8th Grade White-May 14-15

4^th Place

 (Note: Solid weekend- lack of rebounding and failure to convert lay ups and free throws hurt us)

YBA Xtreme White vs. Davis Hotshots  

Saturday 5/14/11 bright and early at 9:00 a.m. in Lincoln YBA squared off against and beat Davis 45-42.  YBA came out with good energy but failed to maintain a solid lead and did not finish strong.  Too many turnovers at the guard position allowed the opponent to hang around.  A lack of offensive and defensive rebounding also kept this one closer than it should have been and often our fundamentals were lacking at the offensive end with poor shot selection at times and failure to take our shots with square shoulders and proper footwork- two areas that really need to be addressed before high school try outs.  But talent got us by this first game and a win is a win.  Keys for improvement from this game: move the ball and stop dribbling up the sidelines, maintain perimeter spacing on offense, look for the screener who is rolling, screener roll more aggressively, boxing out on defense, and contesting all shots on defense, free throw %.

• Defense player of the game:  Josh O’neal on boards
• Offense player of the game:  Ish (running the team)  Matt, Jesse and Stephen
• Best Hustle: Team
• Best Attitude: Team

YBA Xtreme White vs. Reno 7th

Saturday 5/14/11 at 12:15 p.m. YBA squared off against and lost to Reno 51-48. This was an odd match up.  1 big man and a lot of smaller match ups. We again started slow failing to convert on the offense end and let them believe they could play with us.  We stayed ahead on talent but effort was lacking at the defensive end and our defensive rebounding was non existent as a team.  We did manage to come back by recognizing inside mismatches on Stephen and Jesse and while we did not finish as many as we should this was promising that we attacked the basket better from the post.  2^nd half Stephen shut down 40 who killed us first half and we turned it up on defensive but again too many missed lay ups, passes through our hands, and missed free throws cost this win sad because this is one we should have won.  Keys for improvement from this game: stop standing so much on offense and move the ball better,  offensive execution run our offense and catch the ball on pick and rolls,  be expecting passes from the guards, maintain perimeter spacing on offense, contest all jump shots, boxing out on defense, recognizing miss matches on offense and take your man to the rack.

• Defense player of the game:   Josh O’neal on #55    
• Offense player of the game: Ish (court leadership), Stephen and Jesse
• Best Hustle: Matt, Taylor, Ish
• Best Attitude: Team

YBA Xtreme White vs. IQ Ballers

Sunday 5/15/11 at 10:05 a.m. YBA squared off against IQ and lost 52-41 giving us 4^th place out of 8 teams.  We came out a little flat and so did they chalk it up to a rainy Sunday morning playing for 3^rd place perhaps but make no mistake this was a well coached and fundamentally sound team who potentially could have blown us out they won their first game 63 - 28.  So in mind mind this was a win for us to be down 4 with under 2 minutes to play but then they awoke and scored 10 unanswered easy transition baskets on us and based on scouting them Saturday what I expected to see all game.  We through a box and 1 at them but our man proved more effective and our bench did an excellent job and cut into their lead leading a come back for us more so than our starters did.  Jesse turned it on and brought us to within 4.  But in the end a poor shooting percentage and missed free throws hurt us.  Again this was an excellent team we did not see them at their best I did on Saturday.   Keys for improvement:  offensive spacing, get lose balls, (reduce turnovers better passing decisions in transition), attack the basket on offense, free throw %.

• Defense player of the game:  Taylor, Josh
• Offense player of the game:  Ish (floor leadership),  Jesse, (Ryan/Gavin off the bench)
• Best Hustle:  Matt, Ish, Sanam
• Best Attitude:  Bench – gave some solid minutes