MITCH'S ROUND 1 REPORT
MITCH'S MATCH REPORT
ROUND 1 V SUNBURY@HOME
What do you mean its round one already?
No it wasn't the league playing an April fools day joke, after months of hard work it was finally game on! The pre game nervous excitement turned to pre game freaking out with the late arrival of our new uniforms. After preaching the importance of a good pre game routine and warm up at training on Thursday, all of our plans were thrown out the window. To the girl's credit, they kept their cool, and handled the situation well. As much as the blokes in the crowd would have loved to of seen the girls play without their shorts, there was a big sigh of relief when they finally did arrive. With our new uniforms looking hot, we stepped out on the court for our first home game at Darebin stadium.
Our opponents, the Sunbury Jets were without experienced campaigner Elizabeth Down, but still boasted a talented, strong, young and very fast line up. As expected they started with full court defensive pressure, but while we had no problems breaking their press, we just couldn't capitalize on it and put the ball in the hole. Due to a freak ray of sunshine coming through the stadium roof we were unable to see the scoreboard in the first quarter; it was probably a good thing though, as at the end of the quarter we were down 16 to 9.
In the second quarter we did a much better job on Sunbury's key post player Jess O'Donnell. Not only did Steph Cortese shut her down, she also went to work herself up the other end of the floor. A great scoring quarter from Beni Evans opened the flood gates for us, with everyone chipping in and hitting baskets. Rookie Kendall Raby knocked down her first points for LTU and proved that she will be another scoring threat for us this season. It was only the outside shooting of tiny Chelsea Giannino that kept Sunbury in front at the half, 36 - 28.
After playing a zone for all of the first half Sunbury switched to a man to start the third quarter. This was much to my delight as I knew that we could run our stuff and score easily against it. After we caught up in just a few minutes Sunbury changed back to a zone. Michelle Lee chipped in two 3 point bombs, and even Steph was knocking em down from outside the arc! While our offence was going great guns, our defensive pressure really let us down. Our attempt to press them was just shenanigans, and after too many easy Sunbury lay ups a stern talking to about intensity and pressure was needed. All of our hard work was blown away in a few minutes of mental meltdown. At the end of the third quarter we faced a seven point deficit, 57 - 50.
Throughout the whole game the girls did a great job at staying positive and sticking together, not once did they drop their heads. So going into the last quarter I knew we would get back into the game, I was confident this one was ours for the taking. Everyone contributed and did the job required, but it was both Michelle and Steph that really stepped up with the big plays when needed. The intensity that I asked for in our defence came at the right time, and we managed to keep Sunbury to a 9 point quarter. With about 3 minutes remaining we finally hit the lead, and it seemed to break the Sunbury girls. All of a sudden they were in a position they hadn't been in all game and the pressure was on them. It was crunch time. With just 4 seconds left on the clock Sunbury had the ball. As I was screaming from the sidelines "no fouls no fouls" we fouled! Since we were over the limit Sunbury had two shots, and of course, out of the five players on the court we managed to foul the one player that would have hit a basket from half court with her eyes shut all game as she was shooting that hot. The Sunbury coach called a time out that turned out to be more beneficial to us, we prepared for the worst. "If she hits two then we send a runner up the floor for the long inbound pass, go for the shot to send it to overtime". Little Chelsea Giannino walked up to the line with all the pressure of the world upon her. I could feel my hair turning grey from stress just watching from the sidelines. Who would of thunk it! After knocking down everything, she couldn't hit the shots that mattered most, Chelsea missed both foul shots. Our smallest player on the floor, Michelle Lee, grabbed the rebound and was fouled. I was in shock more from Michelle getting the boards then I was with the missed shots. With a huge smile on her face Michelle calmly walked the floor, knocked down one of the foul shots and you could hear the fat lady in the crowd starting to sing "ITS OVER".
