Reno Ballers vs. YBA Xtreme
On Saturday November 6, 2010 the YBA Xtreme 8th grade team squared off against the Reno Ballers in a closely contested game that saw Reno edging away in the end. The game got off to a furious pace with both teams running the floor and playing an up tempo game in the early minutes. Bret lead YBA early attacking the basket and either scoring or making the extra pass to Tanner, Parker or Ishkan for perimeter shots or dumping it inside to Josh for easy transition baskets. YBA as a team passed the ball brilliantly at times in the first half but sometimes passed up good shots too. In addition, YBA was aggressive attacking the offensive glass lead by Parker and Josh and was able to capitalize either getting to the free throw line or getting put backs for baskets. The momentum of the game swung in Reno’s favor early in the second quarter when YBA had trouble solving Reno’s full court pressure but YBA came back to close the deficit to 6 even 4 several times in the second half. In the end, Reno’s impressive outside perimeter shooting off some untimely YBA turnovers gave them the edge and allowed them to ultimately keep the momentum in their favor. YBA saw solid performances off the bench on the perimeter from Gavin, Austin, and Max and with Lance and Garret providing some solid minutes on the interior. YBA played a solid game for about 20 of the 27 minutes and was somewhat indifferent the other 7 minutes. Still with several chances to attain the lead the difference in the game came down to YBA’s conditioning, missed free throws late in the game, lapses on defense both lack of on the ball pressure and rebounding the ball and as the game wore on settling for quick outside perimeter shots that were not falling when YBA had a solid mismatch inside with Josh. But overall YBA showed some heart for its first game together and some impressive individual performances at times and now needs to work toward recognizing when to pass and when to take a shot along with playing more cohesively as a team.
Davis Hotshots vs. YBA Xtreme
In their second game on Saturday November 6, 2010 the YBA Xtreme 8th grade team squared off against the Davis Hotshots. The tip off was just minutes after game 1 so conditioning was definitely a factor in this game and some players were not able to stay for this game but frankly this one got away as Davis was a weaker team than YBA. Perhaps a bit of a let down performance coming off a hard fought loss in game one which could be understandable. However, as is emphasized in practice fatigue in life as in basketball calls for an entire team effort and for really focusing on the fundamentals of the game. The fundamentals in this case being passing the ball around for high percentage shots (more leg bend than normal on your shots and free throws) and not settling for quick outside shots as we have no legs, not turning the ball over, playing solid team defense with a real emphasis on help and recover defense since everyone is tired and rebounding the ball and not giving up second and third and sometimes fourth chance baskets to the opponent as YBA did. YBA did a solid job with its help defense early in the game but the recover piece was missing late in the game and too many easy transition baskets were allowed. In addition, the Hotshots while not an overly aggressive or quite frankly athletically gifted team did shoot the ball effectively outside an element helped likely by YBA’s decreasing defensive pressure as the game wore on and the Hotshots increased their lead with their solid perimeter shooting while keeping momentum on their side by hitting key free throws throughout the second half. Overall YBA played pretty hard despite being physically exhausted and Bret, Tanner and Parker played respectfully on the offensive end with Josh continuing to impress on the interior. In the end, YBA simply did not execute on the offensive end and applied very little defensive pressure in the second half of this game while continuously failing to notice the fifth player on the opponent was already at the offensive end resulting in several uncontested lay ups for Davis. As in the first game some impressive individual performances were turned in at times and as a team YBA needs to show up to practice this week forget about last weekend and move forward focusing on conditioning, ball handling, recognizing when to pass and when to take a shot and playing intense ball pressure team defense for 27 minutes or in other words the entire game not just 20 minutes. That said a solid start overall.
Deloe Shively
