Game Updates

Remember when I said that we needed to win all of our remaining games to make the playoffs?

Well we didn't win all of our remaining games and make the playoffs. We had two big games this week.
One was at Komarno on Wednesday. We played a very good first half and held them and had a lead up to ten points in the third quarter before they went on a run that hurt us. They started hitting threes and we started missing shots. That led to a fourth quarter that was back and forth. The bottom line is that they made plays at the end of the game and we didn't. It wasn't because they wanted to win more, they just did more of the right things at the end, such as hitting a free throw here and taking care of the ball. We on the other hand commintted too many turnovers. It wasn't one specific person but everyone and that was a big problem for us.

I hit a three to put us up one point with less than a minute to go in the game and we gave up offensive rebounds and then we gave up some fouls which allowed them to get the lead back at the free throw line and we just couldn't get anything to go on our end and ended up losing 75-72.

In sports there are words used that don't exist to describe games and they surely could have been used to describe this loss.

If. Should have. Could have.

I hate these words because they simple don't exist and there is nothing that can be done.
The fact is we didn't make enough winning plays down the stretch of the game and Komarno did.
Did and Did not are real words and that is how I describe the game.

By looking at the stat sheet most people might think that we won. We limited them to under 40% from the field while we shot over 50%. We even outrebounded them by 6. We had four guys score in double figures, (Vince 19 points, myself 19 points, Martin Micka, our point guard, 15 points and Dejan Stojanovic with 12) However, they attempted 13 more shots from the field than we did because we committed 25 turnovers to their 12. OUCH! There defense was solid but not that good.

It was a big loss for our team and we didn't have much time to shake it off because we hosted Chemosvit on Saturday. A few of my teammates are from that city and my friend Zazh Ingles, Eastern Kentucky, plays for them. If we pulled off a miracle and they didn't there was still a glimmer for us to make the playoffs. We would need to beat them and win our next game and have them lose to us and lose their next game. It was a small chance so I was interested to see how my teammates would respond.

In the first quarter we responded very well. We continued to dump the ball inside and they could not guard Dejan and Vince and we were winning 18-10 after the first quarter. The second quarter we went to a zone defense and they started warming up from downtown and by halftime they were winning by two. They scored 29 points on us in the second quarter and that was very frustrating to see our lead slip away so quickly.

I wasn't even shooting the ball particularly well but I was playing hard. I tried to get rebounds as often as possible and when we were in man to man defense I was teh one guarding Zach, and he is one of the top five scorers in the league. He ended up shooting 4-14 so I think I did a failry good job, just not good enough.

They came out in the third quarter and we still hitting shots and Vince and Milan Golian were have a strong third quarter for us but that was it. THe bad part was that we let them score 28 points on us in the third quarter, which is way to many is we expect to made a dent in their lead. The fourth quarter we tried to make the pace a little faster so we could have more possessions to try to cut back on their double digit lead. We did so and in the words of Bobby Knight, "I've never lost a game only ran out of time." We ran out of time as our comback was thwarted.

I honestly feel really terrible for our team. I know it has been a difficult season for everyone with the bad start to the season and the whole time trying to fight our way uphill and back into the playoff hunt. I feel bad that I couldn't have knocked down a couple more shots (16points on 6-15 shooting) which may have let us win the game. But I did my best, I know shots don't always fall and I felt like I was able to contribute with a Slovak career high 10 rebounds and I played good defense on Zach. It was not enough and now we have one more regular season game. A long trip to Dolny Kubin on Wednesday and then we figure out the schedule for our remaining games in the bottom four playoff.

Until next time...