Tag: basketball (Page 3 of 42)

Wednesday’s sectional quarterfinal went pretty much as expected. Lawrence North jumped on Cathedral early and never let up. It took four possessions for CHS to even get the ball into the paint on offense, and that resulted in an immediate turnover. Our first shot was a hurried airball. LN hit their first four 3s and 6 of 8 for the half. Meanwhile our only 3-point attempt that even hit the rim came on the last play of the first half when we banked in a half-court shot to cut the LN lead to 34. The Wildcats cruised through a running clock second half to win by 32. They are a damn good team. They advance to play their arch rivals, #1 Lawrence Central, who won their quarterfinal by 55.

L never played, which she was fine with. She had no interest in measuring her progress this season against some grown-ass women.

I give L a solid B/B+ for her first season of high school ball. She started and was team captain for all 23 JV games. By the seventh game she was dressing for varsity. She got on the court nine times with the varsity girls and was officially double-rostered by Christmas.

She averaged 5.6 points per JV game, with a high of 15. If you factor in the quarters she missed because the coaches were saving her for varsity minutes, she jumps up to 6.8 ppg.[1] That’s decent. Her assist numbers weren’t great, but it’s hard to get assists in JV. If you have a reliable scorer you can pass to, she’s probably playing varsity. Turnovers are another area where she can make a big improvement. Her defense definitely got better from having to guard our best varsity perimeter player in practice.

Most of all, she was the rock for the team. I don’t know what our scoring totals were, but I’m guessing two of her teammates scored more total points that L did. But those girls constantly got subbed out because they ran plays wrong, got lost on defense, didn’t rebound, or got into foul trouble. L never left the court unless she was dying for a break, got injured, or was needed for the varsity game.[2] She stayed on the court because even when she wasn’t scoring, she made the team better. She was the one person who could settle the offense down, who could get her teammates into the right spots. That’s why she often sat for a minute or less of game time when she did get a break, since things went sideways quickly when she wasn’t on the court.

It’s been interesting to gauge her freshman year against those of her travel teammates. One of them goes to a 2A school and was the best player on their varsity team, which seems wild to us. She was not our best travel player but I guess against a weak high school schedule she tore it up. Props to her! Several go to big, suburban schools and spent all year on their freshman teams, playing in roughly 15 games. A couple other girls floated between their freshman and JV teams. Meanwhile L played in 32 combined games. I don’t know that there’s a right answer for what the best experience is. I’m hopeful L benefitted from playing so much with such a big role.

Looking ahead, CHS loses two seniors, the only two girls in the program that are six feet tall. They are going to be huge losses, literally and figuratively. One of our junior starters is a D1 soccer player and there’s always a chance she won’t play as a senior. At a private school, you never know what new players might show up or which expected returnees enroll somewhere else next fall.

All that means there is a big opportunity for L to be a varsity player next year. She needs to work hard over the next nine months to earn that spot. Her jump shot is the most obvious area that needs improvement. Without size, CHS is going to have to adjust their offensive philosophy and look to shoot from outside more. None of the returning girls are great shooters. If L can fix her mechanics, that can earn her playing time. She needs to continue to get stronger so she can compete with varsity level players. Her ball handling also needs to take a step up if she’s going to consistently play against 17–18–19 year olds.

The other big thing for next year is that Indiana is set to do a major reclassification of high school sports. We still aren’t sure of all the details, but based on what has been reported so far, there is a very good chance that CHS will move down to 3A. That will be huge for the girls basketball program. It will likely put us in the same sectional as Chatard and at least one other Catholic school rather than in one of the toughest 4A sectionals in the state. Chatard is going to be very good the next couple years, so winning a sectional will still be a tough task. It isn’t out of the question, though. I would hope that moving down means that the regular season schedule will change, too, and we will drop a lot of the high-level 4A schools we currently play every year. CHS loves to play insanely tough regular season schedules in every sport to prep for the playoffs. Given who is expected back in the program, though, it will be a good year to play an easier schedule.

On our way home Wednesday L asked me how long she should take off before she starts training. I like that she’s planning ahead, but told her to relax and not even think about basketball for a few days before we come up with an idea for what’s next.

