Sea to Sky Challenge.

Last Wednesday we hosted Capilano at home, a nationally top 10 ranked team. Cap had beat us badly in pre season and after a couple of really solid games against Camosun we were ready to go. We came out a little slow in the first quarter and gave up too many points in the second to find ourselves down 39-23 at the half. Our third quarter was one of the best quarters we played all year with strong defense and good execution on offense. We worked really hard to find ourselves down 4 points after starting quarter with a 12-0 run to close it to 39-35. We had a really short bench, shortly than our usual 8 since Brittany Shalagan had the flu and Jaci Hendrickson was on the bench with 3 quick fouls 5 minutes into the first quarter. The starters were being stretched to their limit and i was really happy with their performance. We outscored Capilano 17-13 in the third and we finally ran out of gas and lost the fourth 18-6. Final score was 70-46. The score didn't really reflect the great game that we played with such a small bench. We rebounded really well this game and we were pretty solid in our half court set. 33 turnovers again led to way to many scores for Cap and missed opportunities for ourselves. Allie Chalke was the player of the game with 10 points and an awesome 14 rebounds, 6 of them on the offensive glass. Allie has been playing really well as of late and she has been our most consistent player. Charlotte Lau rebounded from her struggles to lead the team with 13 points with 50 % shooting from the floor, 5 rebounds  and strong defense. We shot 28% from the floor, 9 percent from the three and 56% from the line, numbers that need to increase for better chances to win. Overall i was pretty happy with the performance considering our bench depth.

Friday we headed down to Capilano to play them at home. We just did not have a good game and i think it was a result of being tired and having played 3 really tough games over the last couple of weeks and really leaning heavy on our starters. Britt Shalagan was not able to play due to injury and we did not come out with our usual tough half court defense. We were not able to get out to their shooters and we gave up another 30 turnovers, costly against great teams. Jaci Hendrickson had a good game leading the team with 15 points and a superb 8/8 from the free throw line, and 8 rebounds. Allie Chalke had solid game trying to anchor the defense and getting to the line 12 times. As a team we shot 73% from the line. Final score was 69-45. 

This week we are regrouping for two big games at home against Kwantlen, a great 3 point shooting team. We both have three wins and this will be THE weekend for us. Britt Shalagan will be back so that will help our depth greatly. We are pretty excited about these games and will be a defining weekend for Quest Basketball.

Thanks again for all the support from friends and families.....Coach Hann

Faith

Thanks to Peter Harteveld for this quote.

"It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner." 

Stepping up to the Challenge.

GAME 1

This weekend we hosted the Camosun Chargers. They are the number one team in our league and 3rd ranked in Canada. It was a pretty big challenge that laid before us but we have been working hard in practice and came off a good defensive effort the week before against CBC.  In the first game the girls were outstanding defensively in the first half. It was our best half of basketball to date. We were aggressive and competed on every possession. We got to the half down 5 points, 23-18. Offensively we were not great but our defense again gave us a chance to win the game. We also realized that we can play with anyone in the league when we are all on the same page and working intensely. Camosun though, woke up in the third quarter. They shot the ball really well and we were not smart defending their best shooter, Carmen Lapthorne. Camosun put up 29 points on us in the third and outscored us badly in the 4th. I wouldn't say we ran out of gas in the second half because we are pretty fit. I think we didn't play smart defensive basketball in the second half. We also had problems throughout the game with their press. We turned the ball over 34 times. This of course didn't give us a chance to score.......34 times. Unacceptable at this level. We were not disciplined in our attack and we were sloppy with our passing. Final score 71-37. Great first half, poor second half, turnover, turnover turnover. We did realize though that we can play with anyone in this league. Jaci Hendrickson was the player of the game. She had her best game defensively. 

Game 2

Game 2 on Saturday didn't start as well as we had hoped. We found ourselves down 24-11 after the 1st quarter. We did not come out with good energy defensively and we struggled offensively. I ripped into the team at the quarter and we responded with our best quarter this year. Our intensity stepped up a couple of notches and we found some scoring. It was a defining quarter for us. We easily could have continued our uninspired play and gone down 20 or 30 points but instead we decided to compete and battle. With that effort we beat Camosun 18-11 in the second quarter and went into the half down 6. I was very impressed with the girls and their effort and their will to come back and play hard.  We were great defensively in the third quarter holding them to 11 points but our offense was so poor I found it very frustrating to watch. Their defensive intensity was great and we just couldn't get any good looks and only managed to score 6 points. I was pretty frustrated because we had such a good opportunity with our great defense to tie and even lead the game but we did not take advantage of this opportunity. We did run out of gas in the 4th and lost 64-45.  Allie Chalke was player of the game. She was outstanding in the first half, especially on the offensive glass. Again we turned the ball over 34 times, not so much against the press but with poor passing and travels in the half court. Our shooting percentage was terrible.....19% and 9% from the three. Way too many missed lay ups and shots late in the clock.  We did attack the glass offensively as we got to the line over 30 times scoring 20 points from there. We must take better shots and get the shots off earlier in the shot clock if we are to beat the good teams.

I was really happy overall with our performance on the weekend. We worked hard, competed and played a lot more intense than we have in the past. We are improving and getting stronger and better every time we go out. We must work on our offense and find ways to score and to become scorers. We play Capilano at home on Wednesday. Thanks to everyone for their support....Coach Hann