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The first game was against Irondale. The boys started out a bit slow but moved the ball well and played excellent defense. It didn't take long and we pulled away from them and got by with a fairly convincing victory. Cole had a great game. He played super defense and helped lead the offense at point guard. He has been switching from point guard to wing depending on which other players are in the game. He's been one of the more versatile players on the team in the fact that he can play so many positions and knows the responsibilities of each spot.
The boys had to wait around for more than hour before the next game. They seemed to have fun sitting around visiting, eating and watching some other games.
The second game was against St. Michael which had also won their first game by a large margin. Our boys came out a bit flat again and the game was neck and neck all through the first quarter. But midway through the second quarter we started to break down and got down by 14 points at the half.
At half time the coach talked to them and we all tried to give them the don't quit, you can do it speech. It worked! They came out blazing and determined. They shut down the opposition and tied the game up in the middle of the third quarter. It again was a tight contest and by the start of the fourth quarter we were down one basket. Cole had been playing his heart out. He had been in the game the entire time. A couple of our main players got into foul trouble and had to sit a majority of the second and third quarters. By the time the fourth quarter was in progress you could tell he was bushed. But he kept on fighting and doing his best. The game went back and forth for most of the fourth quarter until St Michaels gained a small four point lead with only a minute and a half left. Our kids would not give up. They battled and fought to cut the lead to two with only 30 ticks on the clock. After a near steal and a subsequent "foul" St. Michaels was at the line with only 19 seconds left. This last foul was on our point guard and lead scorer and it was his fifth and final foul. The St M's player knocked down the first shot then misfired on the second. One of our Ranger players snagged the board and got the outlet to a guard who dribbled past half court when Coach called a quick time out with only 10 seconds left. We could all see them devising a play and hoped it would be enough to send the game into overtime. I could see the Coach talking and pointing to Cole and I had a feeling with our other point guard out of the game that Cole was the one who was going to take the last shot, a 3 pointer. (Gulp!) Once the huddle broke our players lined up in formation and I saw the pick forming for Cole to get open but it was supposed to leave him open on the top. Someone jumped the pick and Cole had to pop out on the wing. He got the ball and turned, squared and fired. The ball arced smoothly through the air and was descending directly towards th
e rim then it skipped off the rim just barely missing. Another Ranger player grabbed the rebound and alertly kicked it out past the arc where we got one last heave to tie the game. But the ball clanked off the back iron and time ran out.Our Ranger team made a courageous comeback and nearly put the game into overtime. So the next game up will be for 3rd place on Sunday.
Well Sunday came and the team was pumped to try to get some more hardware. We arrived at the gym and the kids started to stretch out. We were matched up against the home team, Coon Rapids. The game started and soon after we knew it was going to be a long game. The refs were very quick on the whistle and took the aggressiveness right out of our players. Within a few minutes our Coach was hit with a technical foul. It was a shocking call. The ref had seems very aggressive in his calls and this T just punctuated that fact. The team did the best they could to keep up but many of our players got into early foul trouble. They also had a lot of trouble with the press. Coon Rapids played a zone press (which our kids had not seen before). By the end of the first half, Coon Rapids had an 11 point lead.
A quick pep talk and drink of water and the kids were ready to go. Unfortunately so were the refs. The second half the Rangers handled the press much better and cut into the lead for a while but the continued imbalance of calls against us put us back into a hole. By the end of the game, two players had fouled out and a couple had four. The kids only lost by 12 points (meaning they only lost the second half by one point which is awesome considering the amount of freethrows Coon Rapids was shooting). The total fouls for each team was 27 to 7! Nearly a 4:1 ratio! That is ridiculous. It was a very obvious bias, the Rangers would get called on a touch foul or a reach in and then on the other end we would get mauled and lose the ball with no call. It was very frustrating for everyone, especially the kids.
All the parents and Coaches were very proud of the kids and how they held their composure. They learned that they must overcome obstacles like that sometimes and that they have no control over the refs. We tried to stress that they can only control their actions and attitude.
Hopefully they will continue to improve and get a tournament championship soon.
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