and went 14-1 for the season. They're 66-5 since March (7-5 in tournament finals)
Alas, it was already getting dark, thanks to the time change, but we couldn't leave just quite yet. The last cog in the machine, the 6th grade team, was still in their championship game, and it was a nail biter. As the minutes ticked down in regulation, the lead changed hands multiple times, until it went into overtime...
... and a second overtime....
... and a third overtime, where the opposing team won by three. The tournament didn't use all the courts that weekend, but out of the fourteen they used at the facility, every other game had finished, and most of the fans went home..
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| A half hour past close and they were still in regulation |
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