by CoachC » Wed Mar 06, 2013 12:56 pm
Despite their record and a point differential of -18, the Jaguars may well be the best team we've played thus far. Two of their losses have been to ranked opponents on the road, and their lone win and only previous home game was against Mississippi St. out of the SEC. They have no one scoring in double figures. We'll try to fix that for them.
We limit the TOs to 5 again in the first half, but still allow the opposition to shoot 54% from the field. Sheals picked up his 3rd foul with about a minute to go in the half as well.
In the second half we will try to shorten up the bench.
At the half we trail 31-37
At 16:26 they pick up their 7th team foul and we'll be shooting 1 and 1 the rest of the way. They now have 4 guys with 3 fouls and are getting into significant foul trouble. We are still down by 6 but could this be the break we've been looking for?
We take our first lead of the game at 8:47 on a 3 point play by Josh Brown. We are in the double bonus now....I start looking for my blanket and realized I left it in the locker room and bark at the student manager to run back and get it.
We lead 69-65 with Bonney at the line for 2 at the 3:56 media timeout. I take an antacid and gather the team around me. As Bonney goes to the line, I start chomping away at the blanket. Bonney splits the two free throws but we get another stop and call timeout with 3:07. Why is the clock not moving? I draw up a play for Brown to try to get him to the line. He drives the baseline and hits the shot, but it's taken away. Travelling. I thought he got shoved from behind but the ref doesn't see it that way. We need another stop. They hit a 3, Lemeke misses a jumper. At 2:22 ball dribbles out of bounds at their end of the court. They say we touched it last. Playing defense with 19 on the shot clock. They get a 3 point play at 2:06 and we are down 1. Why is the clock moving so fast? I call another TO. We'll try to clear out for Woods. He misses. They turn it over. Ball back down 1 with 1:33. Brown drives down the lane and scores. Up 1 with 1:07. Hart dunks at the other end. Minute to go, down 1, trying to save our last time out. Evans drives and scores. Playing defense up 1. They call TO with 56 seconds. They need to fix this clock, it's moving too slow. They misses, the tip misses....loose ball out of bounds of a Jaguar hand! Our ball 2 seconds difference between shot clock and game clock. Woods scores with 23 seconds to go. The clock is going backwards now, damn thing! We're in a 1-3-1 hoping to avoid the 3 point shot. Donovan hits a 3 to tie at :17. WHY IS THE DAMNED CLOCK MOVING SO FAST? We take our final TO at :08. They'll be looking for Woods or Brown. We call Evans number. C'mon! Lemeke throws it into the hands of a defender, but they turn it back over with :02. Nothing we can do but heave it from 3/4 court. 76-76 OVERTIME.....AAAAAAAARGH!. I chew a hole through the blanket and switch to the other end.
OT we get the tip but both teams miss on their first possessions. Brown takes it to the rim, we're up 2. Evans gets a steal out of the Amoeba! Lemeke looks to fast break but wisely pulls it back out. Williams scores in the post! 80-76 3:40 to go. Damn the clock! They score, back to a 2 point lead. Woods misses, we need a stop. They score again. 80-80 2:48 clock running. Brown drives to the rim! 82-80 2:25.. wasn't the clock at 2:25 5 minutes ago???? They throw it away! Brown is gassed. Sheals in with 4 fouls to give him a quick breather. Woods misses a 3, but Bonney grabs the board and we reload. Woods nails an 18 foot jumper 84-80 1:43. They miss, ball loose...team rebound....OURS! 1:30.. i yell at them to use some clock. Woods travels 1:19...AARGH! They miss a 3 but get a putback...84-82 0:55 Woods misses at :41.....they use their last time out at :38... we have to get a stop.. Brown back. I put Evans on Donovan..make sure to let everyone know to not let him alone beyond the arc. They miss in the post and drop the rebound out of bounds! :28 to go. Are they measuring this game in days??? We insert 3 guards Evans and Williams. Yell at them to watch for the pressure! Lemeke fouled at :25. Lemeke hits the first. Need the 2nd for a 2 possession game. He misses! aaargh. Woods fouls at :18...not a bad play. They are still in the 1-1. Yell at them to be ready to rebound. They hit both freethrows. 85-84 with :18. Feeney fouled at :15... we need both of these. Feeney misses the first! AAAAAAAAARGH! Hits the 2nd. Brown back for Feeney... c'mon guys get me one more stop. They tie at :04.. we can't get back in time to get a shot off.... DOUBLE OVERTIME! Are you freakin' kidding me? At least we saved our TO from the first one.
