Fresh off the win over Manchester the Lady Vikings appeared to enter the game against New Haven (2-7) feeling like they were back on track after a 3 game losing streak heading into Manchester. The 1st Quarter started out that way as the Lady Vikes led 12 to 4 heading into the 2nd quarter. As everyone would soon find out the rest of the game would prove that would not be the case.
With 7:15 left in the 4th quarter the Lady Vikes held a 34 to 24 lead appearing to be in total control of the game. Through a lot of turnovers, and other mistakes that lead fell to a 39 to 36 with 1:01 left on the clock. New Havens size, athletism, and length really started to give the Lady Vikings trouble as well.
After some wild crazy turnovers New Haven found themselves down by 3with over 20 seconds left to play and Lady Vikings ball. New Haven had a golden opportunity to put the Lady Vikings on the line and hope for a miss to give them an opportunity to tie it with a 3. In a shocking ending New Haven failed to foul, and the Lady Vikes were able to run out the clock to save themselves from disastrous end to eek out the win 41-38 improving to (7-4) on the year.
THE BREAKDOWN
There were several things that led to the breakdown at the end of the game and some of those things were carried over from the game against Manchester.
1. NOT ATTACKING THE BASKET- The offense became stagnant because they were not attacking the basket. I think sometime during the last quarter they lost their confidence to attack the basket maybe becoming intimidated by the size, length, and athleticism of New Haven. As a coach I can assure you when the momentum is in the favor of the other team and your offense is stalling the most important thing I tell my teams to do is attack the basket, which even if you miss more times than not you will draw a foul and could get some of their big people in foul trouble.
2. LACK of Movement- There was a lot of passing but just not a lot of movement away from the basketball and this is something I seen a lot of during the game against Manchester.
3. BAD SHOT SELECTION- So what comes with the lack of movement and setting screens away from the basketball leads to bad shot selection. A lot of people like to say when a team shoots poorly during a game is they had a “Off Night”! Most of the time when a team shoots poorly it is either 1 of 2 things poor shot selection, or a great defensive plan by the other team. Not to take anything away from New Havens defense which was great down the stretch the Lady Vikings didn’t help themselves with the shot selection.
4. Katelynn Arnold not enough touches down the stretch. Up until this point in the season I believe Arnold would make clutch shots down the stretch to allow the Lady Vikings to re group and break the momentum the other team had going its way. This also forces teams to respect the frontcourt again freeing up those awesome Lady Viking Guard’s. New Haven was able to make Arnold a non factor down the stretch. This really caused the Lady Viking Offense to stall and nearly let New Haven come back and win.
What to expect tonight against Bishop Dwenger?
1. Expect the Lady Vikings to come out a lot more aggressive attacking the basket.
2. Expect the Lady Vikings to establish the presence of Katelynn Arnold in the paint right away.
3. Expect more focus from the Lady Vikings.
4. Expect a high amount of energy from them from start to finish! See a display of high energy that is more consistant from start to finish.
YOUR LADY Vikings play Bishop Dwenger tonight starting at 6pm. Hope to see everyone there!
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