Quest Women Making Victoria Look Good

GREAT SECOND HALF

Friday night we played Kwantlen University College. Kwantlen is a good team with quick players that can shoot the ball well from the 3 point line. I thought this game would be a really good test for our girls and it was. Most of my pre game talk was in regards to their 3 point shooting. I felt if we could control this part of their game then we could have a good chance competing with them. They started pressing us right from the start which we were ready for and seemed to handle well. It increased the pace of the game which we enjoyed and we found ourselves down by 5 at the quarter. The difference was their three point shooting. They hit 4 shots for 12 of their 18 points. Maybe the girls did not believe me in my pre game talk. That was the difference in the first. Our second quarter was the worst quarter of basketball we have played at Quest. We were terrible. We turned the ball over and over and over and of course we couldn't convert any layups. After an atrocious quarter where we were beat 15-2, we were down 33-15 at the half. This type of play was absolutely unacceptable to me and I let the girls know this fact at half time, no x and o's talk was required.  I was very frustrated and upset since I know flat out we are way better than that.  The game was now pretty much over against a Kwantlen team who we can compete with but not if we do not show up for a quarter. We had 18 turnovers at the half and 33 for the game mostly on travels and bad passing. We were 23% for 2pt. FG's and we were 1-6 from the three point line in the first half. Kwantlen shoot 40% from beyond the arc and 83% from the free throw line. Well after our "discussion" at half we came out and played the best half of basketball to date. We found our offensive touch, and played even with Kwantlen through the second half. Kwantlen did not change anything they did, we just stepped up and started to play like we know how. We ran the ball really well in the second half and had a number of fast break opportunities. Over the course of the game though we gave up 27 points in three point baskets. A concern of mine which was not addressed. It is tough to give up 27 points in threes, have 33 turnovers and hope to win ball games. This we will need to change if we are to win some league games. This evening we lost 71-52. Bad start, bad finish.

We were really excited to have Allie Chalke back in the line up. After some initial nervousness she settled in and played well offensively for her first game back contributing 8 points on 4-6 shooting. Britt Harteveld had another good game for the Kermodes pouring in 20 points. Chelsey Forsberg finally found her outside shooting touch towards the end of the game and contributed 7 points. It was a great way to finish this game, coming off a great second half. As i have said before we are not good enough to take any quarters off. Whatever hole we dig for ourselves requires huge efforts to get out of. We are looking forward to our final exhibition game against Langara this Saturday. Hope to see you out and thanks to all of those parents and families who supported us at the Kwantlen game.......Coach  Hann

UPCOMING GAME

Friday October 24th we will be in Surrey to play Kwantlen at 6:00pm. The men's team will follow at 8:00pm. Hope to see you all out there.......coach Hann

CHARGED UP

We played Camosun College Chargers on Saturday. They easily won the Capilano Tournament handing a good Cap team a 30 point loss. They are playing really well. Their shooting the previous night against Kwantlen was outstanding, offensive execution excellent. They have been handling teams quite easily this year and look to be the front runners of the league. We watched their first half against Kwantlen and they looked very impressive. As I watched I tried to figure out a system that would work against their press. We have to use any team's press as our offense. Our eyes have to light up(not from fear) when we see a team press us. Who wants to set up a half court offense anyways? Especially ours at this time of the year. I challenged the girls before the game, I reminded them about how we felt after the Cap game. I told them that this is where we want to be.....playing one of the best teams in the league. I asked the girls to take it to Camosun and take what they could from them. We need to be Pit Bulls or Big Sea's(my Rottweiler) when it comes to challenges on the court. The girls stepped up big time. I don't think Camosun was quite ready. Based on their excellent man to man offense we went into a zone for most of the game. It really worked well forcing them into 35% shooting from the floor and 15% from the 3pt line in the first half. Offensively we got some great scores off the press but we did turn the ball over a ton.....29 turnovers for the game. As with most games it comes down to fundamentals, good ball handling and better passing. With their poor shooting we were down 18-15 after the first quarter. Our defense stayed strong in the second quarter but our offense went to catch a few waves in Tofino. We were outscored 12-2, down 30-17 against a great team at half. We were pretty happy. Well they found their shooting touch in the second half increasing their percentage to 55% 2pt FG(Field Goals) and 50% 3pt FG's. We only managed to score 15 points in the second half as we began to tire and lose focus. Final score....74-32. Nicola Hitchcock finally started to get comfortable offensively and was the high scorer along with Chelsey "Airmiles" Forsberg and Britt Harteveld with 8 points each. Nicola can play with anyone in this league. We need her to continue to become a force offensively inside. Her interior defense has been great and I thought for the first time she ran the floor really well. Hajia Sooria is really starting to improve at the point guard position as she gets comfortable with our offenses. Hajia's defense in the 2-3 zone was excellent and was the anchor throughout the game. We had a great day shooting from the line in the first half, 83%, but went 1-4 in the second half. We also rebounded a lot better as a result of their poor shooting, 31 for the game. 

