Almost Perfect..

The end of the SBY season had the girls reeling a little with a close overtime win vs. FOR Roxyz which played extremely tough and inspired ball against the girls 2 years in a row.  They are well coached and do a lot with the girls/talent they have.  In a exciting game with the Roxyz hitting a 3 pointer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime, the girls started "playing" in the overtime period and pulled out a 35 - 28 win.  Hmmm... let's see they score 28 points in 40 minutes of regulation and then score 7 points (or 1/4 of the total regulation points) in 2 minutes of o/t...  Go figure.  But the girls played great in o/t.  If they played that way during regulation then it might not have been so "exciting".  But it was fun game to watch.  I don't remember too much from that game other than the girls didn't shoot particularly well from the outside.  I think Kayla and Kris hit a jumper each but that was about it.  Emi, Kayla and Kris took the ball aggressively to the hole and got some layups especially in o/t.  It was a tough win and good for the girls to play in a close game.  They seem to excel in blowing teams out in league but when it comes to playing in close games they do seem to get a little tight so this experience was good for the.

The final game of the season had the Tigers playing San Fernando again in the seeding game.  With the league championship all but wrapped up even if the Tigers lost (they did..) due to the point differential when the girls beat SF the first go around, it still would have been a great accomplishment to go undefeated in league play.  But the best laid plans.. :)  I sensed the team was going to have a tough game when we arrived about 5 minutes to gametime.  I thought we were late but actually were the first to arrive.  I saw the entire SF team huddling with their coaches so it was apparent they were going to be focused.  Coach Bobby was fogged in at Vegas so Coach Byron took over and did a great job with a limited squad initially.  SF came out and played extremely hard on the defensive end and pounded the boards.  They focused on stopping the outside game and did a great job at it.  But yet, with all that, the Tigers hung in there the first half and were only down by 4 or so in a low scoring battle.  Shelby played her heart out and led the team in scoring, hustle etc..  The 2nd half had the girls playing catch up but they couldn't get over the hump.  SF consistently outrebounded the girls and got too many shots and their PG was hitting 3's consistently.  Emiko came in and played a terrific 2nd half taking the ball hard to the basket and scoring.  Shelby played tough as well and Jodi got to the line and hit some free throws but it just wasn't enough.  But with SF really hyped for this game and the Tigers scrambling all game, the girls still had a chance to the very end.  The final score ended up 26 - 20 San Fernando.

But the girls did win league given they beat SF by over 20 the first go around.  A great accomplishment for the girls - Almost Perfect!  And we'll see SF again in JAO..  Great job Tigers and Congratulations on taking league!

Sorry if there are alot of typos and grammar errors.  It's late and I'm testing my wireless setup at home.  My work has been gracious to provide me a laptop so I'm mobile now!  But typing in bed is kind of nice.  Except Heidi's snoring is kind of distracting..  :)

Happy holidays to everyone!  Next up JAO 7th gold division?  That will be interesting plus seeing Sol again...  The girls go from being the hunted to being the hunters again! :)