Month: December 2023 (Page 1 of 2)

A quick, one-game summary to wrap up the first half of the season.

Last night CHS took on HSE, ranked #2 in class 4A. HSE has a junior who is committed to IU and just passed the 1000 career points mark last week. They also have a sophomore who already has multiple D1 offers and was taking visits to big-time schools as a freshman. A very good program from a huge suburban district. The sister school in their district lost in the state championship game last year.

In the JV game, L got a chance to play against one of her new, future travel teammates. However, we didn’t know that girl’s number until we saw a program, so L had no idea they guarded each other for much of the game until I told her on the ride home.

That was a decent matchup, although it was more L guarding H on one end while HSE’s point guards picked up L on the opposite end. H looks like a solid player. She didn’t do anything spectacular but made smart, fundamental plays all night. I wasn’t tracking her super closely, but she scored either 5 or 7.

L clearly took the confidence built playing so many varsity minutes Saturday into this game. She was as aggressive as she’s been all year, but also smartly aggressive. She took 12 total shots. She was 4–9 from 2, 2–3 from 3 and set a new career-high with 14 points. I give the 14 points an asterisk because the official signaled a two-point make on one of her 3’s, but the announcer gave her a three. Since HSE was up by 20 at the time, the scoreboard operator didn’t question it and also gave her three points. I thought the ref was wrong and it was indeed a 3, so I guess it evens out. Glad we didn’t win by one! She grabbed three rebounds and turned it over four times.

She finally realized, “Hey, I can drive people,” and got into the lane often. She looked a lot stronger with the ball than she has all season. Two of her turnovers came when she made drives and passed to teammates who weren’t looking for a pass. She also drew a couple fouls on drives. It wasn’t perfect, but it was exactly what she should be doing.

The only real negative was badly missing her two free throw attempts. I’m not sure what’s going on there. I told her after the game that a few weeks ago her form was perfect, even on her misses. Tuesday her mechanics were a mess and I could tell she was going to miss both before they left her hands.

She sat the entire fourth quarter of an 11-point loss.

The varsity game went exactly as expected. That IU commit went off early, scoring 19 before halftime on her way to 27 for the game. HSE started the game on a 28–0 run. Twenty. Eight. It was brutal. They were clearly much better on both ends of the court, but when CHS did get a good look, you could tell all of our girls were sped up, and missed right at the rim or wide-open jumpers. It made no difference in the outcome, but what ended up being a 35-point loss could have been a more respectable 25 if the girls had settled down just a little.

This game was my first experience with a running clock in a high school game. I didn’t realize that kicks in when the margin gets to 35 points. I’m not sure when HSE first got their lead over that line, but it was well into the 40s in the fourth quarter.

L checked in with 3:30 left in the third quarter and played straight-through until about the 3:00 mark of the fourth quarter. As the clock was running for most of that stretch it went pretty quick.

She got her first varsity assist, driving and kicking for a 3. She air-balled a wide-open 3 for the second-straight varsity game. But she used her confidence with the ball to drive and score when HSE still had three starters in, so that was cool.

Varsity dropped to 5–8, JV sit at 4–9.

After a long, busy, and tough seven weeks the girls finally have a little break. They have light practices today and tomorrow before taking five days off for Christmas. Their next game is the following weekend, when they have split JV-varsity games against big rival Bishop Chatard, where L’s best middle school buddy plays. She is excited not just to play BCHS, or her friend, or because a lot of family plan on coming to those games. Since the JV game is Friday and varsity Saturday, she won’t be on a playing time restriction either night. Hopefully she’s not too keyed up.

After that, varsity has a minimum of nine games left, depending on how the City tournament and sectionals go.

Our weekend was pretty boring, other than a bunch of basketball Saturday, so I’m changing things up for this week’s posts. I’ll begin by recapping L’s hoops then get to some Jayhawk Talk later this week.

In our last volume in this series, I detailed a pretty rough week for L. This post will have a decidedly better vibe and includes another milestone in her young career.

Thursday CHS hosted New Palestine. I was a little worried in warmups as NP had a very tall sophomore who was draining 3 after 3. Our only JV girl with size has moved up to varsity full time, and I did not like the prospect of 5’6” freshmen trying to guard a 6’2” sophomore. Fortunately she wasn’t nearly as good when she was being defended as when she was casually throwing in shots during pregame and had no effect on the game.

It ended up being the easiest win of the year to this point. The Irish steadily built a lead throughout the game and were up by 22 going into the fourth quarter. The starters all rested and the backups held on for a 44–28 win.

L was really good. She hit her first shot – a long 2 from just inside the arc – then three of her next four. She reached double figures for the first time, ending with11 points on 5-of–7 shooting, but went just 1–3 from the line. She added 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals, and ZERO turnovers. She was on the floor for 20 of the first 21 minutes before the fourth quarter.

The varsity game wasn’t much of a contest, either. CHS raced out to an early lead and never let up, winning by 19.

That game had some interesting moments.

