The Middle School Basketball team had a very exciting victory over North Cross School last night. The game went inot overtime. With most of our players being first year players, every day is a learning and, hopefully, improvement day. Here are some interesting challenges this season: Learning not to travel; learning not to throw the ball into the air and tell the ref you actually traveled while there is no actual call on the court, (yeah that really happened); learning not to chuck-up wild three pointers when your ahead by four points in overtime when you’re only three seconds into the possession, (Good thing he made that shot).
One thing we did find out is there is no ‘quit’ in this team.
The Tigers started off very slow with only two points in the 1st quarter. We just couldn’t figure out how to score against their two giant guys in the paint. They made Cadet Ian Sweet look very small. By half time we were down by a manageable seven points and made some adjustments with pressure and and inserted some different player rotations.
You could see in the 3rd quarter they were really starting to believe and forced North Cross to turn the ball over repeatedly. Converting on the other end was another story, but the effort was certainly there. They were getting the stops, which was half the battle. By the end of the 4th quarter we were down by two and missed a few key free throws under pressure while North Cross converted on one free throw to make it a three point game with three seconds left on the clock.
Then in comes Cadet Tamino Brown, who loves to shoot the 3-pointer. As a great soccer player for his age and 1st time basketball player, this is not always advised. But, he hasn’t seen a three point shot he doesn’t like. He shoots from five feet beyond the arc and splash… sends the game into overtime. The guys were going crazy and Cadet Brown, of course, was all smiles. Sure, he was probably 1 for 10 at the time from the three point range, but that one was huge.
The Tigers really turned up the pressure at that point and couldn’t miss including another 3-pointer by Tamino Brown. North Cross continuously put us at the line down he stretch and Cadet Powers and Cadet Saliu made every free throw to stretch the lead to 11. The Tigers were victorious 41-29 with Cadet Saliu leading the pack with 12 points, Cadet Powers with 10 points and Cadet Brown with 10 points.
With a lot of pent up energy on exam week and some inter squad scuffles in practice, it was great to hear the chant after the game, “FAMILY” It was a great night for these young men. If you see them give them a huge pat on the back.
