Going into our first round of playoffs yesterday the expectations, admittedly, were not to high. The SJM Basketball team did not fair very well at the Mater Dei tournament this past weekend, and I thought there would be some hangover going in. Round one of the playoffs was held at St. Jeanne in Tustin, and we didn't know what to expect. The Kids seemed pretty relaxed during warm-ups and proceeded to goof around as usual.
The Game started off slowly as both teams were feeling each other out. We struggled to score (as usual), but we were able to put up a good number of shots, they just weren't falling. St. Jeanne had only one stand out player that we had to worry about, so we ran a box-and-1 defense on her which slowed her down a bit. At the half we were down 6 points, and in a low scoring game, that feels like a lot. Taylah did a very good job in the second half of securing almost every rebound. She picked it up on defense, as did the rest of the team. We never led the entire game, but were slowly creeping back into it. The two teams really got after it defensively, and it was a battle just to get a shot up. With 1:08 left in the game we called a timeout because we had to remind the kids that it was do or die. If we don't score, we go home. After a couple of broken plays and turnovers on both sides, we had the ball for a final shot. Sunny had it at the top of the key and just before she hoisted up a desperation shot from there, Taylah cut to a open spot under the basket and Sunny delivered a perfect bounce pass. Tay caught it and layed it in as the clock expired to win the game!
This buzzer-beater reminded me of her days playing club soccer, when more than once she scored a last second goal to either tie or win the match. It's safe to say I'm very proud of both Sunny for making the perfect pass, and Taylah for finishing the shot...whew...we get to do this again on Tuesday...
Taylah beats the buzzer to put SJM over St. Norbert 18-17
4th annual Independence Day River Run
