Monday

Umpqua 69 Clackamas 72

Just finished watching the tape of Saturday's loss to Clackamas for the fourth time (I've watched the last five minutes of the game at least a dozen times) and it was just as painful as watching it in person. Maybe it was because we had already beaten them twice, (once by the score of 107-74) but we didn't play with anywhere near the amount of focus and intensity that we needed to beat a good team. I wish I could say that I was surprised but unfortunately I'm not. We didn't practice very well on either Thursday or Friday and in our pregame warmups we just didn't have the spark that we usually have. For decades coaches have preached that you play like you practice and that really is true. . . . .at least for us it was.

Clackamas has two very good perimeter players and our plan was to deny them the ball and see if they could beat us inside. It worked the first two times we played and I was confidant that it would work a third time as well. But instead of denying them the ball, we let the two scorers catch the ball on the wings a combined 43 times and they were able to make some good things happen as well as hit 9 threes.

But what was very surprising and equally disappointing was our lack of execution in crunch time. Five different times, when we absolutely needed to score and/or had a definite mismatch, we called for a special play and we didn't execute any of them correctly. I can't imagine any team working on end of the game situations more than we do and so I was truly shocked when we didn't get it done.

Back to the videotape one more time. If I can find just one more thing that will help make us better then the lack of sleep and sore eyes will be well worth it. Besides, I'm hoping that if I watch the tape enough times, just once it will end differently.

1 comment:

bhaines said...

I was also really bummed when I heard about the loss and kept checking the stats to see what happened. I know the girls are also devestated as Kayla called me after that game crying, as much about the loss as her hurt ankle.
The Riverhawks need to learn from it and then put it behind them. This team should be proud of what they have accomplished as well as games they will go forward and succeed in. There is a ton of heart and desire on this team and this is just a little glitch in the road. Learn from the loss in a possitive manner and it will pay off in the end.
Sincerely,
Seattle Mom

P.S. Love the blog as it gives me another way to check in on the team.