We’re not sure why, but two normal CHS starters began the game on the bench. They didn’t check in until late in the first quarter and then only played spotty minutes the rest of the game. One has been injured, the other sick, but they were both acting normal. More on them in a moment.

Between weird lineup rotations, the big early lead, and L only playing three quarters of JV, I wondered if she might get a decent chunk of time in the second half.

So I was shocked when she ran to the scorer’s table a minute into the second quarter. Once she checked in, she didn’t leave the court until halftime. Honest-to-goodness varsity minutes!

She did ok. She grabbed a couple rebounds. She missed an open look from 3 against the NP zone. She hit a layup but was called for shuffling her feet before she took her first dribble. She did have a turnover but otherwise she handled herself really well in her six-plus minutes on the court.

She sat the entire third quarter as two of her freshman JV buddies got to play, then checked in for mop-up during in the final minutes of the game.

There was some other excitement. NP had a girl who was a great athlete but not a great player. She threw her body all over the place trying to make plays. She would make a great move to the basket, then hit the bottom of the rim with her shot.

She crashed into one of our girls on a rebound and got smacked in the face. No foul was called since she initiated the contact, but she went to the floor holding her eye. The officials stopped the game to check on her and seconds later T’ed her up. I figure refs are going to give you some leeway when you get hit in the face, so she must have said something really bad to earn the T. Later she took another smack in the face and played with a tissue hanging out of her nose to stop the bleeding. She had started the game with a big bruise on her face. Tough chick.

Understandably she was a little frustrated and began complaining about every call. She was very lucky she didn’t get another T because of how demonstrative she was a couple times.

Her dad, or at least another NP dad, did get ejected, though. I couldn’t hear what he said but several of their parents had been loud all night. He must have crossed the line as well because a ref stopped the game, pointed at him, and asked the CHS athletic director to escort him out of the gym.

Fun times!

To the injured girl’s credit, I heard her apologizing to one of her coaches for getting T’ed up as they walked to the bus.

Saturday we played at Heritage Christian, a 3A school about five minutes from Cathedral. Ten or so years ago they had one of the best programs in the country, winning multiple state titles and sending girls to places like UConn. They aren’t quite that good anymore, and we knew from basketball friends that their JV was bad.

L got off to a quick start in the JV game, hitting a couple shots and one-of-two free throws early. She also had five steals in the first nine minutes of the game. HC could not dribble and she took advantage.

About three minutes before halftime one of HC’s bigger girls crashed into L and fouled her. She knocked L over, lost her balance, and then landed with all her weight on L’s back. It looked bad. L was down for a minute or so before she could get up and walk off the court crying. She sat out the rest of the half and when the third quarter started remained on the bench. She took some Motrin S offered her but didn’t complain. We were cruising so she watched the entire second half next to the coaches. We ended up winning by 27.

L didn’t sit the entire second half just because she got hurt. Varsity was going to be short two players – those two who were benched to start the game Thursday – and several JV girls were going to have to play up. Both of the missing players are soccer players and chose to play in a soccer showcase rather than high school basketball. I wondered if their minutes were reduced Thursday because of their decision Saturday, but L didn’t think so.

Anyway, the game starts, our best player makes a couple dumb plays, and 90 seconds into the game L checks in. I thought she would play 30 seconds while the coach yelled at our star, then she’d check right back out. But L stayed on the court the rest of the first quarter. She missed an open 3 – seems like she hasn’t hit one in a game in about three weeks – but handled herself well. She showed no ill effects from the earlier crushing.

The highlight of the day for us was when she took an inbounds pass, dribbled up court, weaved around a screen, and went straight to the hoop and laid it in.

Varsity points! In December! In the first quarter of a close game!

I’m a little disappointed they didn’t stop the game to honor the moment, but it was a road game and I’m not in charge of these things.

It was the most confident play she’s made all year. I told her if she can do that in a varsity game, she can do it in a JV game.

Same story in the third quarter. She was the first off the bench and then didn’t leave the court again until the end of the fourth quarter. I didn’t track it as closely as I do in JV, but I’m estimating she played 20–22 minutes. She took four shots, only making that layup. Other than committing one foul, she didn’t check any other columns in the box score. But she looked comfortable, moved the ball, and even brought it up when they double-teamed our best player in the backcourt.

The game was pretty great. We had the ball up one with 19 seconds left and called a timeout. Whatever play our coaches set up we ran wrong, because HC’s best player stole the pass and drove for a potential game-winning layup. This girl is a D1 recruit and somehow missed it. But HC got the rebound, gave her the ball again, and we fouled her with :00.5 left. She made the first, missed the second, and we went to OT.

L had played her five quarters for the day so had to sit and watch the extra time. Which ended up being eight minutes because we were still tied after the first overtime period. Fortunately our girls buckled down in the second extra frame and won by nine. Our best player, a junior who played for HC as a freshman, scored 26. Our center had 18 and 16. Our third regular starter had 17 and 7. It was a fun day.

L was very happy after the game. Everyone was high-fiving her and telling her that she did great. She said her coaches told her she’s improved a lot and earned the minutes she played.

