Monday, January 25, 2010

Game vs Lausanne Rd 2

Heading into our game against Lausanne, SAM Massagno was on a 2 game losing streak. It was the worst kind of losing streak too because we had played awful in both of the games. Nothing was clicking on offense and defense. We were all frustrated and we knew we had to get better and it showed in practice. After the Nyon loss we had some great practices. Everyone was locked in mentally and we really got down to work. It wasn't a very heavy workload but we came in and did what we needed to do and we set the game plan for Lausanne.

The Lausanne game was not only important to snap us out of our funk but also because it was a huge game with possible playoff implications. We were defeated by Lausanne in the first round and it was important for us to win this one. There is a pretty big log jam in the middle of the league right now. Heading into the game we were sitting in 7th place, if we win we stay in 7th but if we lose we drop all the way down to 10th (second to last place.) We could not lose this game because it would be an uphill battle to try and get back into the playoff picture and only the top 8 teams make it.

SAM Massagno came out blazing in the game and save for 8 minutes kept it on. I think it was the best game we have played together as a team. We must have started the game with 8 layups. It was awesome to be a part of.

As the old saying goes though, games aren't won on offense, they are won on defense. This was an area where we improved by leaps and bounds. Lausanne had the leading scorer in the league playing for them. He was averaging 20.5 points per game. I was concerned about this because this obviously hasn't been a strong point for us. We practiced rotating on the help side as well as keeping someone in the paint at all times. Another change we made for the game was to really attack the ball screens to slow them down. This worked very well for us because the league's leading scorer only had 9 for the game.

We had a few low points in the game but were able to rebound off of them very nicely. The final score of the game was 97-72 with us coming out on top.

I thought I rebounded for myself very well. Things were clicking for me. I felt like I did before the Christmas break. With the right mindset I will be able to maintain this and keep going into the 3rd round. I finished the game with 17 points on 8-11 shooting to go along with 11 rebounds.

Now it is onto Geneva on Saturday to gain sole possession of 7th place. Another tough and big game. This season is full of them.

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