Faith Christian 62 – Arborbrook Falcons 31
Looking at the final score, you could jump to the conclusion that this was a blow out that wasn’t much fun for the fans or the team. You would be wrong. The Falcons turned a corner last night and may never look back. We will still lose many more games and some by a large margin but the players learned something about themselves. They pushed themselves farther than they have ever gone and came away successful. I am not sure I have the words to describe how last night’s events unfolded but let me set the scene.
Murphy’s Law started early when Coach and three of his children came down with the flu. Coach would not be at the game. My first thought was: “that’s not good.” I figured the players and I would work it out as we learn to adapt to any situation. We arrived at the gym and I got my first look at our opponents. They had only 6 players, 4 seniors and 2 juniors. All very tall and from all indications, very strong. Of course out team is 7th, 8th, and 9th graders and rather skinny and all the same size. We were not going to match up well. We were going to lose 3-5 inches at every position and probably be pushed around under the boards. I actually wondered if we would have more shots blocked than turnovers. Our plan was for Trey Barnes to open the game by knocking down a 3 pointer and serve notice that we didn’t care how big they were. Three minutes before game time, Trey came down on the foot of another player and sprained his ankle. There is no way he could play in this game and probably the next several games. Ok, we still had 2 minutes to come up with a new game plan. Insert pregame team meeting: Faith Christian had a player who was probably 6′7 and weighed 280 pounds. No one wanted to jump center so the team voted. They wanted Caleb Farmer. I veto’d the vote and selected Daniel Zangmeister, much to Daniel’s suprise. I told them it didn’t matter, we weren’t going to win the tip anyway. Back to the game: Caleb Robinson would start in Trey’s place and Daniel wondered if Caleb R. could jump center now that he was in the game. I looked at Caleb Farmer and wondered what kind of sense of humor they would have. I looked at the big guy and realized he scared me so I sent Caleb Robinson into the lion’s den. We lost the tip. Five seconds later the referee stopped the game and brought Mitch Moore over to the sideline. Mitch has an injured finger on his shooting hand and wears a small splint on it. The referee insisted his fingers should be taped together or Mitch would not be able to play. He did not want Mitch to injure one of the opposing giants. Of course it would now be difficult for Mitch to shoot, dribble, pass and possibly even catch the ball. About this time I had lost all sympathy for my son. You should all be aware of our game plan. They were bigger, stronger, and faster but I knew we were in better shape. We were going to make them run and run and run until they couldn’t breathe. We were going to get them in foul trouble. The referees looked at the thin benches and decided not to call a tight game, probably the right decision but what a bummer. There’s never a whistle happy ref around when you need one.
The game started and we surprised them by putting on a full court man to man press. On offense and we had five straight turnovers on lazy passes which resulted in five straight fast break baskets by the opposition. They were playing right into our hands and didn’t even know it. Josh Black knocked down a couple of free throws otherwise all our other shots were blocked and we were down 18-2 halfway through the first quarter. But, there’s always a but. They were just starting to breathe a little hard. By the middle of the second quarter everything changed. We were down by 26 points and suddenly started to get rebounds. We started to move around them on offense. They started to pile up turnovers. We still had a difficult time scoring but a little light had gone on in everyone’s head. We trailed 42-13 at halftime and I felt like we had just taken the lead. The players were excited and we had a great half time talk. They knew they could play with these guys, they knew thay were in better shape, and they knew they could run them into the ground. We knew we couldn’t win the game but we were starting over. It was 0-0 and we couldn’t wait to take the court.
We didn’t win the second half (20-18) but it was something to see. Faith Christian was tired and if looks could kill none of us would be here. They started to walk down the floor and didn’t care if we went buy them. We grabbed rebounds and every loose ball. We were in complete control of the game. Their big guy was good and could score whenever he wanted but he stopped hustling. The fourth quarter was David and Goliath. I was so proud of our players. We shook hands with Faith Christian at the end of the game. They were holding their sides and could barely talk. They were completely drained and were glad the game was over. Faith Christian scored the most points but lost the real game. We were out scored by 31 points yet our team, the Arborbrook Falcons, looked like thay had just won the NCAA championship. They accomplished something they did not think they could do. They were truely “David” for a night. If they can do it once, they can do it again but next time it might be something much more important than a basketball game.
For the Record: Josh Black lead the team in scoring with 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 6 steals. Mitch Moore made 5 of 6 free throws while playing basically one handed. Mitch also pulled down 10 rebounds with 5 steals. Daniel Zangmeister made our only 3 pointer of the game and scored 5 points. Daniel also had 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Caleb Robinson came up with 2 points on a shot from just inside the free throw line to go with 2 rebounds and 1 steal. Nathan Spitler scored his first 2 points of the year. Getting Nathan to shoot is difficult at best so this is a huge step for him. Nathan also had 2 rebounds and one assist. Caleb Farmer did not score but played his usual superb game at point guard and pushed the ball up the floor the entire game. Caleb had 2 rebounds and 5 steals. Forest Landa played outstanding defense the entire game and came away with 4 rebounds and 4 steals. Ryan Brown was inserted into the line up as a last minute replacement for Trey. Ryan pulled down 1 rebound in limited playing time. I also would like to think Joel VanDusen for helping me on the bench.
