Wednesday Notes

A couple quick notes before an emergency high school basketball update.

Weather

We had winter storm #3 of the young season Monday evening into Tuesday morning. The heaviest snow of the event fell right during Monday rush hour, meaning both S and L had to drive home in it. They made it here safely, if slowly. Once again we were in the predicted 2–4 inches zone, with the expectation it would be on the heavier end. If we made it to two inches here it was just barely. I got up early Tuesday to clear off the driveway and it was a pretty easy job, 50 minutes of pushing and sweating that counted as my workout for the day.[1]

CHS announced a delayed start Monday evening. While I was out shoveling they switched to eLearning, so L got a nice, easy day at home. I’m not sure why the roads were so bad in the city since they had all night to work on them. With CHS having kids come from such a wide area they have to be extra careful for those who come from outlying areas where the roads are worse than in the city.

Holidays

These years when the calendar provides almost no gap between Thanksgiving and December always mess with my mind a little. Like, it’s already December 3? It feels like we lost a week somewhere.

KU Hoops

I only saw the last third of KU’s loss to UConn last night. The Jayhawks were up six when I turned it on, got it to eight, then decided to see if they could still win without making a basket and while missing free throws. Amazingly, that did not work out for them. If only there was a way to score more points and not have the offense completely bog down. Maybe something will change before the Missouri game Sunday, but why get my hopes up when that change keeps getting kicked down the road another week.

HS Hoops

OK, the real reason for this post. I noted that if events warranted, I would return to the more regular high school hoops updates. Well, last night justified such a post.

The Irish took on Ben Davis, a traditionally super athletic, physical team we’ve been known to struggle with. L started off the JV game great, looking confident and finding angles in the defense. She hit five of her first six shots and added a free throw. Right before halftime she hit a 3 and we were up 12 at the break. She had 14, the other junior had nine.

Then the coaches decided to split her and the other junior, with L sitting the third quarter and her buddy the fourth. That was nearly disastrous. We gave up half the lead while L sat. When she came back in she was cold and did not hit another shot, forcing a few bad ones. The game got as close as one point but we held on for JV’s second win of the year.

The varsity game was close all night. In the third quarter BD cranked up their pressure and we could not handle it. There were multiple stretches when neither team could hang on to the ball and it became a middle school game. Turnover, turnover, turnover, jump ball, turnover, turnover, turnover, jump ball.

With about 90 seconds left in the third quarter our coach was fed up and sent L into the game. Honestly, I was more nervous than when she came into games as a freshman. I was just hoping she could avoid making a mistake and survive that minute-plus.

She made it through that stretch without incident and we went to the final quarter up one. During the break, she stayed in one of the five seats reserved for players who are on the court. She started the final period and played the entire eight minutes until the final horn sounded.

Obviously, she held her own. She helped break the press as a release valve for our primary ball handlers. She moved the ball quickly when she got it. She slid over on defense and got her hands on the ball to force a tie up. Most importantly, she wasn’t messing up so she stayed on the court.

With about two minutes left she got a huge defensive rebound that turned into a basket for us on the other end. She is not a good rebounder so to get one in a varsity game in a key moment was a big deal.

A moment later she filled the lane on a 2-on–1 break and finished to put us up five. On the next possession she found a seam and drove through the defense to hit another layup. In the final minute, as we tried to kill clock, she got fouled and hit one of two free throws.

When another teammate was shooting free throws in the final seconds one of our senior captains jumped on L and gave her a hug. When the clock ran out to clinch the 10-point win, the JV coach came over and hugged her. She was beaming as she left the court. It was a great night to do it, as a bunch of her friends were in the stands watching. Up in the stands, mom and dad were thrilled.

Put it all together and it was the most successful day of her high school career. Nineteen total points, two wins, and nearly 10 minutes of varsity playing time in a close game.

She’s been trying so hard to get her mojo back, both mentally and physically. For at least one night it was there. Last night doesn’t guarantee anything, not how her body feels, not her confidence, not her opportunities going forward. But it was such a relief for one game, at least, that she was able to put it all together.