Playoffs fallout...

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day to everybody. Slight tweaks in the practice schedule for the older teams, so please take note of that. Also, a 7th grade wrap-up video from their incredible game Friday night is at the end of this post, so please check that out!

SO...It was a pretty hectic and crazy three playoff games and now that we had some time to digest, let's take a look back at what went wrong, and what went right.

Read this post back from April of 2009, where I breakdown the keys to winning a basketball game. How do you win?

Three basic things that need to be done that can pretty much assure you a win in CYO.

Making Lay-Ups
The 8th grade missed countless lay-ups, -- their opening sequence featured 3-4 missed lay-ups. The 5th grade did not have that many opportunities at lay-ups, but the few they did have, they didn't convert.

Moving onto the 7th grade game, Miles made almost all his lay-ups by the basket off of the rebounds. Justin and Jeremy converted on most of theirs, and Michael Fong hit all four of his shots by the basket.

Free-Throws
The 8th grade did not make a free-throw until mid-way through the second quarter and shot 5-for-16 for the game. The 5th graders went 0-for-6.

However, the 7th grade did not shoot too much better from the line either, 6-for-18. But two of their free-throws that were made came at crucial times. Both times, they were up by only 3 points, a one possession game. Both times, Jeremy and Justin hit the free-throw to make it a 4-point game.

Not making free-throws killed Epiphany as they were down 45-42. They could've cut the lead down to a point, but their kid missed both of the shots.

Don't turn the ball over
The 8th grade had so many turnovers that led to fast break points for the other team. Lob passes, lazy passes, getting stripped, etc...The 5th grade also turned the ball over too much, dribbling into traffic, throwing a ball into a pool of defenders, getting the ball wrestled away from them.

Turnovers lead to easy baskets and that's what happened in those two games.

The 7th grade took care of the ball. They had a few turnovers, like all teams do, but they limited their mistakes.

So there you go. Unfortunately the 5th and 8th grade seasons came to an end, but keep the game of basketball simple and your team will be fine. Think back to the games you have lost in the past, were you able to make your lay-ups, free-throws and take care of the ball?

7TH GRADE WRAP



And in case you still haven't seen the highlights from Friday night's incredible game.