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“If you’re never satisfied with what you have achieved, you’re never going to be satisfied with what you do achieve.” /Chris LoCurto

 

We first met this team on off-site game earlier this season and went down 60 to 34. (Read here…) That was a game to learn a lot from and keep many things in mind for the next ones. Höhenkirchen is a respectable team in this youth league sitting at the middle (place 5) out of 10 teams. We are still sitting at place 9 and not breaking the set  goals. Developing, but not winning. This was the 2nd last game we would have this season and winning it would’ve meant some confidence boost going into off-season. Didn’t happen – we lost again 65 to 74. Now we’re off to last game of the season against München Baskets which we have to win with at least +24 to be able to finish the season in Place 8 instead of 9. This will be a task of U16-1 Coach Sidney as I won’t be able to Coach this last game myself. Now to re-cap the last game.

First Quarter

To be honest first quarter was like the whole game and the whole game was like the first quarter. We started out by getting minus 7 (11 to 4) in first four minutes and never recovered those 7 points at the end losing by 9 points (letting opponents score the last 2 points in last second…). At this point #5 was showing his willingness to score while the team was focused on keeping #10 in check which was a problem last game also. Funny thing is that we focused on #10 a little bit too much which allowed others to score as a result. First quarter ended 20 to 14 for Höhenkirchen. A score with which you can work with.

Second Quarter

As said the second quarter went on at the same manner. Teams exchanged points, our defense and focus was at the best in this quarter. After this quarter I was pretty positive that if we pushed full-court defense for the last two quarters we could take the game. Players looked good and we still had managable score after half time 40 to 32 (second quarter went down with 20 to 20). After some talking and tactics for rest of the game in lockers we went out again.

Third Quarter

Unfortunately for us the opponents came out more focused than we did and pushed. Both of their main players #5 and #10 were doing a great offensive and making our defense suffer while penetrating it due to lack of focus. Our offensive were stagnating a little bit, which wouldn’t have been a big of a problem if defense was running. Though, mental block came again and we couldn’t run defense as good as before and instead of crawling out of -6 pit we dug it deeper to achieve -12. 60 to 48 after third.

Fourth Quarter

The only quarter we managed to win with 17 to 14, but which didn’t bring us the glory. Little mistakes came together and made a big impact. Opponents had small, but good roster and we didn’t deliver. It all came together and we went down at the end  with 65 to 74. It was a bit painful, because we could’ve, but didn’t. So there’s that. Thanks for the game!

Summary

Long season. We have worked on ourselves and we bacame much better than we started. Still not enough. The only reason I am awaiting the off-season is because it will allow me to look back at everything, understand what we did wrong and what exactly needs to be done. One more game is ahead of us and we have a plan to win it to land 8th place instead of 9th. It will be a tough job though. Still, games like these make you realize that only place to look for answer is in the mirror. Oneself is the problem and oneself is also the answer. Opponents are good, so the only way to win is to develop yourself. Keep training, keep learning, keep going. This wasn’t a one year plan, this is a damn beggining of one hundred year reign. Await us, we are coming.

 

Coach Valts