Well, never let it be said that we shrink away from competition. Fox Creek opened up this past Thursday night with Indiana top 15 team Jeffersonville HS. The result was a 118-46 manhandling. Though I didn't expect us to walk away with a win, I expected a little more fight than what we put up in this opening game. Granted the kids were very nervous, we were severally outmatched and we only went 5 deep, but we definitely could have played better and harder. Not a lot to say about this game other than my two scoring guards played pretty decent, Dakota Sallee scoring 17 and Chase Sutherland Scorning 21. By the way, the core of this Jeffersonville team lost to Ballard last year, at Ballard by 2, and beat Trinity by 17, according to their coach. There's probably a LOT of KY high school teams they would beat pretty badly.

 

Our next game Friday morning pitted us against Greenfield Central from IN. This was a team we matched up much better with and quite frankly could have beaten. Dakota Sallee scored 30 points and was only 4 points shy of tying the tournament scoring record, but some sloppy play down the stretch and lack of tough defense throughout the game resulted in a 71-57 lose. Lack of depth and starters getting the vast majority of the minutes and almost all the minutes in the second half hurt as well, especially when the other team was substituting 5 at a time at times during the game.

 

Our third game Friday night had us matched up against Rock Creek Academy which is up by Seymour, IN I believe. This was a very bad matchup for us as they were very big and athletic, starting lineup going 6'8, 6'6 and 6'5, coupled with a guard who, though not all that quick, had the shooting night of his life when we tried to double up down low. Though the team wasn't all that great, the matchups gave us tremendous problems and we took another big lose, 110-48. I was disappointed with this game from the outset because many of the kids, after seeing who we were playing, had already convinced themselves that we could not win and couldn't play against them. This kind of attitude just infuriates me, but it's prevalent amongst these kids. My big kid, who might just touch 6'3, spent most of the game finding excuses why he couldn't play against their bigs, rather than getting after it and busting his tail finding ways to play them. Sallee, our best player, also had a very off game, going only 2-15 from the field and not hitting those shots till late in the game, finishing with 6 points. He was getting good shots, but they just wouldn't fall. Chase Sutherland picked up the slack scoring 26. Had Dakota just had his typical game the score would have been a little more respectable.

 

We finished out Saturday morning matched up against Indy Metro. Again we found a team in front of us that we matched up with and could beat. After a very very sloppy 1st half by us, with several missed layups and easy shots and several unforced turnovers, we found ourselves only down 4 at halftime. Had we just played an "ok" first half, we could have easily been up 10-12 points, but I believe fatigue was starting to set in. With the score tied at 35 all about half way through the 3rd quarter, Metro changed up their defense and went to an all out full court man. We did not handle this very well to say the least. With the kids dead tired and basically not putting up much of a fight, Metro took advantage and went on the win, 81-54, with Dakota leading the way with 20+.

 

What did we take away from this tournament? Well, for one we will never see anyone nearly as good as some of the teams we played the rest of the year. Even the worst team we played is better than almost anyone on our schedule. Dakota can play against about anyone. Chase Sutherland, who just joined us mid December was able to get a lot of work in and had a couple of very good games, instantly becoming a second scoring option for us. We don't defend or rebound very well, and foul way too much, all things we have to work on.

 

We had a game in Frankfort Saturday night when we got back against Frankfort Christian Academy. I didn't think the boys would want to play it and almost canceled it, but they wanted to keep it scheduled. After going through what we just had, coming directly from our last game in Richmond IN and driving 3 hours going straight to Frankfort to play, the kids dead tired...after all that... FCA looked like they were in slow motion. We jumped out to a 20 point lead at half time, extended that to 35 points in the third quarter before letting my bench finish it out, winning 85-63. We had beaten them earlier in December, 55-52. The evidence may be anecdotal right now, but I would say the tournament experience helped.

^ Thanks for the great post. Really enjoyed reading it.

I'm sure playing in the Tiernan Center, the 5th largest high school gym in the country, added to the "nervous" factor. RHS's Tiernan Center, 5th Largest Hgh School Gym in the U.S. - Wayne County, Indiana

 

However, these games should be a great learning tool for your team going forward. Plus, you're doing the Lords work, so it's a win - win. :thumb:

 

Very nice recap.

I'm sure playing in the Tiernan Center, the 5th largest high school gym in the country, added to the "nervous" factor. RHS's Tiernan Center, 5th Largest Hgh School Gym in the U.S. - Wayne County, Indiana

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However, these games should be a great learning tool for your team going forward. Plus, you're doing the Lords work, so it's a win - win. :thumb:

 

Very nice recap.

 

Yep, it was a great experience for them and I think will really help us going forward. And that pic you posted here Chris, though a good pic it doesn't do justice to how big that place really is. Just incredible that a high school team has a place like that as their home gym. Earlham College, a small DIII school who is in the same conference with Transy, is about 3 blocks from this place and they played many of the consultation bracket games in their home gym. While a very nice gym, you could have literally put about 5 of their gym in this place.

 

I'll tell you something else too, this would be a very nice tournament for some KY teams to get involved in, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to take them should some show interest.

Yep, it was a great experience for them and I think will really help us going forward. And that pic you posted here Chris, though a good pic it doesn't do justice to how big that place really is. Just incredible that a high school team has a place like that as their home gym. Earlham College, a small DIII school who is in the same conference with Transy, is about 3 blocks from this place and they played many of the consultation bracket games in their home gym. While a very nice gym, you could have literally put about 5 of their gym in this place.

 

I'll tell you something else too, this would be a very nice tournament for some KY teams to get involved in, and I'm sure they would be more than happy to take them should some show interest.

 

I would agree. :thumb: