Well I guess it doesn’t get any better than that……. The 15 East went 3-1 over the weekend including a very impressive win over the 15 West (Please see the News article related to that game). One word to me describes the weekend…….. DEFENSE……… and thats exactly what we played the whole weekend. Allowing no more than 45 points (only loss) and allowing as little as 35 points was the key to the weekend. We held teams to an average of 41 points per game. What impressed me the most when I sit back and actually think about it, is that we won every which way.
First game we were down a little early, took a small lead, and then eventually won by 17 points. So we had the killer instinct in that game defeating a smaller, very quick, Westchester Hawks team 58-41.
We then took the floor a few hours later and played a very tough, much bigger, Long Island Lightning team which took a 3-0 lead. Two quick baskets and we took the lead back and never looked back. We had a comfortable 6-10 point lead throughout the game and when they made their final push with under a minute to go we were able to hold them off and win 39-35.
Day two started out with Coach Santoro taking the team for the first half and building up a nice four point cushion with about 11 minutes to go. This was Sound Shore team that we had seen play the day before and watched our West team handle them pretty easily, which I think lead to us not being as sharp as we were. We missed layups and free throws down the stretch and they seemed to make everything as we would fall 45-41.
Now the championship game started a few hours later. We got down early and trailed most of the game. To be able to take the lead with about 4 minutes to go was really special because the kids got stops on the defensive end and made good decisions with the basketball down the stretch, but most importantly, we made shots. Our stops on the defensive end lead to the confidence to be able to knock down shots near the end. I tip my cap to the West who played extremely hard the whole game.
Like I said before, I couldn’t be more happier for the boys because majority of them played last year, whether on my team or Coach Moore’s, and we didn’t have a lot of success. But with addition of new faces and new places for both teams we can really see how our program has grown and we are competing in ever game. It’s pretty impressive to have one team in a championship, but to have both teams makes it very special. Good luck to both teams in the future. As for my team, enjoy it now, and some of you might never forget it, but be ready to go back to work on Thursday.