Black Shirts.. Almost.

Okay, since I wasn’t overwhelmed by volunteers to be guest bloggers for the Dodgers Vegas tourney, this write up is based on the DVD of games provided by Spielberg Jang.  Hey, it felt like I was in the gym (except for those few times the camera didn’t move J).  Seriously, the DVD is much appreciated Curtis!

First up was a game was with the Tigers arch rival and nemesis – FOR Sol.  Offensive minded team vs. Defensive minded team (I guess you’ll have to decide which team is which).  The Sol has “burned” the girls many times late in the game with clutch plays and strong will but it is unreal that most of the games have been decided by 1 – 3 points at the most.  And of course, this game was no different.  Actually, the Sol has become more proficient on offense lately and it showed as they were red hot from the outside while building a first half lead.  But Kayla, Shelby, and Emiko kept the Tigers close by playing aggressive and hitting some shots.  In the 2^nd half, the Sol went on a huge run by getting good looks from their defense and hitting their open 3’s.  The Tigers seemed destined for a rare lopsided loss down by 12 late in the 2^nd half.  Then IT happened.  I’m not sure what caused IT but the roles reversed.  The Tigers went “Sol” on the Sol, playing a good pressure full court defense causing turnovers.  Kris started the mega run by hitting a 3 and a layup after a steal.  Shelby hit a driving layup and more (the more will be later..) and Emiko hit a clutch 3.  From 12 down to 2 down with a 10 – 0 Darling blitz.  And with the time running down, the Tigers with the ball and a chance to tie or take the lead with a 3… Well, here is the “more” from Shelby.  With time ticking away, Shelby got the ball on the left side, took a jab step to get the defender off and from about 2 feet beyond the 3 point line… the strut Shelby displayed after the shot said it all!  Tigers win as Shelby drains the 3 to eclipse the Sol.  What a game!  13 - 0 run to end the game.  Congrats to the girls for not giving up and playing hard to the end.  All the girls played tough. 

Next up were the FOR Titans led by one of the top players in the division.  Unfortunately this game was tortuous to watch and I had just ate so I could only stomach one viewing of this game.  Both teams played… bad.  Fortunate for the Tigers that Dani was not 100%.  All I can say it was a victory for the Tigers – barely with the Titans missing a chippy at the buzzer.  But the Tigers used to lose these types of games but played just well enough to get a 1 point win in a low scoring affair.

This setup the championship game vs. OCO Allstars.  With the Sol losing to the Titans, the winner of this game would be champs.  This OCO team looked a lot different than the team that played in Jetts which the Tigers won easily.  OCO was hot from the outside from the beginning and never really let up.  Their pressure defense caused the Tigers problems and OCO built a double digit lead at half.  The 2^nd half unfortunately looked a lot like the 1^st half with OCO remaining aggressive but the Tigers did make a small run to make them somewhat nervous.  Kris had a couple of scores including a reverse layup which looked like her old man in his much younger days… Emi, Jodi, Erica made some shots and Shelby was leading the team strongly but they seemed to run out of gas and had quite a few turnovers near the end which sealed the win for OCO by 9.

Great run for the girls.  They came closer to getting the elusive black shirt as they have ever been.  Hopefully next year but just wondering what the team will look like next year..