Day: November 19, 2024

Two games to catch up on from last week.

Tuesday the Irish played their Jesuit sisters from down the block. L was excited because the Braves were missing two of their best varsity players, meaning girls from their kinda crappy JV team had moved up, so she was hoping for two wins.

She got them.

CHS dominated the JV game and won by 20 in a game that wasn’t close after the first few minutes. L scored 8 on 3–6 shooting, hitting both of her 3-point attempts. She added three assists and SIX steals. She dressed for varsity but did not get in despite the Irish winning by 23. Her coach looked at her once but since the Jesuits still had starters in thought better of it.

Thursday we took on Mooresville, a traditionally strong program from a mostly rural area just outside the Indy metro area. We got two very different yet similar games.

In JV, we led by 12 at halftime and got it up to 15 a couple times in the third quarter before their coach decided it couldn’t hurt to start pressing us. Not sure why he waited over half the game to do that, because it destroyed our offense. We struggled to get the ball across halfcourt, and when we did made terrible plays once we set up the offense. Worth noting L either sat or was playing off the ball during this stretch. We had two girls who both scored around 10 points in the first half. Both of them took about a million terrible shots in the second half and failed to score. Just a total panic on offense.

MHS got it down to three a couple times but never closer as we held on in the final 90 seconds. L took seven shots, hitting just one, but she was clearly fouled on two of those misses. She added one free throw for three points, grabbed a rebound, had an assist, and accounted for just one of those stupid turnovers. Best of all, she again had SIX STEALS and forced a couple other turnovers. Her offense isn’t really clicking yet, but her defense has been great.

Varsity was another story. CHS fell behind early and trailed by as many as 15, but caught fire in a crazy fourth quarter that felt like it lasted about an hour. We got it down to three with MHS’ two bigs both fouling out along the way. Then we relaxed and the margin got back up to eight. We cut it to three two more times but couldn’t get the defensive stop for a chance to tie. We hit a three at the buzzer to lose by three. L again dressed but did not play. I’m pretty sure MHS hit 99% of their free throws while we hit maybe 50%.

A highlight from this game was a CHS dad getting into it with some MHS parents. I’ve known this dad for nearly 10 years and he’s always been a fool at games. He was ejected from multiple CYO games over the years but has somehow not learned his lesson. As usual, he was overly into the game Thursday. When an MHS mom seemed to lose her mind on a close call, he decided to tell her that she should keep her mouth shut, but in cruder terms. Now Mooresville folks are a little rougher than us Indy, private school folks. Or at least this lady was. I thought there was going to be a brawl. Luckily that was averted. This will not be the last incident this parent is involved in. I always try to not sit too close to him so I don’t get pulled into any confrontations.

JV is 2–1, varsity 1–2.

Now for the bummer.

L had been experiencing some periodic foot pain. It would flare up one day, disappear completely the next. It didn’t seem to affect her play so we decided to just monitor it. She told the trainer one day after practice, who examined her and gave her a bag of ice.

Then Sunday, following a hard practice Saturday to prepare for the #2 team in the state tonight, she could barely walk.[1] We put her in a boot for the rest of the day and Monday morning I took her straight to sports medicine.

The diagnosis was what S expected: stress reaction. Crutches or a knee scooter for the next four weeks while wearing the boot, followed by at least two more weeks in the boot. She will be re-evaluated on January 2. Obviously no basketball during those six weeks, a span of at least 10 games.

L has actually been taking it pretty good so far. I think it’s going to hit her tonight when she has to sit on the bench during the JV game and then behind the bench for varsity. And the longer she goes without practicing the more she’ll realize what she’s missing.

JV is really hurting at the moment. Four girls who weren’t playing much quit this week. Three more were too sick to practice Monday. And now L is out. A couple girls who don’t normally get a lot of minutes have a huge opportunity.

It could certainly be worse. L didn’t tear or break anything, she doesn’t need surgery, and this wasn’t like one of her friends last year who had concussions number four and five and had to stop playing forever. But it still sucks. She’s going to miss roughly half of her sophomore season. Even if she comes back in early January, it’s going to take her awhile to get her fitness back.

About all she can do now is sit in a chair doing dribbling or form shooting exercises. I remember watching videos of Isiah Thomas doing folding chair workouts when I was in middle school. I need to find those for her.

That also means less high school basketball content for me to share. I’ll keep you updated on the game results, but doubt I’ll have as detailed breakdowns as normal.