2nd OT 86-86
They get the tip, but miss. West scores on the baseline 88-86....West steals out of the Amoeba! Feeley hits a huge 3! 91-86....stops stops stops....foul on Feeley.. they'll be in the double bonus after this. They hit both freethrows..91-88 Freeley misses a 3, Bonney rebounds, Brown has it stripped....they score on the runout, back to a 1 point game. I use a TO at 3:11. Call for Brown, he misses, tips it once, twice.. won't go...they missed a call and i let them now...now we badly need a stop.....Great defense! We make them use the whole shot clock and they miss a difficult shot as it ran out. Brown rebounds 91-90 2:14 Woods fouled at 2:03. It's about time they saw one! They've been in foul trouble for the last 24 minutes and still haven't fouled anyone out. Woods splits the freethrows 92-90...They hit a 3 at 1:38.. down 1.........woods throws it away, they score on a runout...down 3....Use my last time out at 1:10 . We'll try to get a 3 for Feeley. He couldn't get free.. Bonney misses a short jumper but Brown tips it in....94-95 at 0:52 they score, 94-97. Feeley misses a 3 at :25.. have to foul. Lemeke hits a 3 at :12...we're trying to foul....foul finally comes at :05... with no time outs it'll take a miracle now.. if they hit both it's over. Donovan hits the first...and makes the 2nd for the dagger. Lemeke jets down the court and hits another 3 at :02, and that's it..... such a heartbreaker...
we lose 101-102 in double overtime.
I expect the guys to be depressed in the locker room but they aren't.. they are smiling....exhausted, but smiling. They say there are no morale victories, and that is probably true... but there is absolutely no doubt that the last 30 minutes of this game is the best we've played all season. Shortening up the bench made a difference. They played worlds better at both ends of the floor after intermission.
For the game:
Rebounding: 40-41, but 17-10 on the offensive boards..offensive rebounding is something we are proving to be pretty good at.
A/to; 23-13 (EXCELLENT!) 24-16 for them
fg: 46% but we shot it very well after intermission...They shoot 50.6 for the game, but until the 2nd OT we were getting lots of stops in the 2nd half
They had 5 more ft attempts with the intentional fouls late in the 2nd OT....mainly because the officials decided to let them play once we got into the early bonus (of course!). We should have been at the line a lot more, but that's not our guys fault.
Neither team shot 3s well until they had to, but we had 5 more than they did...theirs ONLY came when they desperately needed them...and that's on us. We still have to learn to get out on the 3 point shooters when we KNOW it's coming. On a positive note, we are at least learning to not try to make a living beyond the arc.
Points in the paint: 38-44
2nd chance points: 20-10...gotta like that
fastbreak points: 24-10...much much better, but we still only had 7 steals in 50 minutes.
We bumped the lead to 5 twice in regulation and the 2nd OT, but we just couldn't get any separation. Put that on these kids not being used to having a lead PERIOD.
We finally got some real contributions off the bench and some balanced scoring for the first time this season. We had 5 guys in double figures, and three more who were close.
Woods had 21 pts, 6reb and played 40 mins
Brown had 19, 10 for his first career double double in 31 mins (it's easy to forget he's still a freshman..he doesn't usualy play like one)
Lemeke had 13pts, 6 asts
Evans 14 pts, 3asts, 3 stls
Feeney 10 pts, 6 asts, and only 1 to! Easily his best game of the year off the bench
Bonney had 9pts, 7rebs off the bench
Williams had 8pts, 7rebs
and West scored 7 quick points at the end of regulation when we were having to give Evans a breather.
Only Sheals and Gilchrist were of little factor in this game. In Sheals case it was because of foul trouble...4 fouls in 9 minutes. And in Gilchrist's case it was because he did nothing in 9 minutes and never played after intermission.
I'll take the effort the other 8 guys gave us every night and fully intend to use a shorter bench from now on. Guys who don't contribute are going to find themselves not contributing while sitting because the guys that do contribute are going to be playing.
a heart-breaking 101-102 loss in 2ble OT.. but guess what? the guys have me smiling now too. I pray that this is a turning point for us. These kids badly need, and now...DESERVE a win.