This week we are getting ready for our game on Friday against Kwantlen. I had a great weekend with the girls. Road trips with them are fun and they always keep me on my toes. Breakfast at Floyd's was yummy, especially Britt Shalagan's Banana French toast which alone fed half our team. Allie Chalke is close to being ready to play. Having to sit beside me as the interm assistant is a motivating enough factor for anyone to get back on the court. Thanks to Bob Hitchcock for his support over the weekend. Congratulations to the men's team with their win over the Blue Angels on Saturday........coach Hann

Island Time: The VIU Game

Friday we headed over to Vancouver Island for another exhibition game against Vancouver Island University(formerly Malaspina). I always enjoy heading over to the island whether it be for games or adventure but we were here to battle a couple of  very good teams. We must have had some van legs because we got off to a horrible start against VIU. We were down in the first quarter 17-5. Not happy with this I gave the girls some smelling salts at the quarter and they came out and won the second quarter 16-15. We also had a great third quarter and shot the ball well. We won that quarter 20-18. That quarter was easily our best offensive output of the season and of the last two years. We have been working a lot on our offense in the past weeks and the girls are starting to get comfortable with the speed at the college level. The smelling salts wore off in the 4th quarter and we were outscored 18-8. Two bad quarters left the final score 68-49. We need 4 quarters to win ball games in this league. I was pretty happy overall with the girls performance but our lack of size really hurts us on the glass. VIU is a good team and they are big and athletic. We were out rebounded 40-23 and I would say that at least half of those rebounds turned into second chance scores for them. Our initial defense is pretty good but we give up way to many rebounds. We have to continue to work on our rebounding if we are to challenge some teams. A highlight in this game was our free throw shooting. We shot 80% in the first half and 71% for the game. Thats what I expect from these girls. We have to make our free throws and layups. Special Note: Allison Black had a free throw that was perfect.....she nailed it. Brittany Harteveld had a great game shooting the ball and was the high scorer with 23 points. Naomi also had one of her better games with 9 points, 3 rebounds and some great energy on defense. As I said, offensively we were better, 36% shooting from the floor and 40% from the three point line. A pretty good game overall but we would be up for a challenge the following day against Camosun.

Something to think about.

"Every champion knows that true greatness doesn't lie in the completion of a goal, it lies in the desire to chase the next one."

UPCOMING GAMES

This weekend we are headed to Vancouver Island for a big test against Camosun College who just won the Capilano Tournament and Vancouver Island University. We play VIU at 6:00pm at Camosun on Friday the 17th and Camosun at 1:45pm on Saturday the 18th. Hope to see you out.....coach