I talked with her AAU coach this week about his plan for the spring. He’s still getting a feel for that, but it sounds like high school teams do most of their practicing on weekends when they are not in tournaments. Our program really pushes signing up for the group training they run on weeknights. It seems like several of L’s teammates are going to do that, so I expect that’s the path we’ll take. All that begins in March.

It would also be nice if she could squeeze another inch or two of growing out of her body along the way, but I’m afraid she might be stuck at 5’6”.

That wraps up her first year of high school ball. I hope you’ve enjoyed following her as much as I’ve enjoyed sharing.

After 23 games over three months, Cathedral’s regular season is complete. Sectionals officially started Tuesday with CHS set to play their opening game tonight. I’ll wrap up the regular season in this post and save whatever happens in the playoffs for a separate entry(-ies).

The Irish opened their final week of the schedule traveling to neighboring Carmel. That 20 minute bus ride must have really gotten to the JV girls because they played like crap. We trailed 11–2 after the first quarter and 30–5 at halftime. Yeesh. Obviously not much went right for our girls in that first half. L scored all five of our points but she balanced that with three turnovers, two of them just brutal throw it to no one passes against the press.[1]

The Greyhounds looked like a team that actually practices offense as a JV team. Their girls cut and screened with purpose while our girls just kind of meandered around.

The second half was a little better. We out-scored the other CHS 21–18. I can’t say we did anything super great. Well, one thing went well: L got pissed off and decided to drive the ball. She was nearly perfect shooting in the second half, connecting on four of five shots and making two free throws. She finished with 15 points – a new career high – playing all 28 minutes, going 6–9 from the field and a perfect 3–3 from the line, adding a rebound, a steal, and five total turnovers. Carmel has a scoreboard that shows the points and fouls for every player on the court. It was pretty cool to see her with the game’s highest scoring total. Since I’m an idiot I didn’t get a picture of it before they wiped it out for the varsity game.

Her two long jumpers – both in the first half – were bad misses so I wouldn’t say she’s suddenly fixed her shot, but it was great to see her cleanly swish all three free throws.

Our good friends Mr. and Mrs. Coach H came to watch L play, which was nice of them and fun to briefly catch up.

The loss snapped a five-game winning streak for the JV Irish.

The varsity game was strange. Both teams were patient on offense creating lots of long, slow possessions. The game was tied 4-all after the first quarter, the Greyhounds up 15–11 at the half, then by ten at the end of the third quarter. It was old school, deliberate basketball. The lead was still ten as we moved into the final minute when our 6’1” senior center hit her first 3 of the year. Moments later she hit another one. Those two 3s and an exchange of free throws cut the final margin to a much more respectable four points. We never had the ball with a chance to tie or go ahead, but it was nice to see the girls keep playing until the final whistle on a frustrating night.

Thursday night we closed out the regular season against Columbus East. We had heard both their JV and varsity teams were bad, so settled in for what we hoped were two easy wins.

Jinx!

We jumped out 8–2 in the JV game. L was giving their guards fits, grabbing two steals and forcing three other turnovers in the first seven minutes.

Then CE switched to a zone and proceeded to ruin the game. Our girls had no idea what to do. The game was tied at 11 at halftime, we trailed by three going into the fourth quarter, and fell behind by seven a few minutes later. The dads that sit together were grumbling about playing zone in a JV game, but the biggest factor was CE kept hitting timely 3s where our girls weren’t even looking to take open shots.[2]

Something flipped, though, and we hit a couple threes, and closed the quarter on a big run to force overtime.

Great, overtime in a JV game, just what everyone in the gym wanted. Especially on senior night when the varsity game will already be delayed for festivities celebrating the seniors.

We got the lead early in OT and hung on despite missing about 100 free throws to win 39–37. Aside from that defensive flurry early, L didn’t do much. She shot just 1–4 from the field and 1–3 from the line to finish with three points, an assist, two steals, and two turnovers. A bit of a bummer end to her season after playing so well against Carmel. The JV team finished the season 11–12.

On to varsity, where we were missing a starter due to illness. With the JV game being so close and their starters having to play the entire game – L subbed out briefly once – that meant each of the dual-rostered players only had one quarter left to play. Fortunately the varsity six held their own and we only had to sub in girls for brief spells. L gave the starting point guard two different one-minute breaks but didn’t tick any scorebook boxes. Varsity won 40–26 to finish the year at 12–11. Oh, the CE varsity played zone just a handful of possessions, which annoyed our dad group even more.

