Last weekend was the final weekend for Millie's 7th grade team, and after finally getting a solid look at the dynamics, I say good riddance.
We were down in Lancaster for another tournament, and for once both Millie and Maja played at the same location. Of course one played mid-morning and the other late Saturday night, so it's a loooong day.
I've been house-sitting for my sister and brother-in-law in Philly, as they take a cross-country tour through the Midwest and back through Canada, so I was just over an hour away. I got to the site, saw gross disorganization from the tournament staff, and some of the most eclectic teams they could assemble for 26 out of the 32 available courts. I knew there was an issue when, with a backed-up registration line, parents who needed to pay told their kids to simply run through and find their team at their court (which was permitted). Almost to the person, each one said they couldn't because they did not know the facility because it was their first time here. Given some of the poorer teams in our programs won more games on Saturday than they had all season,
Millie's group wasn't so lucky. The Genesee Vipers always looked like a quality organization that put other Upstate New York programs to shame. The refereeing was horrible, the scorekeeping atrocious, but with one of the girls missing to play in the World Games in Italy, the remainder of the team just didn't look like they wanted to play together. Even if everything was corrected, it would still be around a six-point victory, but those girls wanted to avoid each other, and there was nothing the coaches could do.
Their second game was against Central NY Savage, a group of sizable girls, but nothing Millie's team hasn't overcome with tenacity.
There was zero tenacity. I really don't want to blame them, as nine straight possessions constituted the ball being inbounded to the one particular player, and that player dribbled up court and shooting at/driving to the basket, with no other passes to teammates. That large pattern was endemic to the first half, where they were down 18-10. The pattern continued, until every other single player simply stopped playing, because the particular player wasn't passing, wasn't using screens, and just focused on scoring, until the lead grew to 18 points and the coach finally sat them for the rest of the game. The bleeding stopped, the team started scoring, but the best they could do was a 43-25 loss.
By the end of Saturday, we were all essentially done with the season, even with Maja's three more tournaments for June and July. Between the game play, and the absolutely atrocious uniforms (Millie's seam on the backside of her shorts split), I didn't anticipate her returning for the Fall, or possibly ever.
Maja's situation isn't as dire, but the only reason she tried out at all this year were true rumors of her favorite coach returning "one more time" With two injuries and one player returning from vacation, Maja got the rare start in the afternoon. (She had three starts last year, and only one the year before). She performed well, even if the stat sheet was empty in spots, with 48-6 rout. The second game was against the hated Bensalem Chargers, but this year's iteration was no match for Maja's team. An opposite of Millie's team, they LED 18-10 at half, then blew the doors off of them in the second, 25-4, for a 43-14 win.
Maja loves her coach, but is planning on AAU volleyball or track and field jumping camps with all the time basketball takes up.
Despite my bickering I was appreciative of their wins on Saturday because we didn't need to be on site for games until after noon!
Maja's team showed no mercy for their play-in game, proper passing and their star player made better choices.
Despite the spelling error on the schedule, I knew the team Maja's group was up against wasn't much of a challenge. They were regulars in the C and D-Level tournaments around Philly, so a 45-23 win wasn't a surprise with our bench playing 3/4 of the game. Maja graced me with actually taking and hitting two shots, so the Father's Day was improving.
Maja's championship game was against a solid program, but when they brought six to the court, and their tallest girl was shorter than Maja, I knew it would be about executing early. The team shot 50% overall, 50% from the 3, and 100% of their foul shots to win by almost 40.
We raced over the other side of the facility for Millie's championship, a rematch with CNY Savage. Following the formula for the first Sunday game, these 7th graders bent, but did not break in the 1st half, only trailing 27-24. Better shots fell in the 2nd, and the larger girls on Savage seemed to start making costly mistakes. Once Millie's team took the lead with a minute left, the Savage coach was broken to discover his girls needed to commit seven fouls even to reach 1-and-1 foul shooting, which drained all but twenty seconds ... and then the girls hit enough shots to seal the deal.
Millie's team has won 4 out of 6 tournaments this year, and two of them have involved them beating a team in the championship that they lost in pool play (Maja's team has one such instance). Not bad for a team of guards.
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| Nothing like two championships (and two trophies) for Father's Day |
School Ball: The Adventure Continues: Actual school ball started up after the last update, and so far there's zero complaints for the girls, and a bunch from me for other kids.
Maja's getting plenty of varsity time, and as much JV time as she wants. Millie is playing alongside Maja on JV. They've won their only game of the summer thus far 32-26, with a 16-1 run in the 2nd half, the only time where they played together.
I'm being far more vocal for the 7th/8th grade division, even though Millie (8th grader) has been told to stick with JV. They brought up other 8th graders to fill JV, while they let a lot of 9th graders languish in Jr High for the Summer. Having finally made a game on Monday, I understand why.
The 9th graders (and the one 8th grade "ringer") were simply miserable playing against an equally miserable team. The team leaders were an 8th grader starting their second year of basketball ever. She ended up with 2 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 steals. The other star was one only new 7th grader invited to play who had 8 points and 4-for-7 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 7 steals, in twenty minutes. They did lose in what I could only call Double Secret Probation Sudden Death Overtime 27-25, but the summer is young.
ghjk
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