News Archives
SG Basketball @ RSEQ Playoffs
The recently crowned RSEQ D4 Basketball regular season league champions, the SC Senior Girls Spartans, left campus (a little late) and travelled to Seminaire de Sherbrooke for the playoff semi-final game at 10:45 versus the home team. You may remember that SdS forfeited the last game of the season scheduled at SC on Thursday. We were told they had roster issues and their players were out of gas after three games during the week.
Further information indicated that they could not win the league banner even if they would have won that match at Stanstead. With no way to win the banner, the strategic forfeit seemed to be to their benefit. They probably likely thought they would end up in the #2-vs-#3 semi-final game, but a few lower ethic points meant that they ended up as the #4 seed, therefore playing #1 SC in the Saturday am semi. The forfeit also afforded themselves an opportunity to have a practice geared toward beating SC in the upcoming game. They also ended up having a very comfortable number of players on the roster Saturday morning and a lot of energy throughout the day during both playoff games.
Despite this preamble about the playoff classification history and the forfeit, it should be noted that SdeS was definitely the better team on Saturday and deserved their win(s). In the semi-final game, we never got any traction, especially in the first half of the game. Their press, which we handled on Wednesday, gave us trouble on Saturday. They also adopted an aggressive man-to-man defensive plan that limited our options, and we didn't switch to an offence that would allow us to battle on a more equal footing. Our stats man, Bryson, showed us that we had had... not few... but ZERO shots outside of the key. On the other hand, the Barons took - and made - many outside shots when we relied on a 1-3-1 defence against them. It was like they were a well-oiled machine and we were like molasses... in February. Our first quarter scoring total of 7 points were all provided by Maya. We were assessed 8 fouls in that one quarter. 1Q Score: SC 7 - SdS 11
There was no great problem at this point, but some worrying trends were already at play. We lost Addie, a gritty leader on both sides of the ball, to an ankle injury that took her out for a good part of the game. In the second quarter, the Barons began to extend their lead dramatically and we continued to struggle both offensively and defensively. We managed 4 points in the quarter - again all by one player, Clara this time. The Barons rattled off 17 points in the second quarter. In fact their first half totals included three 3's, five 2's and several free throws. 2Q Score: SC 11 - SdS 28
Our first outside shot of the game (and one of two we put up in that quarter) came in the third period, but the Barons still continued to move forward with a 10-6 period in their favour. Our scorers during the period, with 2 points each, were Maya, Clara and Miranda. 3Q Score: SC 17 - SdS 38
The fourth quarter was definitely our best period, although the result of the game looked inevitable at that point. We competed, and despite being behind, we still tried to at least give a respectable accounting of ourselves both for us and anyone who happened to be watching. The fourth quarter scoring was 12-9 for SdS. Charlotte chipped in 5 points - contributing a spin-o-rama layup, an outside 2-point shot, and a separate trip to the free-throw line where she went 1/2. Allie showed inspiration when she got fouled on a shot attempt and hit 2/2 on the free throws and subsequently made an outstanding defensive steal right after that. Maya continued to be our best offensive threat and she, too, went 2/2 at the charity stripe and managed 4 points in the second half.
FLASHBACK: As Ms. Campbell will tell you in ELA class, this is when the author goes back in time to give some information from a prior part of the story which helps to understand the current situation under discussion. So... it was around this point during the game time that I remembered that I had forgotten an important story from my last write-up about the last SdS game. I forgot to mention Maya taking charges (when the offensive player fouls the defensive player). Last game, Maya took two... and got the call as I would have expected, but I forgot to mention them. Why? Who cares? No, big miss. You need to know what taking a charge means. Ask Kyle Lowry, the former Raptor, who made it a positive characteristic of the defensive style of his professional career. It is a real skill. It requires perfect timing, at the correct location and with the understanding that you can easily be injured while taking a charge. Also, if you are not perfect (in the opinion of the referee only) not only do you not make the play and gain all the positives it can create, you actually will be called for a defensive foul. So it is a big-time risk/reward play. In the 28-26 win over SdS, Maya successfully took two charges at key points in the game that were pivotal to our success. I should have mentioned it in the last write-up and am sort of glad that I get the chance to go back over it here.
So, moving forward to the semi-final game we see just how fickle life can be in respect to this. In the semi, Maya tried to take at least three charges. Unfortunately, the referee saw these plays differently than I did. I thought they were perfect, but Maya was given defensive fouls on at least two of them. So she paid the price physically, plus she fouled out of the game with two minutes remaining. It was certainly an unfair way for this talented young athlete to be "rewarded" for giving everything she could to help her team. Final score: SC 26 - SdS 50
The second game of the day, the consolation game for 3rd/4th position was scheduled to start at 2:15pm with SC taking on Le Ber. Unfortunately, Le Ber had started the day with seven players and lost three of them in their semi-final. They therefore legitimately had to forfeit the consolation. We were awarded the bronze medals. Our option was to receive the banner and medals from an administrator in an empty room with parents likely not yet returned from lunch as the consolation was still an hour away. Or we could wait for the final to be over and receive the hardware with the other two teams and all parents and fans. We decided to do that.
In between, we had some lunch including baked treats and, for some, Dino chicken fingers and TikTok performances. Then we played a short red-white intrasquad game that featured Mr. Thompson as referee and Mr. Simard's six seniors playing against Ms. Davis' six underclassmen for bragging rights. While the underclassmen started well, the wily veterans ended up taking the contest 29-23. Unfortunately, Clara re-injured her finger and as a result she will miss all games for the remainder of the season.
After the intrasquad, there were 21 contests by Sarah and Miranda, HORSE-type games by Bryson, Erika and Julia (with some huge smiles and lots of laughs), and some hanging with their parents and friends. Once the final game was over, all three remaining teams received their awards and had the opportunity to take a bunch of photos. I, for one, was happy that we took the extra time to do things the right way, rather than to simply cut and run to get home an hour earlier but without the fine moments we shared at the end.
Big thanks to all of the parents, friends and teachers who came to the playoffs (sorry we were not at our best... and sorry there was no second game). Finally, big thanks to Maya's parents who offered bouquets to the coaches and a red rose to each of the twelve players.
Next events up for the Spartans: team photos on Wednesday, a tournament this Friday/Saturday/Sunday in Montreal and - hopefully - a home "senior night" game in the last few days of the term.
© 2017 Stanstead College. All Rights Reserved.