The lead-up to sectionals has been dicey. The girl who was sick last week remained sick into this week, although she was back at practice Tuesday. Our best inside player got the flu and missed Monday’s practice. Who knows if either/both of them will be at full strength tonight. We’ll need them.

The first opponent is #9 Lawrence North. They are 17–5 on the season against the toughest schedule in the state. They’ve lost to the #1 team twice by a combined five points. Last year they fell to the eventual state champions in the semi-state championship game.

In the local paper’s breakdown of our sectional, the writer just assumed that LN will win and pushed them into the semis against that #1 squad without even mentioning they had to play CHS first. Our coach did not like that and let our girls know about it. I would love if that lit a fire under them and they came out and played the games of their lives to pull the upset. I’m not saying it’s not possible, but I’m not going to spend much energy considering it. I’ve watched them play 23 times and they’ve yet to stay close to a good team. Who knows, maybe LN is dealing with illness and that levels the playing field a little. We are the sectional hosts; perhaps home court will mean something.

I’ll let you know what happens tomorrow.

As we had a pretty quiet weekend and KU plays tonight, I’m going to flip my normal routine and cover high school hoops today.

Two more games last week – both wins for JV and varsity – but L was a little off.

In Tuesday’s practice she rolled her troublesome ankle when she landed on a teammate’s foot. She complained about it when I picked her up, but later in the evening and Wednesday morning seemed to be walking normally so I didn’t put too much worry into it.

After their game Wednesday the trainer told us that L was still experiencing pain, and that she had switched L from the brace she normally wears into a heavy wrap. She said they would do some rehab in practice the next two days but she wasn’t super worried about it.

Then Friday after practice the trainer texted me saying L’s pain hadn’t decreased but she also wasn’t seeing any evidence of a serious sprain. She added for Saturday’s games she would tape the ankle.

She didn’t seem slow or tentative to me in games, although she complained after each about how bad she played. She was on the court all but 15 seconds of the JV game Wednesday so it wasn’t forcing her to the bench.

In that Wednesday game we faced Avon, a west-side school whose varsity team was rated slightly higher than ours in the computer rankings. Their JV team was almost all sophomores and juniors, and that showed. They were tougher and smarter than us. AHS held a lead most of the game, but couldn’t stretch the lead beyond a basket or two.

This was a triple-header night, so the freshman teams were playing at the same time as JV in the upstairs gym. Our JV also had a girl who was out sick and began with only seven players on the bench. That became problematic when one of our starters hit the ground hard and had to come out with a head injury.[1] At halftime two girls came running down from the freshman game to join JV. This was an important development.[2]

Late in the fourth quarter we finally grabbed the lead, taking it on two free throws by one of the girls who came down from the freshman game. We were up three with about six seconds left when we let AHS’ one shooter get wide open. She swished a 3 to tie the game. We called time out and the JV coach lit into our girls, “What happened last week? What did we talk about all week?” referring to varsity not covering the shooter in City tournament championship game.

I admit, I actually started laughing, because I said the same thing as the ball dropped through the net. “Only girl that has hit a 3 the entire game and no one is within 10 feet of her?!?!” Like a lot of JV teams, we tend to get confused about who is guarding who, especially on breaks.

The girls shook it off, though. After the time out we ran a great inbounds play. That same girl who hit the free throws moments earlier took off long, grabbed a perfect pass, and laid the ball in to give us the lead. AHS couldn’t get a shot off before the final buzzer and we won by two.

L was 3–9 (0–2) for six points with 2 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 turnovers.

Later she dressed but did not play in the varsity game, which was also a two-point Irish win.

Saturday was another triple header night, this time against the school our varsity coach attended back in the day. We would not normally play them – they are from up near Ft. Wayne – but she added them to the schedule last year so she could take the team to her hometown every other year. The HN varsity was ranked two spots ahead of us in the computer rankings. Neither game was close.

The JV game started with us up 11–1 after the first quarter. The girls held HNHS to a single field goal until late in the fourth quarter. The Vikings did shoot like 80% from the line, though. The dad I sit by and I were joking they should just drive and try to get fouled since that seemed to be the only way they could score. The Irish won 37–14. I believe ten of those 14 points were free throws.

