Hoops for the Cure Championship: Flight 43, Team Carolina Silver 31

Triangle Flight won the Hoops for the Cure title with a 43-31 win over Team Carolina Silver on Sunday afternoon at Net Sports. This was a much tougher contest than Friday night's initial meeting between the two teams. In this one, Team Carolina completely committed to the offensive backboards, and while they shot poorly from the field, they shot so often that some were eventually bound to go in.

That helped them build an early first-half lead, as the Flight started cold from the field. But Shammond played some game-changing minutes and was able to convert a couple of transition buckets to get the Flight offense going. This time around, Team Carolina was much more efficient against the Flight pressure, committing just 15 turnovers.

That forced the Flight to spend some time in the halfcourt offense against the Team Carolina zone, and with some of the normal perimeter shooters starting a little chilly and foul trouble throughout the lineup, it felt like the offense had trouble getting started. That changed a couple minutes into the second half, however, as Shaun knocked down a long jumper, and then Brady caught fire, scoring nine of his 10 points in the second half and making his final four field goals, including a three-pointer.

Flight ended the game on a 17-5 run and celebrated with pictures--one goofy and one serious. In case you can't tell the difference, the goofy one is above and the serious is below. Or maybe that's backwards.

P.S. You can now remove your wristbands and place them in your safe deposit box since they are apparently made of 24K gold.

Shot of the day: Team Carolina had tied the score at 26 midway through the second half. That's when ace perimeter defender Dominic somehow managed to strip the Silver point guard near midcourt. He then proceeded to gather the loose ball and loop a perfect hit-ahead pass to Brady, who navigated through two defenders to convert the breakaway layup and give the Flight a 28-26 lead they would not relinquish.

Big on the boards: Chalk up a double-double for Brady, who pulled down 10 rebounds to go with his 10 points. Isaac, meanwhile, had a ferocious 14 rebounds and narrowly missed a double-double (he also had nine points). 

Defensive award: I have no stats whatsoever to back this up, so this is completely scientific and inarguable. It felt like Shammond was very disruptive defensively during a key stretch of the game, as his active hands helped bring the Flight back from an early deficit. He coupled the defensive effort with six points and seven rebounds in his best all-around game of the weekend.  

Stat of the day: A testament to how much Team Carolina controlled the backboards: they had 14 more shot attempts than the Flight (to put that into perspective, the Flight was averaging six more shot attempts per game than their opponents over the first three games of the tournament). Fortunately, Team Carolina made just 19.7 percent of their whopping 61 attempts. 

Championship box score

                         1st     2nd      Total
TC Silver         15      16          31

Flight                22      21         43

Field goal shooting

TC Silver 12-61 (19.7%)

Flight: 19-47 (40.4%)

Free throw shooting
TC Silver 5-15 (33.3%)

Flight 4-12 (33.3%)

Hoops for the Cure Classic Game 3: Flight 47, Durham Hurricanes 18

Triangle Flight completed round-robin play at the Hoops for the Cure Classic by rolling over the Durham Hurricanes, 47-18. In contrast to the first two games of the tournament, in which the Flight raced to a big lead and then coasted at points in the second half, this time some of the most tenacious minutes were played in the final period.

After building a 29-15 halftime advantage, the Flight limited the Hurricanes to just three second-half points. That continued a Saturday-long trend of tough defense, as in the two games played today, Flight opponents shot just 17.3% from the field and committed 52 turnovers in 28 minutes.

Offensively, Brady scored 14 points, and Gabe and Andrew added eight apiece. The game also featured (finally) some better Flight free throw shooting, as the orange-clad visitors hit 60 percent from the line (including 6-for-10 from Gabe as he recovered from having been hexed by Coach Dunlap, who had noted how well he was shooting from the line) after struggling from the stripe in the previous two games. The win advanced the Flight to Sunday's championship game at 4:10 p.m. at Net Sports against an opponent to be determined.

I feel like it is my duty by sitting at the scorer's table to relay at least one hilarious comment made near or at the table to those who can't hear it. Now, obviously, what qualifies as hilarious mostly depends on which team your son plays on and who you're cheering for. But you hear some really incredible stuff over there.

Saturday afternoon's highlight was the following: with the score 45-18 late in the game, the opposing coach loudly announced, "The problem in this game is that those other coaches have TOTALLY INTIMIDATED these referees. That has decided the entire game."

Just guessing: there might have been a few other factors that decided a 47-18 game. And sure, laugh if you want, but this action photo of the Flight coaches from the game shows that they did have a certain intimidating glare about them.

