Wescare Knights 42 – Arborbrook Falcons 38
The Falcons middle school fell a little short of their 2nd victory of the season by dropping a heart breaker to the Wescare Knights in overtime. We teach the players at every practice that in life as well as basketball you must learn to adapt to every situation. Things happen that we don’t plan for and we need to react. How we react is what defines our character. I am very proud of all the players that took the floor yesterday. They lost on the scoreboard but won in every other way possible. The coaches knew going into the game that playing with only seven players was very risky. We were missing both our big men and one of our little guys. We have never been in foul trouble so we felt confident that we could execute our game plan even though it required superb conditioning. Oh, how wrong we were.
The game started with a bang as the Falcons came out with a full court press and opened up an 11-3 first quarter lead. The Wescare Knights had trouble with our press while Ryan Brown and Caleb Farmer scored from the outside. This team had lacked aggression on defense but not this night. With the lead came fouls as Ryan and Joel VanDusen both hit the bench early with a pair of fouls. Coach had to switch game plans and go back to the zone defense to protect our players in foul trouble. The Knights kicked the ball inside to their big man in the second quarter who scored almost all their points. Matthew Pedemonte and Kyle Boutress picked up their second fouls and Joel picked up his third. The defense stayed aggressive but had a difficult time with four of our seven players in early foul trouble. We were learning to adapt to playing with fouls, something you cannot practice. Ryan and Caleb kept us in the game with their outside shooting and the half ended with the scored tied at 19-19.
The Falcons fell behind in the third quarter with the foul situation growing. Caleb Farmer picked up two fouls and Matthew Pedemonte picked up his third. However, the Falcons were still in the game and only trailed by a score of 27-24 heading into the fourth quarter. It was time to go back to the press and take their big guy out of the game. The press had immediate effects as the Falcons quickly caught the Knights and then took a 2 point lead. With 3 minutes left in the game, Matthew had 4 fouls, Caleb had 4 fouls, Joel had 4 fouls, Kyle had 3 fouls, and Ryan had 3 fouls. I told the coach it looked like we could finish this game with only 4 players on the court. Coach said, “we can play with four.” We held a 2 point lead until the last 20 seconds of the game when Wescare tied the game with an off balance shot that rolled around the rim and went in. The game ended just as it had begun, with the score tied. Our players were pumped up and even though they had looked tired at the end of the game they appeared to be ready to go. They didn’t know it, but they were living on adrenalin. We fell behind by 3 but Ryan Brown hit one more key basket and we now trailed by only one. We went down by 3 once again when Caleb Farmer made the first of two free throws just before fouling out. The Knights would add a couple of more free throws and win the game by 4 points, their largest margin of the game. The players gave everything had, they held nothing back. You can’t ask for more than that. They represented themselves, their parents, and their school very well. They played to the glory of God. This game will prove to be another great coaching tool as we learn how to win. (on the scoreboard) It is another step in the right direction. To quote D.J. MacHale, author of the Pendragon series, “and so we go.”
FOR THE RECORD: The Arborbrook fans were once again tremendous. The stamping on the bleachers was cool. It was loud. The atmosphere was awesome. Thank you, your support means everything to the coaches and the players.
Ryan Brown played a tremendous game from start to finish. Ryan is starting to learn that he can play this game. Someday he will realize how good he can actually be. His confidence grows every game and he has become our “go to” guy. Ryan scored 21 points, pulled down 13 rebounds, and came up with 3 steals.
Caleb Farmer was asked to step down from the high scool team and play with guys his own age for this one game. Caleb responded with the best game he has ever played. Caleb hit 4 shots from outside the free throw line which I want him to carry over to the other team. Caleb played well on both ends of the court scoring 11 points with 5 rebounds and 5 steals. Caleb also chipped in with 3 assists.
Kyle Boutross was shooting in hard luck the last game and a half. His shot just would not drop. He played hard and was one of the most aggressive players on the floor and then he made a couple of shots and his confidence started to come back. Kyle is hard to guard and has the potential to become unstoppable with his speed and ball handling ability. Kyle scored 5 points, pulled down 15 rebounds, had 1 steal and 2 assists.
Joel VanDusen is actually the team leader for the middle school. Joel listens to every thing the coaches say. I believe the day will come when Joel can be a tremendous coach in his own right. Joel only scored one point but part of that was because of foul trouble. Joel was a presence on the floor and played in Caleb Robinson’s position the entire game. Joel did a great job. Joel grabbed 7 rebounds to go along with 1 steal and 3 assists.
Matthew Pedemonte did not score but is our defensive specialist. Matthew is a superb athlete who is still learning to gain confidence in his shot. Matthew will always be one of the fastest players on the court and as he learns how to use that speed can develop into a great scorer. He has the quickest hands on the team. Matthew came up with 8 rebounds, 3 steals, and 3 assists. Matthew has also been asked to play four different positions.
Jonathan Spitler and Conor Murdock are both young and the two smallest players on the court. They were only half as big as some of the players they were attempting to guard. They both give us quality minutes when they get the opportunity to play. They have great attitudes and hustle in practice. They need to grow aand learn to shoot free throws without jumping.
We shot 21 free throws. We made 4.
