2007 MS 7&8 Grade Boys Basketball

January 24: Trinity Lutheran
Last night we traveled to Trinity Lutheran playing our final basketball game and we wanted to end the season with a positive outlook and a high note.  The game was very intense and hot contested!  Their number 23 and number 3 players were acrobatic with his fast moves.  We had to defend both of them and not allowing them to outplay us.  We did our best as we could.  We wanted to win so badly.  The halftime score was 12 to 16.  We led at the end of 3rd quarter by 3 points, 30 to 27.  The 4th quarter we slipped away with the lead score and remain tied.  But in final minute of play, we were down by a basket and lost.  The score was 38 to 41.  It was a very close game!  We lost 5 games with 2 or 3 points!  If we had those 5 games won, our record would be better.   But we the coaches were very proud of our boys' efforts on the basketball floor and we ended the season with a positive side regardless our record.

January 23: Orchard (IISL Tournament)

Last night we went on away game in Orchard.  We were supposed to play St. Richards, but IISL chairman elected to go on with tournament instead which we faced Orchard.  We opened the game down by 10 points, 8 to 18.  We allowed them to score only 5 points in 2nd quarter but our offense couldn’t catch up on them.  We were down by 11 by halftime, 12 to 23.  The 3rd quarter they started to pull away the game by taking advantage of our turnovers.  We lost the game 25 to 51.  We are out of IISL tournament, but our season isn’t over.  We are playing at Trinity Lutheran tomorrow, which will be our final season game.

January 15: St. Richard's
Last night we hosted St. Richards in KRC and it was our last home game of this season.  We were down by 3 points in halftime, and down by 4 points in end of 3rd quarter.  The 4th quarter we scored only 1 point and our defense was not there.

January 10: St. John Lutheran
Last night we traveled to St. John’s Lutheran.  It was a thriller!  Our best game of the season!  We started the game leading with our game controlled tempo.  We led the halftime 28 to 17.  The second half we started losing our control and they caught up on us.  Jeremy Dean was fouled on his 3-point try at the buzzer of 3rd quarter.  He made all 3 free throws that helped our lead cushion.  In the final quarter, it was a great battle!  We did not have good offense and allowed them to come back ferociously.  They took the game lead in last one minute.  But we managed to create turnovers for them and came back.  Dylan Osborne was fouled and his basket counted which tied the game at 45.  It was only 5 seconds remaining!  When Dylan missed, they hustled back to their basket court and made their final shot.  Unfortunately, it just sank and they won the thriller game.  The score was 45 to 47.  We the coaches felt the boys played very well and are improving.

January 8: Kingsway Christian

Last night we hosted Kingsway Christian in KRC.  We had 3 weeks layoff of no games due to holidays.  We were anxious to get back into the game and wanted to put our first win in 2008.  Kingsway Christian brought in their sky-towering giant athlete.  We must avoid this 6’6” center when coming to the basket or he would just block our shots.  We also had box him out when he or they shoot the ball and not allowing him to rebound.  In 1st quarter, we opened up with Kyle Bingham’s 3-pointer and tried to shut out their center, but he managed getting the ball by retrieving over his head and made plays inside the paint.  He scored most of the 1st quarter with 10 points.  We were down 7 to 12.  In 2nd quarter, we noticed their center was getting tired and our defense nearly shut them out.  We caught up to take the lead with score of 16 to 14 in halftime.  The 3rd and 4th quarters, we battled and battled.  It was a very exciting game for both of us.  We led until 1:30 minutes left in the game; they took the lead by 5 points.  Jeremy Dean made 3-pointer that brought within 2 points.  We had our possession with the final shot to tie but we missed.  It was very wacky at the end, and we lost 30 to 32.  We the coaches feel very positive from last night’s game and hope that will carry it over to next game on this Thursday at St. John Lutheran.

December 12: Trader Point

Last night, we began a good basketball game and took an early lead in 1st quarter.  They were able to catch us up and tied the game at end of 1st quarter with the score, 7-7.  We were in a hard fought and hot contested game, and remained tied rest of the way but we grabbed the late lead at end of 1st half with score, 17-14.  We understood that our defense would be the key for 2nd half and we needed to be patient with our offense.  The 3rd quarter hurt us as we scored only 3 points and they scored 12.  Trader Point took the big lead in the opening 4th quarter until about 4 minutes, we caught up on them to a very close score.  They prevailed in the closing minutes as we lost 40-33.

December 11: Orchard

Orchard is always known as a good basketball program under their coach,

Steve Thompson who coaches the team for decades.  We have to play equally

to their all-year around basketball of experience, mentality, and skill.  They are a talented team.  Last night, we played against their 8 players who were playing smart and tough basketball.  We just couldn't catch up on them, and we lost 54-23.