L was 2–4 (0–1) for four points, with 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers in three quarters. I swear she hasn’t hit a shot from outside five feet in a month.

Varsity won by 26. We led comfortably the entire game but couldn’t put it away until the final minutes, so L and the other swing players only got in for the final minute.

Varsity is now 11–10. After five straight wins, JV is 10–11. The regular season wraps up with games Tuesday and Thursday.

L spent almost all of Sunday at CHS. The team helped out with a CYO jamboree for most of the afternoon, then stuck around to watch the state tournament brackets come out.

I’m pleased to report that the Indiana high school pairings show is even more maddening than how CBS doles out the NCAA bracket every March.

The show started with the hosts talking about absolute nonsense for a good two minutes before they broke for commercials. Then they interviewed the state athletic commissioner for about five minutes. Making this segment more infuriating was that his microphone wasn’t working properly so you could barely hear whatever he was saying. After each commercial break they showed pictures of teams watching around the state. One of the hosts, who is an older gentleman, commented on how comfortable some of the furniture teams were sitting in looked, or how nice some of the coaches’ houses were.

I was not a fan of how this was all playing out.

When it was finally time for them to unveil the 60-some sectional brackets, they started in class 1A and worked their way up to 4A, where CHS plays. Rather than just rip through them, they analyzed each bracket as they revealed it. There were commercial breaks in the middle of each class segment, and they brought in an assistant state commissioner for an interview between classes 2A and 3A.

The show started at 5:00. We finally saw Cathedral’s bracket at 6:40. At least I could keep one eye on football during all of this.

As a reminder, Indiana high school sports do not seed their playoff brackets, so they are always dumb. In Cathedral’s sectional, the #5 and #6 teams in the entire state should meet in the semifinals. Unfortunately CHS has to play the #6 team in the quarters. Meanwhile the #335 team in the state gets an opening round bye.

If common sense prevailed and the computer ratings were used to make the bracket, #65 CHS would be playing #51 North Central with the winner moving on to play #6, while #5 would be working through the opposite half of the sectional.

Despite how much Indiana politicians love to talk about common sense, it is clearly lacking amongst Hoosiers, at least when it comes to high school sports.

A super busy week with a very exciting ending as L and her teammates played in the Indianapolis City tournament.

Tournament rules allowed for three swing players who were eligible for both JV and varsity games. These players had to be named before the tournament and could not change from game-to-game. L was one of Cathedral’s, which was cool, but it also limited her minutes for the week.

In Tuesday’s quarterfinals, the JV squad won 57–3, giving up just three free throws.[1] L had 8 points on 4–7 shooting with one assist in 11 minutes. Later, in the varsity game, she chipped-in two points, two rebounds, and two steals during 13, running clock, second half minutes in a 61–19 win.

Thursday was another easy win for JV, this time 57–21. L played about 12 minutes taking, and making, just one shot while grabbing two more steals.

I think the plan was to play her and the other swing players heavy minutes in the varsity game to rest the starters for Friday’s final. But Covenant Christian had other ideas. They packed a zone around our inside players, our perimeter girls could not buy a 3, and the team went a collective 4–19 from the free throw line. Meanwhile CC was running patient offense and hit some big shots. They held the lead until midway through the fourth quarter when we finally went on a nice run to take control. The game very much had a higher seed trailing a lower seed in March vibe, with that extra level of dumb nervousness. CC banked in a three at the final horn to cut the final margin to seven. L did not get off the bench in the 39–32 win.

That all led up to Friday’s finals, both against Bishop Chatard. Remember, the Irish beat the Trojans by two in JV and six in varsity just two weeks ago.

The JV game started slow. We were down 9–8 at the end of the first quarter after Chatard hit a 3 as time expired. The second quarter was a slog, and we led 12–11 at the break.

The key to the first half was L getting two fouls in the first four minutes of the game and sitting for about eight minutes of game time before re-entering. Then she got her third foul just before halftime and had to sit again.

She was back on the court to start the third quarter. We scored to go up three and BC answered with a 3 to tie at 14-all. On the next possession L put her head down, blew through the entire BC defense, and hit a tough layup to give us a lead we never relinquished.

