5th Grade White-April 30-May 1

After having the previous week off for Easter, the boys have been working hard at practice and were eager to avenge a previous loss to E-Time. E-Time was much taller and faster, nevertheless strong defensive play from Zack Book (5 steals, 2 Blocks) and Travis Ausmus (4 steals) kept it close and we only trailed by four at the half. In the second half our shots didn’t fall- theirs did-and the boys eventually lost 34-16.

With one loss under our belt, the team faced the Norcal Pharaohs and their 6-1 inch 230 pound 5th grade center? Yes 230 pound 5th grade center?? Our strategy was to get him in foul trouble. Harmon Khela (9 rebounds, 3 steals) and Zack Book (9 rebounds) were strong for three quarters keeping his minutes low and putting a body on him inside. Trailing 26-20 going into the fourth the 6-1 230 pound big man took over and scored 10 of their last 12 points and we fell 38-21. I was very proud of our effort against this beast. Harmon Khela had a great individual performance scoring 16 of our 21 points.

In our final game of the weekend we faced another much taller opponent the Rocktown Ballers A team. The Ballers came at us with a full court trapping press and jumped out to an early 14-10 first quarter lead. With two players in foul trouble and struggling to score, I looked down the bench and turned to Max Briggs for some instant offense. Max responded and took over the game offensively (18 points-8 for 15 field-2 for 2 line with 35 seconds left)-He dominated Rocktown and fearlessly got to the rack leading us to a 40-34 victory. This was a great team effort-Travis Ausmus had 3 assists, Noah Slate drew 2 charges and had 6 steals, and James Crump had 8 points,10 rebounds, and 5 steals.