Quest Womens Basketball Schedule

http://questu.ca/athletics_recreation/varsity_teams/womens_basketball/index.php

GAME 3- MUCH BETTER GAME

The consolation final had us up against UBC-O, another top ten team. UBC-O are tall, long and big with three athletic girls over 6 feet. This was a statement game for us. We had a poor showing vs Capilano and had a good but "we could do a lot better" game against CBC. Would our girls step up to the challenge today?? In the first quarter we put together one of our best quarters to date. The girls came out with great energy playing well on the offensive end and bringing great defensive intensity. As I watched the first quarter unfold I found myself very happy with our performance. The girls were working hard on the defensive end and as a result we got into quick foul trouble and had to sit some of our starters for most of the half.  The second quarter, with starters on the bench was our undoing as we were hammered 25-11. We really had trouble with their length. We have not yet learned to focus on boxing out and we did not win this reaching match. UBC O out rebounded us badly on the offensive glass and easily had 20-25 second chance points. Our initial help side defense was great but we failed to box out. I was happier with our offense as we found scoring opportunities coming from the press break. We continued to attack through dribble penetration. Because of this we shot 33 free throws, and made 20. Thats great for us and tells me that we are taking our game to defense , not having the defense control what we do. We had great free throw shooting from Chelsey, 5-6, and good shooting from Charlotte 5-7 and Nicola 4-6. We must have fallen asleep coming out of halftime as we were badly outscored 19-9. Our forth quarter was much better with UBC-O beating us 15-13. We have had trouble in the past with our second and third quarters. We must learn to focus for 4 quarters, not allowing any mental breakdowns or let ups in the game. We simply can't afford to rest.......ever. The final score was 81-48. This looks pretty bad on paper but we played much better than the score. I was more happier with this game than the CBC game even though it was our first win. I saw huge potential today and we all ended the game feeling pretty good about the week of practice ahead and our upcoming games in Victoria vs Camosun and VIU. Charlotte had a great game at both ends of the floor and led the team with 14 points including two threes. Britt Harteveld had 11. Thanks to Jen Segger for helping me on the bench for the first two games. We are really excited to get Allie Chalke back soon and I thank her for her help with stats and acting as interim Assistant Coach. Thanks to all those who came out to support us and to those who had us in their thoughts even though they couldn't be here. These were three great games for us and we learned a lot about ourselves and where we are at as a team. I am pretty motivate to get back into the gym this week. 

GAME 2 QUEST MAKES HISTORY

Our semifinal on the consolation side of the draw matched us up with Columbia Bible College, a team in the rebuilding phase of their program. It was a great match up for our girls and I was really interested to see how we would respond after Friday nights game against Capilano. I was hoping that we could get back some of our confidence that was nowhere to be seen last night. The girls were ready for this game and it was a big opportunity for us and our program. We got off to a slow start as the CBC nailed two three's right off the start and we found ourselves down 6-0. With CBC's short bench we wanted to establish our running game and it was the running game that got us back into the first quarter and helped us establish our style of play. We still had trouble making lay ups which caused frustration throughout the first half. We are still learning how to play with one another and the mental effects from the night before had not left our systems. In spite of this we found ourselves up 26-17 at the half. Not happy with our play we decided to press full court for the second half in order to use our fitness and push the pace of the game to our advantage. The press worked well as we created turnovers and more scoring opportunities. We are still struggling offensively in the half court so getting easy lap ups and scoring chances from our defense and fast break is what we were concentrating on. We started a fast lineup today using a four guard one post lineup, Hajia at point with Britt Harteveld, Chelsey and Charlotte filling the perimeter spots and Nicola Hitchcock patrolling the paint. We pushed the pace in the second half which caused CBC to break down defensively. We got some great minutes from Allison Black and Britt Shalagan. Britt Shalagan continues to impress me with her determination and knack to get to the basket. She is also one of our better offensive rebounders. Allison continues to improve every day and is starting to contribute offensively as she continues to learn the game. Naomi Hughes-Hall was our defensive star who showed great effort and technique to cause pressure against whomever she was matched up against. It is this type of defensive effort that we need every night from players 1-9. So it was with this effort that the Quest Women's Basketball Team made history today. We won our first game convincingly 56-36. We did feel though that we could have played a lot better as we missed 15-20 points in lay ups again. Our free throw shooting was better but nowhere near our expectations, we went 9-17. Regardless, we won and that was very important to us. Congratulations to the girls for their first win. I am proud of all of you. Britt Harteveld found her shooting touch and led the team with 19 points. Hajia Sooria had 11 points from the point guard position and Chelsey Forsberg had 8. Our second year guard Chelsey came off the bench vs Capilano with great energy. She ran the floor well and made good decisions, today's game was no different and I need to continue to look to our "veterans" for leadership and experience. With this win we move into the Consolation final against another top ten team, UBC Okanagan. Another challenge awaits us.

GAME 1 Capilano Tournament. "Wake Up Call."

