VFW (Venice Fortunate to Win)... :)
First off, I had composed a blog for the last SBY game vs. Saberettes but in one of those late night dazes I was in, hit the cancel button instead of "post" so I lost what I wrote. I had no inspiration to re-write it but anyway, the Tigers beat the Saberettes 36 - 25 behind big scoring games by Kayla and Jodi. The girls didn't have their best overall game of the season but still managed to pull out a comfortable victory. Still undefeated in league at the half way point. Team averaging about 37 points/game while giving up 20/game. Even my limited math skills tell me that's a big difference.. :)
Next up VFW tourney. The last of the major tourneys or the beginning of the tourney season depending on how you look at it. With the girls playing in the Silver division, it appeared they were the favorites of the division. The team is playing well in league and their offense seems to be in high gear. But of course they still had to play the games...
The first 2 games against the Pasadena Bruins and WPC Shooting Stars had the girls winning fairly, okay, very easily. The Bruin game kind of surprised me as they are an up and coming team with good players. But behind balanced scoring and good defense, the Tigers win in a rout, 32 - 10. The next game was against a surprise team - WPC Shooting Stars. In a game that started off slow for both teams, the Tigers finally got their game going midway thru the 1st half and kept piling on from there. While WPC was a scrappy bunch, the Tigers rolled to another 20+ victory, 42 - 21 or so. Kayla and Shelby had the hot hands in both games and led the team in scoring. Emiko's defense, rebounding, passing (you know, those things that help win ball games) and scoring helped pace the wins too. Jodi, CC, Kristen, Erica and Kris helped add to the scoring. Good rebounding by Erica and dare I say, Kris, and the defense of Lauren helped the Tiger cause.
The championship game had the girls go against the Venice Angels. A gold level team having a tough year in league but always a very physical, in your face defensive team with a talented PG and solid center. This is the team I'm sure the girls wanted to play and it showed in how hyped they were for this game. So hyped that the shots that the girls normally make a good percentage of (i.e. layups and free throws) just didn't go down this game. The game started with Venice hitting some tough threes and taking a 5 - 6 point lead in the first half. The Tigers always kept fighting back but could never quite get over that hump. Venice plays a tight man defense but most of the girls seemed to beat their defender fairly easily but it looked like they rushed to get their shots away. The 2nd half was a tense battle with Venice maintaining a basket or two lead throughout. The girls always fought back and tied the score late in the game. Venice went up by 1 late in the game and the Tigers had several chances to take the lead but for this game but again ,missed opportunities... Venice seemed like the more poised team at crunch time and survived for the victory, 30 - 29 in a well played thriller. It felt like to me, the girls outplayed Venice all game, had the better shots but they just didn't fall like usual. It happens. This game should be a good learning experience for the team. Shelby played a good game (and had a great overall tourney), Kris and Emi were aggressive in taking the ball to the basket and good overall play from the rest of the team really kept the girls in the game despite the shots not going down. Next time they face this team I think it will be different.. : )
Overall, great tourney for the girls and 2nd place isn't too bad. Just think one more basket in WLA and VFW title games and they could have had 2 more championships in 2007... Great 2007 tourney season Tigers! (FOR excluded..)