Ahhh yes, that winning feeling. there is nothing like it, or is that just me having a coronary on the sidelines? What a game to start the season with! I don't know if the ticker is going to cope with too many more of those close calls! Everyone that was there would agree it was a great game to watch. We did it the hard way, but we came away with the win in the end. It was a great team effort, and that is what pleased me the most. Everyone contributed in some way. I was also happy with how the girls stuck at it and kept fighting all game.
MITCH'S HIGHLIGHTS OF ROUND 1
STEPH CORTESE
Has she been to the Dennis Rodman school of rebounding over summer? Steph was all over the boards, pulling down a massive 17 rebounds for the game. If that wasn't enough, add a handy 20 points (shooting at 70% from the field) while keeping Jess O'Donnell to just 6 points for the game. Is there anything this super woman can't do? She is every where!
MICHELLE LEE
At the last few training sessions Michelle has been talking up a big game, saying that she has been feeling it, and that she is going to shoot the lights out. Well she definitely backed up the talk, knocking down three big 3 pointers, all at crucial times during the game. And hey, she is only little, it's impressive that she can even hit the ring from that far out, let alone knock em down.
KRYSTAL CALVERT
Krystal had a great game, leading the team with four assists; she played hard, and hit the floor even harder. But like the true trooper that Krystal is, she worked the bar during the men's game, running up and down the stairs continually so that she could support the boys and watch their game. Even more impressive was her ability to knock down Jager bombs with all of Sutto's drunken mates, love your work Krys.
THE ROOKIES
Both Jayda Hunter and Kendal Raby did a good job out on the floor in their first big v game for LTU. It was also great to see them still going just as hard at Blue at 3am Sunday morning. I seem to think that these girls will fit in very well at LTU.
OFFICIAL ROUND SUMMARY
COMING UP
Next week we venture out to the dark and cold stadium that is Werribee. This will be a tough game for us, and should produce a great standard of basketball. Werribee are a quality team and proved that they will once again be a force to be reckoned with this season by pumping the much fancied Whittlesea in round one. I know it's a Sunday, and most people would still be in bed hung over, but it would be great to see as many La Trobe supporters out there as possible, to help us come away with the win.
See you all at Werribee
Coach Mitch
ROUND 1 V SUNBURY@HOME
What do you mean its round one already?
No it wasn't the league playing an April fools day joke, after months of hard work it was finally game on! The pre game nervous excitement turned to pre game freaking out with the late arrival of our new uniforms. After preaching the importance of a good pre game routine and warm up at training on Thursday, all of our plans were thrown out the window. To the girl's credit, they kept their cool, and handled the situation well. As much as the blokes in the crowd would have loved to of seen the girls play without their shorts, there was a big sigh of relief when they finally did arrive. With our new uniforms looking hot, we stepped out on the court for our first home game at Darebin stadium.
Our opponents, the Sunbury Jets were without experienced campaigner Elizabeth Down, but still boasted a talented, strong, young and very fast line up. As expected they started with full court defensive pressure, but while we had no problems breaking their press, we just couldn't capitalize on it and put the ball in the hole. Due to a freak ray of sunshine coming through the stadium roof we were unable to see the scoreboard in the first quarter; it was probably a good thing though, as at the end of the quarter we were down 16 to 9.
In the second quarter we did a much better job on Sunbury's key post player Jess O'Donnell. Not only did Steph Cortese shut her down, she also went to work herself up the other end of the floor. A great scoring quarter from Beni Evans opened the flood gates for us, with everyone chipping in and hitting baskets. Rookie Kendall Raby knocked down her first points for LTU and proved that she will be another scoring threat for us this season. It was only the outside shooting of tiny Chelsea Giannino that kept Sunbury in front at the half, 36 - 28.
After playing a zone for all of the first half Sunbury switched to a man to start the third quarter. This was much to my delight as I knew that we could run our stuff and score easily against it. After we caught up in just a few minutes Sunbury changed back to a zone. Michelle Lee chipped in two 3 point bombs, and even Steph was knocking em down from outside the arc! While our offence was going great guns, our defensive pressure really let us down. Our attempt to press them was just shenanigans, and after too many easy Sunbury lay ups a stern talking to about intensity and pressure was needed. All of our hard work was blown away in a few minutes of mental meltdown. At the end of the third quarter we faced a seven point deficit, 57 - 50.