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Raining heavy here today in Squamish. Yes, game 1 vs the Capilano Blues was a bit of a wake up call for the Quest Kermodes. Capilano Blues are ranked 7th in Canada right now and they showed their early season form by establishing their defensive game from the tip . They were very physical and quick to the ball which gave our ball handlers nightmares trying to initiate our offense. We didn't have much of a warmup and it showed with numerous turnovers early on as a result of their defensive intensity. They also pressed us most of the game and up to this point we had not worked on any of our press breaks. The girls did show composure when the press was applied and seemed to handle the pressure alright learning on the fly and getting some good scoring chances out of the break. It was the initiation of our half court offense that caused us the most problems. Defensively we worked pretty hard but I really felt we did not come into this game ready to compete. Capilano, as most good teams will, easily exposed our weaknesses. This is why we play exhibition games, to get ourselves ready for league play and to show us exactly where we stand. It was a long night and I give the girls a lot of credit for trying to battle against a very good team. We take a lot of pride in our free throw shooting but even that let us down as we went 4-16 from the free throw line. I attribute this to a lack of focus and mental toughness. Technically we are good free throw shooters but there is a big difference between making them in practice and making them in a game situations. We also struggled all weekend with making our layups. We missed numerous opportunities which means we have to get into the gym individually to work on this aspect of our game. We have to take pride in our game and practice like we want to play. Against good teams you HAVE to make your free throws and layups to even have a chance of competing. We did not do this and as a result we lost 71-29. It was a very frustrating game for all of us but it was a great learning opportunity. I challenged the girls to be ready mentally to play each game and every minute of each game. I believe we gave Cap too much credit, we did not step up to the individual challenges presented by the opposition. We played nervous and fearful when really there is nothing to be fearful of. We just have to go out there and not give away anything to great teams and great players. We must look our opposition in eye and prove to them that they are in for a war whenever they play the Kermodes. This we have to learn. We need to be tougher. With this loss we moved to the consolation side of the tournament and a Saturday meeting with Columbia Bible College. Charlotte Lau was the only Kermode in double digits with 11 points. 

OUR HOME OPENER

This past Friday night the Quest Women's basketball team had their first exhibition game against Douglas College. After a month of practice and hard training the girls(and coach) were ready to get the season started. We have been battling the injury bug throughout September and for this game we were without Allie Chalke our starting center and second year player Chelsey Forsberg who had awoken with a stiff neck during the week only to be told that she had displaced a vertebrae. So we had seven girls. On this night we started the exciting Hajia Sooria at point, Britt Harteveld our second year scorer at shooting guard, Charlotte Lau at the 3, Naomi Hughes-Hall at the 4 and Nicola Hitchcock started at center. Coming off the bench was Allison Black and Britt Shalagan.

The first quarter saw us get off to an incredible start and we looked like we had been playing together for years with outstanding ball movement and slick scoring. Our offensive philosophy is to run the ball using our fitness developed in co-ordination with our trainer Jen Segger. It paid off with some easy baskets in transition and intense man to man defense. After a great start the Douglas team gathered their composure and found themselves up 16-13 by the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter our offense became undisciplined and we had a difficult time getting back on defense as a result of the effort we put out in the 1st quarter and our lack of bench depth. We were outscored 12-7 in the second and found ourselves down 28-20 after the first half. The third quarter was not any better as we came out sluggish. It proved to be the game breaker as we were outscored 18-8. The girls were working hard but Douglas's high screen and roll and easy lay-ups in transition proved to be our downfall.

After gaining our composure and making a few adjustments we came out and had a very good fourth quarter. The girls worked extremely hard on defense and rebounded the ball well which eventually led to us winnning the fourth quarter 9-7. The final score was Douglas Royals 53 and the Quest Kermodes 37. I was very pleased with our girls performance as we showed signs of brilliance and strong potential. I thought we competed well with Douglas but our 7 girls were no match for their 13. They are deep, well coached and experienced. We will be pretty happy to have a full squad once the injuries heal. We had some great efforts by everyone from top to bottom. Charlotte Lau had great defensive intensity and came up with crafty steals for scores. She had seven points on the evening. Naomi was our top scorer with 12 points, going 2-5 from the 3 point line and rebounded the ball well. Althought Nicola was playing with a broken finger her interior help side defense was outstanding and provided a strong offensive presence inside. Britt Shalagan loosened up after a nervous start and had some great offensive rebounds and three steals. Hajia was our rock at the point. She moved the ball up the floor really well and had a gorgeous reverse lay-up to get the crowd off their feet in the second half. Britt and Allison, our second year players and vets provided needed leadership for our young rookie squad. Britt was the second leading scorer with 11 points. Being the 1st year in the league and 2nd year as an established university everyone is somewhat of a rookie.

Thanks to all those friends, family, faculty, and students who came out to the game to support us. Thanks to Andrew and the home crew for a great job getting the gym set up and running the scorer's bench. This week we are getting ready to for the Capilano Tournament in North Vancouver. Our first game is against Capilano Friday October 10th at 6:15pm. Hope to see you there......coach Hann