Triangle Flight began a busy Saturday with an 8 a.m. start against Team Carolina at Word of God in Raleigh. The game time posed a slight problem for Coach Mike, who is usually still asleep at that time, but he managed to be up in time to ask everyone to be there at 7:20. That was good timing, because it gave the Flight parents and players 20 minutes to stand around and wonder when someone might bother to unlock the gym. Fortunately, the players made good use of their time by showing off their pull-up prowess.
Once the ever-vigilant gym staff showed up, the game was eventually able to start. These were two familiar opponents, as they faced each other three weeks ago in the previous tournament. Coach Mike explained there would be one very important key to the game: handling Carolina's pressure defense. And the Flight hung tough early, allowing just six-for-25 (24.0%) shooting from the field in the first half (the game was played with two halves instead of four quarters). Triangle Flight, meanwhile, shot 57.1% from the field in the first half.
Sounds like a blowout, right? Not quite. The problem was that Flight only attempted seven field goals in the first half, because the turnovers began to pile up--eventually, 25 of them in the first half alone, a pace of over two per minute. But tough defense kept it close, and Flight trailed just 15-8 at half.
The Carolina shooting woes continued in the second half, as they made just 1 of their first 16 field goal attempts, scoring five of their first seven second-half points from the free throw line. Triangle Flight crept closer, and eventually closed within 18-17 when Patrick (on his way to a team-high six points) scored in the paint. But Team Carolina answered with a pair of free throws, and Triangle Flight would score just one more field goal over the remainder of the game.
While Flight did slightly cut down on turnovers in the second half (down to 20 from the first-half tally of 25), Coach Mike wants to see improvement in that area of the game. "We've got to take better care of the ball against that team," he told the players after the game. "We turned it over 45 times. That's basically two turnovers per minute. If we can get out turnovers down to 30 against them, we can beat that team."
Shot of the day: Kohl sank a three-pointer from the right wing in the second half during the stretch when Triangle Flight was closing the gap.
Big on the boards: Keegan was a beast against an athletic Team Carolina squad that was tough to box out. He pulled down a team-high six rebounds.
Defensive award: Isaac made one of his patented defensive plays by drawing a charge, prompting the incredulous Team Carolina coach to turn to his bench and say, "Since when do they draw charges in third grade basketball?!?" It was obviously his first game watching Isaac play.
Stat of the day: Team Carolina attempted 30 more field goals and seven more free throws than Triangle Flight...yet still only won the game by 15.
Game 1 box score
1st 2nd Total
Team Carolina 15 22 37
Flight 8 14 22
Field goal shooting
Flight 9-16 (56.3%)
Team Carolina 12-46 (26.1%)
Free throw shooting
Flight 3-12 (25%)
Team Carolina 13-19 (68.4%)
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