SG Basketball: Tales from CAIS, Winnipeg

 

The very first shot we take at CAIS 2023, a three by Melissa, swishes through the net, and I think to myself “Here we go! Off to the races!” But it all goes downhill from there. Defensive confusion. No purpose on offence. Lack of togetherness. Lackadaisical to rebounds and loose balls. The entire first half is sloppy and, to be honest, tough to watch. But a spark of hope arrives just before halftime, when, down 13-12, Camryn hits a loonnnnggg triple at the buzzer(!) to send us into halftime with something to build on.

 

And build we do, thanks to improved defensive intensity (most of our opponent’s points this half are of the banked-in variety, ifyaknowwhatimsayn) and the three-headed monster of Halle Khanna, Maddie Lippmann and Edythe McKenzie. Halle, playing heavy minutes at point guard, not only brings the ball up successfully the last two quarters but also scores 5 critically important points. Maddie makes her presence felt inside by snatching 7 second-half rebounds and hitting 4 of 6 free throws. And Edythe makes the Plays Of The Game when, with time ticking away and the game in the balance, down 26-25, she sprints the floor and makes not one but TWO fast break buckets in a row to give your Spartans a lead they would never relinquish – hee-YUGE plays! Final score 35-28, a narrow escape, but we’ve got some things to fix if we want to have a good CAIS.

 

When I look back on the 2023-24 season, I will remember this as the game where the players legit figured out our “Ginobili” offence, as the wings were patient and the posts worked together bee-YOO-tifully. We scored early, we scored often, and we scored in different ways, as the players started recognizing options and making the right reads. A high-post shot here. A pull-up floater there. A high-low pass and finish. A wing three. A drive and dish from the high post. A drive from the wing. A low-high pass and jumper. And most impressively, a low-post seal and easy hoop on two separate occasions, which we’d never done before. That kind of execution is fun to be a part of as a player and beautiful to see as a coach – I must’ve went full fist-pump over a dozen times!

 

In the end we lost a high-scoring affair 55-47, as their #20 was unstoppable and her teammates shot well from three. But this loss was a MUCH better game than our win earlier in the day. We played better, we played harder, we played smarter, and we played together.

 

I’ve coached a long time. And I’ve been lucky enough to be part of some moments over the years. What is a “moment,” you ask? It’s when you’re in such an intense, close, impactful game that every single player has nothing on her mind except what’s going on that very second on the court. When the whole world condenses to every bounce of the ball, every tick of the clock. Where nothing else matters, nothing intrudes, nothing distracts. When every player on the floor is 1000% locked in, and every player on the bench is freaking out, living and dying with every play. And then, in the middle of that storm, your team does something special that they’ll never forget. THAT is a “moment.”

 

Ashbury. Who SC has never beaten. If we beat them for the first time ever, we are probably in the Top 8. If we lose, not a chance. Regulation ends 28-28. There have been 5 ties and 15(!) lead changes. Could not be closer. Overtime. Here we go. Both defences hold. Hold again. Then their #6 cans a jumper. 28-30. We miss. They miss, but Mel takes the rebound and fires a court-length bullet to a sprinting Camryn who corrals it and finishes left. 30-30. One minute left. We force another miss, but #17 wins the offensive rebound and muscles it in. 30-32. Thirty sec left. Cammie hits a baseline jumper! 32-32. We get a stop. Our ball. Five seconds left. Timeout. Draw up a play, but it takes too long to develop and Camryn has to rush a potential game-winning three. Still tied. Double overtime! #17 again hauls in an offensive board and scores, 32-34. Two minutes left. Defence holding. Gym loud. Spectators loving it. Bench going nuts. Then Hayley hits a jumper from the top of the key! 34-34! Both defences lock down. One minute left. Tick tick tick. Then Hayley gets fouled on a post move! Slows the pulse… and she makes the first. 35-34! The second free throw bounces off, but we are now up 35-34. 35 seconds left. We stop ‘em. Our ball with 23 seconds left. Shot clock is off. Timeout. Crowd going nuts. We don’t need to shoot to win. Timeout over. We get the ball in. They go for the steal. Deflected out. Our ball. They try again. Deflected out AGAIN. Our ball. Then with 2.5 sec left they foul Mel. She goes to the line, and with stone-cold assassin ice in her veins, she buries the clutchest free throws of the season to nail the coffin shut. 37-34, Ashbury misses their desperation three, the horn sounds, the bench charges the floor, and there it is – the first “moment” of Senior Girls Basketball 2023-24!

 

If the Ashbury game was a pressure-cooker, this quarter-final was a party. And everyone was invited. After a lackluster first half and some introspection at halftime, the Red & White came out flying in the second half and put on a show. Nya played big and aggressively at the top of the defence, Clara was active on the offensive glass including a textbook putback, Hayley hit Maddie with one of the best high-low cuts I’ve ever seen, Zoey was making steals and rebounding well on the weak side, Sarah tried some point guard and drained her first 3 of the season, and Julia had the Badass Play Of The Tournament when a girl fouled her and fell down and Julia simply stepped over her on the way back on defence – whoa there, Julia!

 

But Player Of The Game can only go to Halle Khanna, who simply had the best game of her basketball life. Not only did she bring up the ball and play disruptive defence, but she got crazy hot from outside. And when I say hot, I mean steaming. And when I say steaming, I mean 4 made jumpers in a row including a quarter-ending triple. I mean 7 of 10 shooting, for a tournament-high 16 points on only 10 shots. I mean at one point I told her, “I will only sub you off if you miss a shot,” and it wasn’t until the next quarter that I could sub her! It’s rare for a player to go supernova like that, to really get “in the zone,” but Halle did it this game, and watching how much she enjoyed lighting it up is already one of my favourite memories of the year. Final score 43-21, and we had booked our ticket to the CAIS semi-final.

 

The final score of this hard-fought battle, 52-35 for LCC, is misleading, because this was our best-played game of the season so far. The Lions have no weaknesses. They are fast, they are athletic, they are well-coached, they can rebound, and they can shoot. This would be a true test of our defence AND our ability to get the ball up the floor against their full-court pressure. And we passed with flying colours. Melissa and Camryn had only one turnover between them bringing up the ball, which is stellar. And our defence, despite allowing 52, gave up nothing easy. In fact, if LCC hadn’t had a particularly good day shooting from distance – seven 3-pointers! – this game would’ve been a lot closer. Especially since Ginobili continued to work, giving us plenty of good looks that we just… couldn’t… quite… finish.

 

Bottom line, this game is the most we have looked like a complete, gritty, together, disciplined basketball team. One that can challenge for, and possibly win, the Anderson-Bailly in February. I like the way we’re trending.

 

- Coaches VD & W

 

The year so far… 

Overall Record:  6 wins 5 losses

Points for per game:  31.1     Points allowed per game:  28.4