She still has a long way to go, but she’s gone from turning the ball over on her first play of her high school career to getting serious minutes in a varsity win. All within six or seven weeks.

A pretty good week for JV, varsity, and L.

Their reward? The undefeated, #2 4A team in the state tomorrow.

A kind of bizarre and not very successful week for L on the court, with one very notable exception.

Tuesday CHS played Zionsville, where a travel teammate goes to school. L came out firing early, hoisting six 3-pointers in the first half. She missed them all, but was fouled on one and hit two-of-three free throws. She also had 2 rebounds, an assist, three steals, and no turnovers in the first half.

However, she did not play at all in the second half. She later told us that late in the first half and again in the locker room at halftime, she nearly passed out. The trainer did a check on her, and everything was fine, but decided it was safest to keep her off the court.

Not sure if it was just low blood sugar, a hint of a bug, or something else. She said once whatever it was passed she felt fine. But she only played half the game, the first time this season she’s played less than 25 minutes. CHS lost by four. L would have dressed for varsity again had she been ok to play.

Thursday they took on Guerin, the Catholic school in Hamilton County, where we used to live. L was excited about this game because Guerin has a lot of girls she played against in CYO, most of their good freshmen were playing on the varsity team, and we had heard their JV was bad.

So much for all of that. L had one of her worst games of the year. She was 0–6 from the field (0–3 on 3’s) and did not score. She had four more turnovers. She did play the whole game. Well, all but two minutes. As usual we couldn’t get any offense going and dropped the game by five.

L was involved in a key moment in the game. We were down by just two with under a minute to play when she drove, shot, and drew a foul. The shot missed but she was going to the line with a chance to tie.

Only the referees claimed the contact was before the shot. Girls from both teams had already lined up along the lane and L was at the free throw line waiting for the ball. It seems like everyone but the ref knew that L got fouled in the air. No idea what that dude was looking at. Naturally we didn’t score on off the inbounds and that was kind of the game.

So that game sucked all around.

However…

L again dressed for the varsity game, which was a blowout as CHS was up big the entire second half. I wondered if the benches would get cleared. Sure enough, with just under 2:00 left the Guerin coach sent in her reserves. The CHS coach followed a moment later. L ran to the scorer’s table to check into her first varsity game with a big grin on her face.

Amazingly, she played better than in the JV game. And by that I mean she didn’t do anything negative. She grabbed a rebound. She came close to an assist and had an unofficial hockey assist on another basket. High school is just like college: when the benchwarmers score, the starters go nuts. That was fun. Those 99 seconds seemed to outweigh L’s poor performance in the JV game, as she was super happy afterward.

Saturday we traveled about 45 minutes to Eastern Hancock, the #2 ranked 2A team in the state. We learned the day before that EH was dealing with a lot of injuries and had requested that the JV game only be two quarters.[1] L was, again, pumped, because she figured they were bad and this might be the chance to get another (half) win.

EH’s JV had five girls. Two of them were solid, the other three sucked. Yet our girls still couldn’t run competent offense. It was more of the same: causally passing the ball around without ever really looking to score. Still, we had a six-point lead with about three minutes to play when L had an open look for three. While her shot was in the air I thought, “If she makes this, the game is over.” She missed. The game was not, in fact, over. Nice freaking jinx, dad.

EH threw a press at us after their next make. Our standard press breaker is to in-bound to L, she probes the defense, then if she sees a trap coming she’ll dump the ball to another girl who attacks up the side and reverses to L in the middle if she’s trapped. This has worked very well all year. Saturday the other girl dribbled into a triple team on three straight possessions and lost the ball each time, all turning into EH buckets. That morphed into a 13–3 run to end the half-game, and another (half) loss for the Irish.

L was kind of bad again. 0–4 (0–2) from the field. 1–2 from the line. Two rebounds, an assist, a steal, and four turnovers. Turnovers have been a problem lately. Sometimes she makes shitty passes. Sometimes she isn’t strong enough with the ball. Sometimes she makes a good pass and her teammates don’t catch it. It’s really an all three phases thing right now, and she needs to find a way to be better with the ball.

We could tell she was straight-up pissed after the game. Fortunately she dressed for varsity so we didn’t have to deal with her for a bit.

I got roped into keeping the book for the varsity game, which ended up being a very good one. EH has five seniors back from a team that lost in semi-state last year. They added an amazing freshman, who scored 21. Both teams had six-point leads at one point. One of L’s buddies who is playing up from JV scored a career-high 12. The game was tied at 50 with under a minute left when that EH freshman hit a 3 to break the tie and EH won by three. The EH players and fans were very excited to beat a class 4A team, even if the Irish are just 3–7. For what it’s worth, the varsity has played the 12th toughest schedule in the state, across all classes.

Three games, three losses, and L scored 3 total points. I guess she actually just played two games. Aside from getting into the varsity game Thursday, it was not a great week for her. JV is now 2–8. The good program news is the freshman team is undefeated. We asked L if she would rather play with them. She was very much against that idea.