Shot of the day: Beautiful play by Andrew in the second half. First, he penetrated into the lane, beating his man into the paint. That's where he was met by a Hurricanes post player, but as he elevated, he absorbed the contact, floated the ball high off the glass, and scored the and-one while drawing the foul.

Big on the boards: Isaac had the Flight's second straight double-digit rebound game, as he grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Andrew added four rebounds from his guard spot, a high total from a perimeter player.

Defensive award: This coveted honor goes to Coach Dunlap, who clearly and persuasively (at least to me) went through some rules interpretations with the honorable game officials. I believe the highlight was when he told one of the officials, "I know the rule better than you," to which the official replied, in all seriousness, "I know." Point, Dunlap!

Stat of the day: The Flight could have gone scoreless in the entire second half and still won the game. They put up 29 points in the first 14 minutes, and the Hurricanes only scored 26 for the entire game.

Game 3 box score

                         1st     2nd      Total
Hurricanes        15      3           18

Flight                29      18         47

Field goal shooting

Hurricanes 7-35 (20.0%)

Flight: 17-44 (38.6%)

Free throw shooting
Hurricanes 3-10 (30.0%)

Flight 12-20 (60.0%)

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%)

Hoops for the Cure Classic Game 1: Flight 56, Team Carolina Silver 40

The Hoops for the Cure Classic began on Friday night at Net Sports with a 56-40 Triangle Flight win over Team Carolina Silver in the first game of round-robin play.

A high-powered offense led to the win, as the Flight put two players in double figures (Brady with 15 and Gabe with 12) and had eight different players score at least two points. Much of that offense early in the game came in transition, as some full-court harassment prompted 18 Team Carolina turnovers in the opening half.

Despite being outrebounded overall, the Flight seemed to come up with most of the 50-50 balls, a trait that was epitomized when Shaun threw himself on the ground to fight for a loose ball...as the final buzzer sounded with his team holding a 16-point lead.

The Flight will continue play with two more round-robin games on Saturday. Please note that if they are able to advance to the championship game, it has been moved up to 4:10 p.m. on Sunday at Net Sports, which is a change from the original bracket.

Shot of the day: This would actually be the shotS of the day rather than just one shot. Gabe heated up at the beginning of the second half and scored eight straight points, including a couple of mid-range hoops, a steal that he turned into a layup, and then a heat-check 16-footer. The patented Proctor spurt helped quickly expand what had been a nine-point halftime lead.

Big on the boards: On a day when Flight needed some help on the boards, Jesse contributed a team-high eight rebounds and was very active all evening. 

Defensive award: The Flight's full-court pressure was extremely active in the first half, forcing 18 turnovers in the opening 14-minute half. 

Stat of the day: The Flight won the game handily despite having an uncharacteristically poor day at the free throw line, making just 28 percent (7-for-25) of their free throws. Most of that trouble came during the first half, when the Flight was just 6-for-22 (27.2%) at the stripe.

Game 1 box score

                         1st     2nd      Total

TC Silver          16      24         40

Flight                25      31         56

Field goal shooting

TC Silver 15-42 (35.7%)

Flight: 24-51 (47.1%)

Free throw shooting

TC Silver 9-22 (40.9%)

Flight 7-25 (28.0%)

Photos from Tournament of Champions 6-1-13

Hello Flight Family!
Please see the link below for pictures of the three games in High Point. I'm sorry but the pictures are a bit out of order.

https://picasaweb.google.com/fallmudcatsbaseball/TournamentOfChampions6113?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO_Sgtzm8ZWZJw&feat=directlink

The Shot Heard 'round High Point

Let me begin with a disclaimer... I take pictures to represent the games and can not truly describe the events that happened in game two yesterday at the Tournament of Champions in High Point. Although they are a bit grainy at times, I will let the pictures tell the story of the end of the game. Please see the following post with the link to all pictures of the day. Good job boys!


Patrick knocks down a shot to put us into overtime.

Kids celebrate!!

3.9 seconds left in overtime, down 2...
Keegan inbounds to Brady

Brady fights his way to the basket

Brady releases a running shot behind the three-point line





Incredibly...IT GOES IN! Coach is speechless:)



Referee signals "3"

Pandemonium ensues

Boys are on top of the world!!!!

 



Photos from the State Tournament

Please see the link below for some highlights of the boys playing in the State Tournament:

https://picasaweb.google.com/fallmudcatsbaseball/3rdGradeStateTournament02?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIisytWenpONZQ&feat=directlink