Queens Grant 45 – Arborbrook 31
The Falcons (4-3) lost to Queens Grant for the second time this year. Queens Grant is a solid more experienced team which held us to only 15 points in our first meeting. This Falcon team has shown a tendacy to start slow and come on strong in the second half. We followed the same pattern this game and dug a hole which was a little too deep to climb out of. We did not play badly but we were a step slow in the first half and it allowed Queens Grant to score several easy baskets. We still need to learn to get back on defense immediately once our offensive play has ended and possession has changed. The Falcons fell behind 8-0 in the first quarter before Ryan Brown finally put us on the board. We came out tenative with only Ryan and Kyle Boutross taking shots. We went into the second quarter trailing 11-4. Queens Grant scored the first 4 points before Richard McFall banked in a shot to make it a 15-6 game. Kyle would take a couple of shots but that was it as the entire team had shut down offensively and relied on Ryan to carry us through. Ryan did a tremendous job and kept us in the game by scoring 10 of our 12 poionts on a couple of nice fade away jumpers. When Ryan is on a roll, he can be tough to stop. The Falcons trailed at half time 24-12. We only scored 15 points against this team in the first game so as tenative as we were, we had shown considerable improvemant. Coach stressed for the entire team to get involved in the offense, Ryan could not win this game by himself.
The third quarter started and we were suddenly clicking on all cylinders. Matthew Pedemonte scored. Joel VanDusen scored. Kyle Boutross scored. Caleb Robinson scored. We were playing our best defense of the game and now trailed 24-20. We traded baskets until the last 90 seconds of the quarter when we lost focus and quickly gave up 8 points straight points. The fourth quarter started with the Falcons on the short end of a 38-24 score. We could not get the lead below ten the rest of the game and both teams reserves played the last couple of minutes. The final score was 45-31. I thought going into the game that Queens Grant was basically a better team. They are a good solid team that does not make mistakes and takes advantage of their opponents errors. They handle the ball well and play solid defense. But I also think we can beat them. We played them even in the second half and outplayed them for almost the entire third quarter. The Falcon players still do not have confidence in their shot and consistantly look for someone else to score. They celebrate after making a basket instead of immediately playing defense. We forget how inexperienced this team really is because of the flashes of talent we see in every game. At this time, we do not have a true floor leader to weather the storm. This will all change in time. We will beat a team like Queens Grant and probably sooner than later.
For the Recod: Ryan Brown scored 15 points while pulling down 10 rebounds with 2 steals and one assist. Matthew Pedemonte waited until the second half to take his first shot then scored 6 points. Matthew also had 4 rebounds and one steal. Caleb Robinson made 2 free throws and scored 4 points. Caleb also grabbed 10 rebounds, had 1 steal and 3 very good assists. Caleb also blocked and altered a number of shots. Joel VanDusen scored 2 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Kyle Boutross scored 2 points and came up with 3 rebounds, 1 steal, and 4 assists. Richard McFall scored the final 2 points with one rebound. This is the first time this season that all five starters scored. We were also 2 for 10 from the free throw line.