Throughout the whole game the girls did a great job at staying positive and sticking together, not once did they drop their heads. So going into the last quarter I knew we would get back into the game, I was confident this one was ours for the taking. Everyone contributed and did the job required, but it was both Michelle and Steph that really stepped up with the big plays when needed. The intensity that I asked for in our defence came at the right time, and we managed to keep Sunbury to a 9 point quarter. With about 3 minutes remaining we finally hit the lead, and it seemed to break the Sunbury girls. All of a sudden they were in a position they hadn't been in all game and the pressure was on them. It was crunch time. With just 4 seconds left on the clock Sunbury had the ball. As I was screaming from the sidelines "no fouls no fouls" we fouled! Since we were over the limit Sunbury had two shots, and of course, out of the five players on the court we managed to foul the one player that would have hit a basket from half court with her eyes shut all game as she was shooting that hot. The Sunbury coach called a time out that turned out to be more beneficial to us, we prepared for the worst. "If she hits two then we send a runner up the floor for the long inbound pass, go for the shot to send it to overtime". Little Chelsea Giannino walked up to the line with all the pressure of the world upon her. I could feel my hair turning grey from stress just watching from the sidelines. Who would of thunk it! After knocking down everything, she couldn't hit the shots that mattered most, Chelsea missed both foul shots. Our smallest player on the floor, Michelle Lee, grabbed the rebound and was fouled. I was in shock more from Michelle getting the boards then I was with the missed shots. With a huge smile on her face Michelle calmly walked the floor, knocked down one of the foul shots and you could hear the fat lady in the crowd starting to sing "ITS OVER".
Ahhh yes, that winning feeling. there is nothing like it, or is that just me having a coronary on the sidelines? What a game to start the season with! I don't know if the ticker is going to cope with too many more of those close calls! Everyone that was there would agree it was a great game to watch. We did it the hard way, but we came away with the win in the end. It was a great team effort, and that is what pleased me the most. Everyone contributed in some way. I was also happy with how the girls stuck at it and kept fighting all game.
MITCH'S HIGHLIGHTS OF ROUND 1
STEPH CORTESE
Has she been to the Dennis Rodman school of rebounding over summer? Steph was all over the boards, pulling down a massive 17 rebounds for the game. If that wasn't enough, add a handy 20 points (shooting at 70% from the field) while keeping Jess O'Donnell to just 6 points for the game. Is there anything this super woman can't do? She is every where!
MICHELLE LEE
At the last few training sessions Michelle has been talking up a big game, saying that she has been feeling it, and that she is going to shoot the lights out. Well she definitely backed up the talk, knocking down three big 3 pointers, all at crucial times during the game. And hey, she is only little, it's impressive that she can even hit the ring from that far out, let alone knock em down.
KRYSTAL CALVERT
Krystal had a great game, leading the team with four assists; she played hard, and hit the floor even harder. But like the true trooper that Krystal is, she worked the bar during the men's game, running up and down the stairs continually so that she could support the boys and watch their game. Even more impressive was her ability to knock down Jager bombs with all of Sutto's drunken mates, love your work Krys.
THE ROOKIES
Both Jayda Hunter and Kendal Raby did a good job out on the floor in their first big v game for LTU. It was also great to see them still going just as hard at Blue at 3am Sunday morning. I seem to think that these girls will fit in very well at LTU.
OFFICIAL ROUND SUMMARY
COMING UP
Next week we venture out to the dark and cold stadium that is Werribee. This will be a tough game for us, and should produce a great standard of basketball. Werribee are a quality team and proved that they will once again be a force to be reckoned with this season by pumping the much fancied Whittlesea in round one. I know it's a Sunday, and most people would still be in bed hung over, but it would be great to see as many La Trobe supporters out there as possible, to help us come away with the win.
See you all at Werribee
Coach Mitch
Last Modified on 05/04/2006 16:24
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