Hoops for the Cure Classic Game 2: Flight 36, Wayne City Blazers 20

The Hoops for the Cure Classic continued on Saturday morning at North Raleigh Christian Academy, where their motto is apparently, "Our tuition is really high so we can build lots of very nice brick buildings."

The first game of the day came against a Wayne City team who indicated it was their first-ever tournament. This being their first-ever tournament, the head coach wanted to leave them with some really insightful words of wisdom. Therefore, their pregame huddle consisted of this exact conversation, which is word-for-word what was said:

"OK, does everyone have on their jersey?"

(General nodding and confirmation that yes, all jerseys are on)

"Good, let's ball."

That Woodenesque bit of tactical advice, however, didn't seem to help against the Flight press, which was ferocious in the first half. The Flight started the game on a 10-0 run and eventually stretched it to 16-2 before the Blazers were able to make a field goal. The buzzsaw defense limited Wayne City to a meager 15.2% shooting effort from the field, and despite a somewhat uneven offensive game, the Flight took a 36-20 victory to move to 2-0 in round-robin play.

Brady led the Flight offense with 11 points, and Dominic added six points and 10 rebounds.

Shot of the day: Might have to change this category to pass of the day. There were two great ones. The first came in the second half, when Shaun executed a perfect hit-ahead pass--something the Flight worked on quite a bit in practice this week--to lead Kohl to the hoop for a layup.

Then, the Flight's last points of the game came when Gerald had a contested layup, but instead alertly fed Asher on the opposite side of the rim with a sweet pass for an even easier layup. 

Big on the boards: Dominic was tremendous inside, as he pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.

Defensive award: Incredible defensive intensity in the first four minutes of the game, as the Flight forced 15 Wayne City turnovers during that time span. The Blazers finished with 34 turnovers for the game, but never really recovered from the nearly four-per-minute pace they were on at the start of the game.

Stat of the day: The Blazers played 11 minutes and 39 seconds before they were able to score a field goal. By that point, the Flight was already ahead, 16-2, and the game was essentially over.

Game 2 box score

                         1st     2nd      Total

Wayne City       6       14         20

Flight                17      19         36

Field goal shooting

Wayne City 7-46 (15.2%)

Flight: 13-48 (27.1%)

Free throw shooting

Wayne City 6-19 (31.6%)

Flight 8-20 (40.0%)