One possession later the girl she was guarding drove deep into the lane and got L up in the air. I was already cussing, thinking she was about to pick up foul number four and return to the bench. But the BC girl went up soft, L cleanly blocked her shot, and the ball caromed off the shooter out of bounds. L yelled, pumped her fist, and pointed the CHS direction before the ref. Moments later she hit another tough shot after driving through the defense. BC called a timeout and she screamed all the way to the bench.

Homegirl was fired up.

With time running out in the quarter L kicked to a teammate behind the arc, and she swished a 3 as the horn sounded. Thirteen point lead going into the final period.

Two weeks ago the Irish led by nine going into the final period, then L sat to save minutes for varsity and we had to hit some big free throws to win.

No problem closing things out Friday. L played the entire quarter. CHS ran patient offense, looking to burn clock. BC made a couple mini-runs but never got closer than nine.

Final score, 35–22 CHS.

Indianapolis JV City champs!

After shaking hands with BC, the CHS girls ran to the middle of the court and piled on each other before receiving the championship trophy. Sadly the nets were saved for the winners of the varsity game.

L didn’t have great stats: four points on those two layups – the only shots she took – two rebounds, that one assist, the big block, and two turnovers. But she controlled the game when she was on the court. Both of those layups were “Fuck you, get out of my way” plays against sophomores.[2] She was terrific on defense, containing whichever of BC’s guards she matched up with. They ditched their pressure in the second half because she kept solving it. And even with her not looking to score, our offense was much smoother when she was running it. There was always an outlet to get the ball to when things got dicey. She played confidently and poised.

Another huge factor was three girls who usually play kind of casual were all locked in during the second half. They grabbed seemingly every offensive rebound. They made tough shots inside. They played calmer than they normally do. L’s BC friend K blocked five shots in the first half. Our girls adjusted and avoided the blocks while racking up four fouls on K as they out-fought her in the paint. L was the steadying force, but those three girls were the engine that powered the win.

Later, on our way home, L told us she almost didn’t play. She nearly threw up, felt faint, and had a nosebleed between school and the game. We knew she had an illness was coming on,[3] but had no idea it was that bad. Without my prompting she said, “This was my Michael Jordan Flu Game.” I pointed out she scored 34 points fewer than MJ, but other than that, she did have a huge impact on the outcome and it was good she decided to tough it out and play.

The varsity game seemed headed towards a similar final margin before some late drama kicked in. BC started the game awesome, leading by double figures much of the first half. Our girls struggled with the BC zone and when we got open shots just couldn’t hit them. There was a sequence where the Trojans hit a shot, we had a 3 circle the rim and spin out, they hit another shot, we had a short jumper spin out, they hit two free throws, and we air-balled a 3. We only had nine points at halftime. At one point we trailed by 15.

CHS made a run after the break and got the lead down to six before it ballooned back up to 13. We chipped away again and trailed by eight going into the fourth. Then a 10–0 run gave us the lead and the final three minutes were back-and-forth.

Regulation ended with the teams tied sending the game to overtime, which was epic.

The entire extra period was back-and-forth. Trailing by one, BC missed a makable layup with under ten seconds left. We grabbed the rebound and got fouled, but had to inbound. We were on the verge of getting a five second call when BC was whistled for grabbing our best player. This was their fifth foul so we finally went to the line. The first shot hit front and back iron before rimming out. The second crawled in. Up two with 4.9 seconds left.

After a timeout, BC got the ball in, raced up the middle of the court, and found a girl wide open on the left wing who swished a 3 at the buzzer for the win. The Chatard people went nuts, the CHS players were in tears, us Irish fans stood in stunned silence. So, so close. That was a clutch ass shot.

The last 15 or so game minutes were fantastic. CHS made an amazing comeback, but the missed free throw and leaving the shooter were massive mistakes. BC had the game comfortably in hand and did well to recover after giving it all back. If you were a neutral it would have been an awesome way to spend a miserably cold, rainy evening.

Afterward L was pissed despite not playing in the varsity game. I think she knew this was her best shot to win a varsity city title given who we lose this year and who BC has coming back. She was also annoyed that since varsity lost, JV didn’t get to truly celebrate their win. BC’s entire roster got to cut down nets while the CHS JV got a trophy.

There are just two weeks left in the regular season. CHS has two games this week and two next. We, and the entire state, find out who we play in sectionals this coming Sunday.