December 4: Sycamore

Yesterday Sycamore team played press against the host ISD for most of the game. ISD didn't excute our break press offense which created turnovers. Sycamore boys were taller and aggressive. However, ISD led by 3 points in the end of 1st quarter. Sycamore took the lead away in early 2nd quarter and kept leading over ISD in the rest of the way. ISD finally improved in 4th quarter and caught up on them but unfortunately it was too late and lost by 12 points, 45 to 33.
Jeremy Dean 13 pts, 5 rebs, 2 steals
Chace Shaffer 8 pts, 2 rebs
Kyle Bingham 5 pts, 2 assists, 2 steals, 3 rebs
Tony Long Jr 5 pts, 3 rebs
Cody Mitchell 2 pts, 2 rebs

November 27: Bethesda Christian
The 7th/8th boys lost the game to Bethesda Christian by the score of 55 to 44.

Jeremy Dean – 13 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals

Kyle Bingham – 12 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds, and 1 steal

Tony Long – 11 rebounds

November 20: Park Tudor

We hosted Park Tudor, the Park Tudor have a set of teams (A and B).  We played against the B team but, still, we were determined to play better than from what we played last Tuesday.  We opened playing the good 1st quarter and we led 12-11. In the 2nd quarter, we played great with rebounding and generated some good offense from Cody Mitchell and Kyle Bingham, who finished the game with 12 pts and 10 pts respectively. In the halftime, we led 27 to 15.  We played 3rd quarter well with Dylan Osborne's offense with 8 pts and led 36 to 23.  In the 4th quarter, Park Tudor started charging with their offense inside and outside shooting.  Tony Long & Travis Collett made a lot of rebounds and finished the game with 8 and 13 rebounds respectively.  We made good offense from Travis, Kyle and Jeremy Dean.  We also made some turnovers and allowed them to keep coming back.  But we won  the game 43 to 38. We were happy about the win but we were not satisfied with the 4th quarter plays and plan to improve our break press offense. 

November 15: Calvary Lutheran

We hosted Calvary Lutheran in the KRC wanting to pay them back from the bad loss last year.  We stressed that our good defense, especially near the basket would be the key to a win.  In the 1st half we played subpar defense and generated little offense.  We allowed their #35 to score 18 points.  We were down 13 to 26 in the halftime.  We told the boys to stop #35 in the 2nd half and needed our offense badly.  We made turnovers and missed a lot of shots inside and outside, which could not help our game.  But we stopped #35 as he only scored 5 points in the second half.  It was not good enough to win the game as we lost 39 to 48.  Cody Mitchell scored 13 points and made 6 rebounds.  Tony Long Jr. scored 11 points and made 7 rebounds.  Kyle Bingham scored 9 and made 5 steals.  Travis Collett led the rebounding with 9.  Dylan Osborne and Jeremy Dean played well.  We plan to work on our offense and strive for improvement. 

November 13: Trader Point
We hosted Traders Point and grabbed our first 'W' in the KRC.  We played good defense in 1st quarter and allowed only 2 points.  In the 2nd quarter, we made some mistakes and let them catch up with us.  We did not have our offense going smoothly but we led in the halftime, 15-11.  The emphasis was to stay patient with offense and play smart defensively.  We played with several quick fouls being called on us at the opening minute of the 3rd quarter, but we played very close and still led 23-20.  In the 4th quarter, we broke open with our aggressive defense and fast breaks.  We made our free throws.  We controlled the final minutes to savior our 1st victory.  The score was 37 to 27.  Kyle Bingham was the leading scorer with 17 points and had 4 steals and 5 rebounds.  Tony Long, Jr. chipped in 5 points and had 9 rebounds and 5 steals.  Cody Mitchell made 5 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block shot.  Chace Shaffer had 8 points and 5 steals.  Andrew Morrill, Malcolm Taylor, Travis Collett, and Jeremy Dean played well. 

November 6: International

In the season opening basketball game, we hosted International School of Indiana (ISI) in the KRC.  We practiced and were anxious to play basketball.  We opened a bit slow, keeping the game close, and trailing ISI.  We were down by 4 points in the halftime, 12 to 16.  We had an ok-ok offense but our 2nd chance rebounds were there, with a few makes and many misses.  We had an opportunity to break the game open with some steals to create points off turnovers and fast breaks but travels stopped us.  There were some mistakes on the play; we gave the ISI some feasible scores.  We were below average such as defense and shooting free throws.  We caught up with the ISI but it was not enough to earn us a 'W', and swallowed a tough loss with the score of 33 to 36.  We have a lot to work on and improve the skills when we hit our practice hours.  We will be better next week.

Our young ISD basketball players are Kyle Bingham, Jeremy Dean, Malcolm Taylor, Chris Mitchell, Dylan Osbourne, Tony Long Jr, Chace Shaffer, Cody Mitchell, Andrew Morrill, Travis Collett, Raven Taylor, & Ferfran Sanchez.  We have Michael Meyer as our manager.