25-5

This weekend's tournament is one of our favorites from last year, if not our favorite. We enjoy it for many reasons: it is run by a Missouri Synod Lutheran school (thus we get to see new/different teams), they do little things that make the tournament fun (selling buttons and beads for every school, team signs everywhere), we did really well last year (2nd place, ensuring that our school name will be in their tournament program for years to come), and because the competition gets good.

Our first two games of the tournament featured a scare and a slaughter. Our first opponent was a team we played last year in the second round and won easily, this time around it should have been easier but it did not play out that way. Our 6'2" center was visiting his sister at college for the day so we were forced into our "small" line-up. It should have not matter as we had our press going really well in the smaller gym that hosts the tournament. We used our traps to jump out to a 21-13 1Q lead with our scoring duo putting up 17 points between them in the quarter. In the second quarter, those two guys got all our points as our opponent adjusted to our tempo and barely lost the quarter to us, 14-13, extending our lead to 35-26 at half time.

In the third quarter, our go to guys got their buckets and a couple other guys pitched in on our way to a 20 point quarter. We lead 55-41 with one quarter to play and it looked like I might be coaching my first game ever where my team hit 70. The only problem was our opponent's point guard was having the best game of his life! With a shot that looked like it hurt him to even attempt he lead their crazy comeback in the 4Q. He got a little miracle help from a couple of his teammates as well as they simply could not miss anything that they threw towards the basket. Their point guard finished with 36 ridiculous points which included a buzzer beating 3 pointer at the end of the game- but we were up 4 when he hit it. Thus, we quietly walked away with a 62-61 victory having lost the 4Q 20-7. In the locker room we made sure that the guys understood that they should be glad, but not proud of the win. (BTW- our best player had a triple double, 20 points-13 rebounds-11 assists, which I am pretty sure is the first player I have ever coached who has done that!)

On top of our gross play- I have been battling my first ever sinus cold/flu/infection and this morning's game seemed to be the "pinnacle" of awfulness. On the way home I stopped at Walgreen's and found the strongest drugs they offered, came home, took some and slept for an hour or so and then laid in the tub with the hottest water I could get from my faucet for another 30+ minutes. After eating some soup and resting for another halfish hour, I took my shooting guard and another player to Ponderosa for dinner. Last year, I took our shooting guard to Ponderosa in between games at this same tournament and he responded that night with a 28 point outburst in 3 quarters of play. I was hoping he would do it again.

Well, he brought his "A" game- but it was completely unnecessary as we controlled the game literally from the opening tip. Our press proved too much for our quarter final opponent as we scored the first 12 points on our way to winning the 1Q 18-4. In the 2Q we limited their scoring to two free-throws while we scored 15 to lead 33-6 at half time. We won the 3Q 13-2 to take a 46-8 lead into the 4Q. All the while our bench guys were getting good extended minutes. We only had eight guys at the game, so we always had a couple starters on the floor to help facilitate our bench guys and their scoring. Even with a slowed down game, we managed to win the 4Q 11-7 and rolled to a 57-15 victory.

Our opponent tomorrow is a familiar one as they are from our conference and we have played (and beat) them twice this season. When we met in conference play at their gym, the officiating was a little off (their head coach actually apologized to me after the game for the officials) and we won by 3, in our tournament last week our best player was in major foul trouble and we still managed to win by 1 (the other game this year in which our opponent hit a 3 pointer at the buzzer when we were up by 4 to bring the final score to within one). I really would like to play somebody new, but we know that this team has yet to see us at our best and we are still 2-0 against them. We also know they really want to get us, so it should be a good game. Win or lose our second game Sunday is also going to be a battle- so it is shaping up to be a good test to see if last weekend was really who we are or if we just got hot and put it together for one weekend. We are hoping it is a repeat of a week ago.